United Arab Emirates Corporate Tax Registration

This file is the source-review record for this document version, per the manual-source-review-v1 practice. It documents the provenance of the published fields and flow and states the current verification claim honestly.

Current claim

• status: draft
• verification.method: manual-source-review-v1
• verification.lastVerifiedAt: 2026-07-06

The document was derived from a directly-read primary source: the Federal Tax Authority's own official Corporate Tax Registration user guide, retrieved as a PDF and read page-by-page via PDF-to-image rendering (its embedded text layer is sparse — mostly step captions, not the on-screen field labels themselves). It remains draft, not verified, pending an independent second reviewer's field-by-field pass.

Why this document was re-authored (GOV-1374)

This version replaces an earlier authoring pass (GOV-1371, PR #231) that cited the FTA's 17-May-2023 "Corporate Tax Registration – Taxpayer User Manual", v4.0.0.0. The GOV-1374 review gate's independent reviewer re-downloaded the FTA's live Corporate Tax Registration service page and found it now links a different, newer document — "Corporate Tax Registration User Guide", Version 2.0, dated 1-May-2026 — which reflects a materially redesigned EmaraTax wizard. The reviewer's findings (posted on PR #231 and on this issue) were independently re-confirmed by re-downloading the v2.0 guide fresh and re-rendering every relevant page via the same pdfjs-dist + node-canvas technique, then re-authoring the schema field-by-field against it. Every field cited against the 2023 manual in the prior version was re-verified or superseded; none were carried over unverified.

Source examined

• Document (id, version): ae/fta/corporate-tax-registration / 1.0.0
• Spec version: GovSchema 0.3.0
• Authority: Federal Tax Authority (FTA), United Arab Emirates
• Primary source URL: https://tax.gov.ae/Datafolder/Files/Pdf/2026/Service-cards/CT/Corporate%20Tax%20Registration%20User%20Guide_EN%20-%20Updated%20version.pdf
• Official document title: "Corporate Tax Registration User Guide", Version 2.0, dated 1-May-2026
• Retrieved / reviewed: 2026-07-06
• Reviewer: GovSchema Engineering (re-authoring source-review, GOV-1374)

Note on version currency: the guide's own document-control table (p.2) records a single entry — "2.0, 01-May-26, Federal Tax Authority, User Manual for EmaraTax Portal" — confirmed directly against the rendered screenshot. This is materially more recent (~2 months before this review) than the 17-May-2023 manual the prior version of this document cited. A future reviewer should still confirm no even-newer guide has since superseded this one — see "Path to a verified claim" below; this is now a standing practice for every re-review of this document, not a one-time check.

Access constraint and how it was worked around

The guide is a plain, directly downloadable PDF (no login, no CAPTCHA) at the URL above. It is 24 pages, mostly UI screenshots: pdfjs-dist's extractable text layer yields only step captions and instructional prose, not the actual on-screen field labels visible in each screenshot. Every field in this schema was therefore read directly off the rendered screenshots, not the text layer: each PDF page was rasterized to a PNG (pdfjs-dist + node-canvas, 2.6x scale) and read with Claude's own PDF-vision capability — the same technique used for the prior version of this document, ae/fta/vat-registration, and this registry's other screenshot-driven guides.

What was confirmed directly (verbatim, from the rendered screenshots)

All 24 pages were rendered and read in full; field labels and their step/section membership are cited in each field's sourceRef by page number. Notable, directly-confirmed structural changes from the superseded 2023 manual:

