Challenging an FTA decision: reconsideration, the TDRC and the courts

Which FTA decisions can be challenged

Under Article 29 of the Tax Procedures Law (Federal Decree-Law No. 28 of 2022), a business can ask the Federal Tax Authority to reconsider any decision it has issued in connection with that business, in whole or in part. That includes a tax assessment, an assessment of administrative penalties and a decision on a refund. Where the decision followed an audit, our page on FTA tax audits covers how that stage runs.

Not everything the FTA sends is a decision. The FTA’s guidance says its responses to general enquiries, complaints and clarifications are not official decisions and cannot be the subject of a reconsideration request. A request to waive penalties, or to pay them by instalments, is also a separate process, decided by an FTA committee under Article 50.

The dispute ladder at a glance

A challenge moves up a fixed ladder. Each step has a deadline of 40 business days, and each is a gate to the next: there is no objection to the Tax Disputes Resolution Committee (TDRC) without a reconsideration request first, and no court case without an objection to the TDRC first.

The court step exists only where the tax and penalties in question exceed AED 100,000, or the TDRC has issued no decision. Federal Decree-Law No. 17 of 2025, which amended the Tax Procedures Law from 1 January 2026, changed the rules on refunds and on how long the FTA has to audit; published summaries of it report no change to these steps.

Counting the 40 business days

Each clock starts on the date the business was notified, not the date someone read the decision. Under Article 11, a person is treated as notified once the FTA has sent the decision to the address registered with it. A decision sent there starts the clock whether or not anyone has opened it.

A business day is any day except weekends and official federal government holidays. The day of notification is not counted, and if the last day is not a business day, the period runs to the next business day (Article 49). The FTA’s reconsideration service card, in one place, describes the 40 days as running from the date of the original decision rather than from notification. The law says notification, but counting from the earlier of the two dates costs nothing.

The tax assessment review, and how it fits with reconsideration

A tax assessment review is an optional first step, available only for a tax assessment, or part of one, and any administrative penalties assessed with it (Article 28). The request must give reasons and be made within 40 business days of being notified of the assessment and penalties. The FTA must decide within 40 business days of receiving it and tell the business within 5 more. Under Article 25 of the Executive Regulation of the Tax Procedures Law (Cabinet Decision No. 74 of 2023), it can extend its time to decide by 20 business days where that is necessary.

If the business still disagrees, it can then ask for reconsideration of the review decision. That request is due within 40 business days of being notified of the review decision or, if the FTA has not issued and notified one in time, of the date by which it should have done so. That second limb is a trap: silence from the FTA does not stop this clock.

The order rules matter, because the two routes cannot run side by side:

• Once a reconsideration request has been filed, a review cannot be requested, and one already under way is not continued (Article 28(5)).
• While a review of an assessment is pending, a reconsideration request for that assessment cannot be filed until the FTA has decided the review, or its time to decide and notify has run out (Article 29(3)).

Which route to take is a judgement on the facts. A review gives the FTA a second look at an assessment without using up the reconsideration step. Going straight to reconsideration is the shorter path to the TDRC, where the dispute is unlikely to be settled at the FTA.

Reconsideration: the step everything else depends on

A reconsideration request must state its reasons and be filed within 40 business days of the date the business was notified of the decision. It is made through the FTA’s EmaraTax platform, and the FTA charges no fee for it.

The FTA must decide, with reasons, within 40 business days of receiving a request that meets the requirements, and tell the business within 5 business days of deciding. Together that is up to 45 business days, the figure the FTA’s service card gives. Where necessary, it can extend its time to decide by a further 20 business days.

Reconsideration is compulsory before the TDRC. An objection to the committee is not accepted unless a reconsideration request was submitted to the FTA first (Article 32), so a missed reconsideration deadline, without an extension, closes the TDRC and the courts as well.

If the FTA does not decide in time

FTA silence is not a dead end. Article 31 gives the TDRC jurisdiction to decide reconsideration requests that the FTA has not decided as the Tax Procedures Law requires. The Law does not set a separate deadline for taking that route, so it should not be left to drift: the safer course is to act promptly once the FTA’s time to decide, including any extension, has run out.

What a strong reconsideration request contains

This is the stage at which a well-built written case matters most. The FTA decides on what is in front of it, and if it upholds its decision, the objection to the TDRC is an objection to that reconsideration decision. The request is best written as the full case, not an opening position. A strong one covers five things.

• The decision challenged. Its reference, its date, the date it was notified, and exactly which part is disputed. A request can target part of a decision, and saying which part keeps the dispute focused.
• The grounds, in law and in fact. The provisions of the tax law, the Tax Procedures Law and the Executive Regulation that the decision gets wrong or misapplies, and the facts the FTA has missed or misread. The law requires a request to give reasons; the reasons are the case.
• The evidence. The FTA’s service card asks for documentary proof supporting the factual and legal grounds, and any relevant tax advice the business received. Each document should be tied to the point it proves.
• The figures, recomputed. The FTA’s computation set beside the correct one, line by line, so that the difference in tax, and in any penalties that follow from it, can be seen and checked.
• The remedy sought. Whether the decision should be cancelled or reduced, and if reduced, to what figure.

