United Arab Emirates's headline corporate income tax (CIT) rate is 9.
0% - the UAE does not levy personal income tax on individuals, confirmed via the UAE government and PwC Worldwide Tax Summaries.
The standard VAT/GST (or equivalent consumption tax) rate is 5. Registration thresholds, zero-rated and exempt categories, and reduced rates vary by jurisdiction - see the source link below for the full detail on this jurisdiction.
Under Cabinet Decision No. 85 of 2022, an individual is a UAE tax resident via one of three routes: physical presence of 183 days or more in any 12-month period; 90 days or more combined with UAE/GCC nationality or a valid residence permit plus a permanent home or employment/business in the UAE; or a "primary residence/center of financial interests" test. A company is resident if incorporated in the UAE, or if a foreign entity is effectively managed and controlled from the UAE. Note that domestic tax residency and eligibility for a treaty-purpose Tax Residency Certificate are not the same threshold - the Federal Tax Authority generally still requires 183 days of physical presence for a TRC even where the 90-day or center-of-interests route established domestic residency. The UAE has no personal income tax; residency mainly matters for accessing corporate tax rules and treaty benefits.
The UAE has no Controlled Foreign Company regime, per PwC and Chambers and Partners. A UAE company's foreign subsidiary income is not attributed back to the UAE parent; foreign-subsidiary income is taxed only in its own jurisdiction, with UAE tax arising only if and when profits are actually repatriated or connected to UAE economic activity. (Note: this cuts the other way for outbound investors - a UAE company controlled by a resident of a jurisdiction with its own CFC rules, such as Germany, the UK, or the US, can still trigger CFC attribution in that home country, taxing the shareholder there on undistributed UAE income.)
The UAE has no formal debt-to-equity thin capitalization rule. Instead, under Article 30 of the Corporate Tax Law, net interest expenditure is deductible up to the greater of 30% of tax-adjusted EBITDA or AED 12 million; disallowed interest carries forward for the following 10 tax periods. The rule does not apply to banks, insurance businesses, other regulated financial entities, or natural persons. Interest on related-party loans used to fund dividends, share buybacks/capital reductions, capital contributions, or acquisitions of related-party ownership interests is denied deduction entirely, separate from the general limitation.
The UAE maintains one of the world's most extensive treaty networks - sources place the figure at over 130-140 double tax agreements in force, though exact counts vary by source and date; confirm the current figure via the UAE Ministry of Finance before relying on a specific number. The UAE has no comprehensive income tax treaty with the United States.