• p.12, Entity Details: the Entity Type dropdown is now a flat 9-value list (Natural Person, Legal Person - Incorporated, Legal Person - Foreign Business, Legal Person - Club / Association / Society, Legal Person - Charity, Legal Person - Federal Government Entity, Legal Person - Emirate Government Entity, Legal Person - Other, Partnership) — transcribed verbatim from a zoomed re-render of the dropdown, not paraphrased. Selecting Legal Person - Incorporated reveals a dependent Entity Sub-Type dropdown with exactly 4 values (UAE Private Company (incl. an Establishment), Public Joint Stock Company, Foundation, Trust), also transcribed from a zoomed re-render. Trust and Foundation were top-level Entity Type values in the superseded 2023 manual; they are now Entity Sub-Type values nested under Legal Person - Incorporated. The 2023 manual's two separate Foreign Company/Foreign Partnership values are now a single Legal Person - Foreign Business. Partnership moved from a Legal-Person sub-type to a top-level Entity Type of its own.
• p.13, Entity Details - Continuity: a new "Are you a Qualifying Public Benefit Entity?" Yes/No field and a new "Upload Certificate of Incorporation / Memorandum of Association" entity-level document upload, neither present in the superseded 2023 manual. The Corporate Tax Period dropdown is confirmed still showing only one example value ("January - December"), never opened — free-text modelling retained. The wizard now visibly auto-derives a First Corporate Tax Period Start/End Date and a First Corporate Tax Return Filing Due Date from the Corporate Tax Period selection (shown as read-only grey fields) — confirmed directly and, being system-computed rather than applicant-supplied, not modelled as fields.
• p.11, Instructions and Guidelines (Required Documents): the full, split-by-registrant-type required-documents list was read directly and is the evidentiary basis for every document's requiredWhen gate in this version, including the new decreeLawDocument (Federal/Emirate Government Entity) and cabinetDecisionDocument (Qualifying Public Benefit Entity) entries. Both the Natural Person list (item A2, "Trade Licenses") and the Legal Person/Partnership list (item B4, "Main Trade License") call for a trade license; only the Federal/Emirate Government Entity path substitutes a Decree Law. This directly informs the trade-license requiredWhen carve-out in this version, which is narrower than the superseded 2023 manual's (see "Interpretive judgment calls" below).
• p.12, info box: "Before proceeding to the next section, all mandatory fields in the current section must be completed. Optional fields are clearly marked as 'Optional'." This is direct, explicit textual evidence used throughout this version to resolve required/optional for every field not itself carrying a (Optional) suffix in its on-screen label — see "Interpretive judgment calls" below.
• p.16, Main License Details – Adding Activities: the Business Activity modal now includes a "Sub Activity" field (rendered example "Tourism & Recreation Consultants") in addition to Industry/Main Group/Sub-Group/ Activity/Activity Code — not present in the superseded 2023 manual.
• p.16-17, Adding Owners: a new "Do any of the owners hold 25% or more of the ownership?" Yes/No gate, not present in the superseded 2023 manual.
• p.17/p.19, Owners List: the summary table's columns (Owner Type, Name in English, Name in Arabic, ID Number, Shareholding Percentage, Actions) were read directly and are the basis for this version's ownerNameEnglish/ownerNameArabic/ownerIdNumber fields — a single combined name pair and a single ID-number field, rather than the superseded 2023 manual's first/last-name split (which had no owner ID field at all).
• p.18, Adding Owner Details: a new "Does the owner hold a valid Emirates ID?" Yes/No gate (ownerHasEmiratesId) and a new "Do you want your UAE Pass profile information to be retrieved?" Yes/No option (a data-entry shortcut, not modelled as a field — see "What is out of scope" below), neither present in the superseded 2023 manual.
• p.20, Contact Details: fully re-confirmed and materially redesigned. Building Name & Number/Street/Area/Emirate (superseded 2023 manual) are replaced by a generic Address Line 1–Address Line 4 block plus City. Two fields were added that the superseded version's own VERIFICATION.md explicitly asserted were absent: Email ID and P.O. Box (Optional). This screenshot is fully visible (no crop/scroll issue), so every field in this step is directly confirmed, not inferred.
• p.21, Authorized Signatory: the "Add Authorized Signatory" modal is fully visible in this guide — unlike the superseded 2023 manual, whose equivalent screenshot began mid-scroll and forced the prior version to infer Name/Email fields from a summary table instead. This version's modal shows, in order: "Do you want your UAE Pass profile information to be retrieved?" (not modelled, data-entry shortcut only), "Does the authorized signatory hold a valid Emirates ID?" (authorizedSignatoryHasEmiratesId), the "No" branch's Passport Number/Expiry Date/Issuing Country/upload, First/Last Name in English and Arabic, Country Code + Mobile Number, Email ID, and a new Designation field (rendered example "CEO") not present in the superseded 2023 manual. No "Source of Authorization" dropdown is visible in this modal (present in the superseded 2023 manual) — see "Interpretive judgment calls" below.
• p.22, Review and Declaration: the Declaration block's First/Last Name in English and Arabic, Country Code, Mobile Number, Email, and Submission Date (read-only, not modelled) fields are confirmed present, though this page shows them as a read-only review echo rather than the original entry form — see "Interpretive judgment calls" below regarding required/optional.

