TRN tax number in the UAE — registration with the FTA (VAT + corporate tax)

The TRN is the tax number the Federal Tax Authority assigns on registration. It is needed in order to issue invoices with VAT, to recover input tax and to file returns.

Registration goes through the tax authority's online account. Corporate tax registration and VAT registration are done separately: these are two different procedures with different triggers.

This mistake costs money in penalties. For corporate tax the 0% rate applies up to AED 375,000 of taxable profit and 9% above it. But everyone has to register, including free zone companies, loss-making ones and those that have not started trading yet.

VAT has different thresholds, and they are counted on taxable supplies and imports rather than on profit: AED 375,000 for mandatory registration, AED 187,500 for voluntary registration.

So a company may have not a dirham of tax to pay and still be obliged to register and file returns.

The tax authority gives small business a separate regime: revenue of no more than AED 3 million both in the current tax period and in all previous ones. The regime is elected by application for each period — it does not apply by itself.

The condition about all previous periods cuts off anyone who has once exceeded the threshold: there is no way back into the relief after that.