Recently, the UAE's Federal Tax Authority (FTA) issued Decision No. 1 of 2025, detailing circumstances under which extensions may be granted or rejected for submitting Tax Assessment Review Requests or Reconsideration Requests. This decision provides clarity for taxpayers unable to meet standard deadlines due to valid reasons. The said decision is effective from 1 March 2025.
Extensions may be granted in specific cases including:
• Accident or serious illness or death of the authorized signatory including legal representative or any of his close family members;
• Temporary business disruption beyond person’s control;
• Damage of records due to disaster;
• Malfunction in authority’s systems;
• Sudden discontinuation of business or business records due to installation of new system;
• Authority’s request for additional documents, where the taxpayer can prove the inability to obtain such documents within legally prescribed deadlines
Cases where extensions will be rejected:
• Lack of awareness by the taxpayer;
• Delays caused on account of negligence by third parties such as – Tax Agents, Legal Representatives, on whom taxpayers relied upon;
• Delay on account of complexity of the request;
• Applicant was busy running their business
This decision underscores the FTA's commitment to ensuring fairness and flexibility in the tax assessment and dispute resolution process, accommodating taxpayers facing genuine challenges in meeting procedural deadlines.
To avoid any penal consequences, taxpayers must take all necessary steps to meet the deadlines and timely submissions of the requests to the FTA.
