UAE Tax Residency Certificate

Tax residency certificate, lets discuss what is Tax residency certificate, how to apply for it and what are the documents and details required for its application.

A Tax Residency Certificate is the core document in support of an application to seek the benefits of a Double Taxation Treaty, it is issued by the Federal Tax Authority evidencing the applicant’s formal status as a UAE resident in respect to a particular Double Taxation avoidance agreement (“DTAA”) between the UAE and a specific foreign jurisdiction.

It can be applied by both an Individual as well as a corporate entity. However a company that is established, as an offshore company in UAE is not eligible for applying the TRC.

The validity of a TRC is 1 year and the start date of the required year will need to be mentioned in the TRC application form.

In order to be eligible to apply for a TRC, the individual applicant must have been a resident of UAE for at least 180 days.

The requirements for applying the Tax residency certificate for an Individual are:

Passport copy and valid visa copy
Emirates ID copy
6 months personal UAE bank statements, stamped by the bank
Proof of income in UAE, e.g., salary certificate, trade license etc.
Immigration (GDRFA) Report (exit entry report) which evidences the number of days resident has stayed in UAE since minimum 180 days requirement is there
Certified tenancy contract copy (such as Ejari in Dubai) or title deed

And for a corporate to be eligible to apply for a TRC, company must have been established for a period of at least 1 year and the requirements are:

Valid trade license copy of the company.
A certified copy of the lease agreement.
Passport, valid visa copy and Emirates ID of the company owner/Director/Manager
Audited financial statements
Last 6 months company’s UAE bank statements; stamped by the bank.

TRC can be applied on official website of Federal Tax Authority i.e., www.tax.gov.ae via Tax Certificate portal. A user account is required to apply the TRC, incase if one doesn’t have the user account, it can be created by providing information such as Email Address, Name, Username, mobile number, Address, PO Box.

After logging in to the user account, one is required to provide the necessary details in the TRC application form and also the documents discussed earlier for individual and corporate are required to be uploaded to complete the application. During submission of form one is required to pay the necessary submission fees and the application will be submitted to FTA for review and approval, once the application is approved after paying required fees applicant can download the TRC certificate, incase one requires the TRC in physical form by paying additional fees the physical copy can be obtained via courier from FTA.

Hope it was useful to you to understand the TRC and the process to apply it.