Interpretive judgment calls (flagged for an independent reviewer)

1. Untagged fields treated as mandatory: per the guide's own explicit instruction (p.12, quoted above), this version treats every field without an on-screen (Optional) suffix as required. This is a change from the prior version's approach (which inferred optionality for some untagged fields, e.g. Landline Number and Declaration's Arabic name fields, based on the 2023 manual's own layout). Applying this rule here makes contactAddressLine2/3/4, contactLandlineCountryCode/ Number, and declarantFirstNameArabic/LastNameArabic all required — in particular, a mandatory landline number alongside a mandatory mobile number, and a mandatory second/third/fourth address line, are somewhat unusual real-world requirements. A future reviewer should confirm these against a live EmaraTax render rather than relying solely on the guide's general instructional text.
2. Owner identity fields (ownerNameEnglish, ownerNameArabic, ownerIdNumber): the Owner Details entry-modal screenshot (p.18) begins mid-scroll, at the Emirates ID gate — its own Name/ID-number input fields (above what's captured) were not directly visible in any rendered page of this 24-page guide. These three fields are instead read from the Owners List summary table's own column headers (p.17/ p.19: "Name in English | Name in Arabic | ID Number | Shareholding Percentage"), which are directly confirmed. A future reviewer should confirm the modal's own field labels directly (e.g. via a live EmaraTax render), and in particular check whether the live wizard splits ownerIdNumber into separate Emirates-ID/passport fields the way the Authorized Signatory section does, or genuinely keeps it as one field.
3. Authorized Signatory's Emirates ID fields (authorizedSignatoryEmiratesIdNumber/ExpiryDate): the rendered "Add Authorized Signatory" modal (p.21) shows only the "No" (does not hold a valid Emirates ID) branch, with its Passport fields. The "Yes" branch's own Emirates ID Number/Expiry Date field labels are asserted by direct analogy to this registry's established Emirates-ID-field pattern (e.g. the Owner Details/Authorized Signatory sections of sibling EmaraTax schemas), not independently confirmed in this guide. A future reviewer should confirm this branch against a live render.
4. Trade-license requiredWhen carve-out narrowed: the superseded 2023 manual excluded Natural-Person-Partnership-or-Heir, both Foreign sub-types, and both Government-Entity sub-types from the trade-license requirement. This version's required-documents list (p.11) shows both the Natural Person and the Legal Person/Partnership document lists calling for a trade license, with only the Federal/Emirate Government Entity path substituting a Decree Law — so this version excludes only legal_person_federal_government_entity and legal_person_emirate_government_entity. This is a directly-evidenced, narrower carve-out, not carried over from the prior version by default; a future reviewer should confirm against a live render, in particular for legal_person_foreign_business and partnership.
5. authorizedSignatorySourceOfAuthorization and its evidence field dropped as a standalone free-text field: the superseded 2023 manual modelled a "Source of Authorization" dropdown (rendered example "Memorandum of Association") in the Authorized Signatory section. No such dropdown is visible anywhere in this guide's fully-rendered Authorized Signatory modal (p.21). The corresponding required document (authorizedSignatoryAuthorizationEvidence, required per p.11's "Proof of Authorization of Authorised Signatories") is retained, since it is directly evidenced by the required-documents list. No dedicated upload-slot screenshot for it was found in this 24-page guide (unlike Passport/Certificate-of-Incorporation, which do have visible upload slots), so its file-format/size constraints use p.11's own general note for the Required Documents list ("Accepted file types are PDF, DOC and DOCX. The individual file size limit is 15 MB.") — this is directly confirmed on the same rendered page cited for the document itself (GOV-1374 review-gate finding), not a generic default. A future reviewer should still confirm the absence of a Source-of-Authorization field against a live render.
6. decreeLawDocument and cabinetDecisionDocument constraints: both documents are directly evidenced as required by the p.11 required-documents list, but neither has a dedicated upload-slot screenshot rendered anywhere in this guide (only named in the Instructions and Guidelines page's bulleted list). Their file-format/size constraints likewise use p.11's own general note ("Accepted file types are PDF, DOC and DOCX. The individual file size limit is 15 MB."), directly confirmed on the same page rather than asserted generically (GOV-1374 review-gate finding). A future reviewer should still confirm against a live render in case either document has its own dedicated upload widget with different constraints.

