What Records Does the FTA Require You to Keep (and For How Long)?

"How long do I actually need to keep this?" is one of the most common questions we get about paperwork. The answer depends on what the document is — and it's longer than most founders assume.

VAT records: 5 years

Invoices, credit notes, import/export documentation, and anything else relevant to your VAT returns need to be retained for at least five years from the end of the relevant tax period. This applies whether you're registered mandatorily or voluntarily.

Corporate Tax records: 7 years

Financial statements, general ledgers, contracts, and supporting documentation for your Corporate Tax position must be kept for at least seven years from the end of the financial year they relate to — two years longer than the VAT requirement, which trips people up when they assume one retention period covers everything.

Longer still: capital assets and real estate

Records tied to capital assets need to be kept for ten years, and anything related to real estate for fifteen years. Where VAT capital asset adjustment rules apply, retention can also stretch to ten years depending on the asset type. If your business owns equipment, property, or long-life assets, don't apply the standard 5–7 year rule to that paperwork.

Where and how records need to be stored

Records can be kept electronically or physically, but they must stay accurate, secure, and accessible from within the UAE. If the FTA requests documentation during a review, you need to be able to produce it within the timeframe they specify — not track it down from an old laptop or a departed employee's inbox.

The practical habit

Build retention into your filing system from day one: tag documents by type so VAT invoices, Corporate Tax records, and asset documentation aren't all lumped into one folder with one assumed expiry date. It's a lot easier to keep this organized as you go than to reconstruct seven years of history during an actual audit.

If your current filing system is more "scattered folders" than "organized by retention period," that's something we help clients clean up as part of ongoing bookkeeping.