What is out of scope for v1.0.0

• Natural Person registration's own field set: entityType is selectable as natural_person, but this version does not model a Natural-Person-specific flow beyond that selection, for the same reason as the prior version: no screenshots of a distinct Natural Person flow were found in this 24-page guide (every rendered example uses Legal Person - Incorporated). This is a disclosed scope decision, matching this registry's precedent of deferring unsourced sub-flows.
• UAE Pass / Emirates ID auto-retrieval options: both the Owner Details modal ("Do you want your UAE Pass profile information to be retrieved?") and the Authorized Signatory modal (same question) offer a data-entry shortcut that auto-fills fields from a UAE Pass-linked Emirates ID. This is a UI/UX interaction mode, not itself applicant-supplied data distinct from the underlying Name/ID/Contact fields already modelled, so it is not modelled as a separate field — consistent with this registry's convention of modelling only the data itself, not the entry method.
• Per-branch, per-owner, and per-business-activity repeating detail beyond the first entry: GovSchema v0.3's field model is flat with no array/repeating-group type yet (spec/v0.3/SPEC.md §6.1). Each is modelled as a single first/primary entry, the same precedent this registry has established for other repeating tables.
• Full per-branch sub-form: Local Branch Details (p.19) states each branch requires its own complete trade-license/business-activity/owner sub-structure, structurally identical to the main entity's — not duplicated here beyond the hasBranchesInUae gate itself.
• VAT Registration and Excise Tax registration: both are separate EmaraTax applications with their own user guides (VAT Registration is modelled separately as ae/fta/vat-registration), out of scope for this document.
• Review-summary step (p.22): the Review-and-Declaration step's own read-only summary tables (echoing every prior step's entered values) are not modelled as fields — they carry no new data, consistent with this registry's convention of modelling only applicant-supplied data.
• First Corporate Tax Period Start/End Date and First Corporate Tax Return Filing Due Date, and Submission Date: shown as read-only, system-computed fields in the rendered screenshots (p.13, p.22); not applicant-supplied, so not modelled as fields.

Conformance exercise

conformance/ae/fta/corporate-tax-registration/1.0.0/application-packet.json models a fabricated Legal Person - Incorporated (UAE Private Company) applicant (a Dubai mainland spice trader) with a trade license, a single natural-person owner holding 100% (Emirates-ID-holding) and 25%+ of the ownership, no branches, and a non-UAE-resident-by-Emirates-ID authorized signatory (exercising the Passport block). A standalone check script re-evaluated every requiredWhen/documents[].requiredWhen condition against the primary scenario and four alternate branches (entityType=natural_person, entityType=legal_person_federal_government_entity, isQualifyingPublicBenefitEntity=true, authorizedSignatoryHasEmiratesId=true) and confirmed each correctly turns its gated fields/documents on or off — see application-packet.txt for the full results. Re-run with node tools/validate.mjs and node tools/validate-ajv.mjs against schema.json (both pass, GovSchema 0.3.0).

Path to a verified claim (next step)

To advance this document to status: verified, a reviewer needs to:

1. Independently re-fetch the guide PDF and re-render/re-read each cited page, confirming every field sourceRef against the actual screenshot.
2. Confirm the FTA has not since published a newer guide revision superseding v2.0 (1-May-2026) — this is now a standing check for every re-review of this document, given it has already happened once.
3. Resolve the six interpretive judgment calls above against a live EmaraTax render if credentialed access is available, or a newer guide revision if one surfaces. Judgment call 1 (untagged-fields-mandatory) in particular has a broad blast radius across the Contact Details and Review and Declaration steps and would benefit most from independent confirmation.

Re-verification

Per the practice's Cadence, nextReviewBy is set to 2026-11-01 (~4 months, shorter than this registry's usual ~6-month cadence, given this document has already been found stale once within months of its first authoring). Re-check the source, and confirm no newer guide revision has been published, on or before that date and on any source.url change.