Language needs thought too. Article 5 requires documents given to the FTA to be in Arabic, though the FTA may accept another language and ask for an Arabic translation. The person who submits a translation is responsible for its accuracy and bears its cost.

If checking the decision turns up errors of the business’s own in the same periods, correcting them is a separate question: our page on voluntary disclosures explains when a disclosure is required.

The Tax Disputes Resolution Committee

The TDRC is not part of the FTA. Under Article 30 there are one or more permanent committees, each chaired by a member of the judicial authority with two expert members from the register of tax experts, appointed by the Minister of Justice in coordination with the Minister of Finance. They decide objections to the FTA’s reconsideration decisions, and reconsideration requests the FTA has not decided in time (Article 31).

An objection is not accepted unless it passes three gates (Article 32):

1. a reconsideration request was submitted to the FTA first;
2. the tax connected with the objection has been paid in full; and
3. the objection is filed within 40 business days of being notified of the FTA’s reconsideration decision.

The payment condition is about the tax. The Law does not add the penalties at this stage, though the Cabinet can change the amount that must be settled. Older guides that say tax and penalties must both be paid describe the law before it was amended.

The FTA’s guidance says the objection is submitted online to the Ministry of Justice’s department for the committees, and that the case is filed in Arabic, with its supporting documents.

The committee must decide within 20 business days of receiving the objection, and tell the business and the FTA within 5 business days of deciding (Article 33). Under Article 25 of the Executive Regulation it can extend its time by up to 60 business days where necessary, to 80 in total. UAE commentators report a 2025 judgment of the Federal Supreme Court (No. 388 of 2024) holding that a case taken to court before the committee had decided was premature, and treating these time limits as procedural rather than strict. A committee that runs past its time limit should not be assumed to have opened the way to court.

Where the tax and administrative penalties in question total AED 100,000 or less, the committee’s decision is final (Article 33) and enforceable as an executory instrument (Article 34). If the FTA assesses AED 75,000 of extra Corporate Tax and no penalties, for example, the committee’s decision on it is the end of the road: there is no route to court. Above AED 100,000, the decision becomes enforceable if neither side appeals within 40 business days of notification.

Going to court

Above AED 100,000, the business or the FTA can appeal the TDRC’s decision to the Competent Court, which the Law defines as the federal court for the area in which the FTA’s head office or branch is located. Four tests apply (Articles 33 and 36).

1. An objection went to the TDRC first, and was accepted. The court does not accept a tax dispute that has not been to the committee, and rules inadmissible one the committee declined to accept at its three gates.
2. There is something to appeal. The decision is not final, because the amount exceeds AED 100,000, or the committee has issued no decision on an objection properly made to it.
3. The appeal is in time: within 40 business days of the date of notification of the TDRC’s decision.
4. The money is paid. The business must prove that the tax has been settled in full, and that at least 50% of the administrative penalties determined by the committee’s decision has been paid in cash or covered by an approved bank guarantee in the FTA’s favour. Without that proof the court rules the appeal inadmissible. The Cabinet can change the amount and the percentage.

To take illustrative figures: if the committee upholds tax of AED 400,000 and penalties of AED 120,000, an appeal needs proof that the AED 400,000 has been paid and that at least AED 60,000 of the penalties has been paid or guaranteed. In practice, a business taking a tax case to court needs a UAE-licensed advocate.

Which time limits can be extended, and by whom

An extension to file is not a right. The FTA’s Decision No. 1 of 2025, in force from 1 March 2025, sets out when it will extend the deadline for a review or reconsideration request. Published summaries of it list exceptional circumstances, such as an accident or serious illness of the authorised signatory, and say the FTA will refuse where the business was unaware of its obligations, relied on a tax agent or other third party who was negligent, or was busy running the business. A refusal to extend is final and cannot itself be objected to or appealed (Article 35).

Paying while you dispute

A challenge does not stop the tax being payable. Nothing in the Tax Procedures Law suspends payment while a review or reconsideration is pending, and the TDRC and the courts each require payment before they will hear the case. Late-payment penalties can keep running on tax left unpaid while the dispute goes on, and if tax stays unpaid the FTA has collection powers under Article 40, starting with a notice to pay within 20 business days.

If the money is the difficulty, that is a decision to face early, because it shapes which route is realistic. Our page on FTA penalties covers how penalties are charged, and the separate process for asking the FTA to waive them or accept instalments.

Who can file, and who can appear

A review or reconsideration request can be filed by the business itself, by its legal representative, or by its registered tax agent.

• A legal representative has a narrow meaning in the Tax Procedures Law: the guardian or custodian of an incapacitated person or a minor, a bankruptcy trustee appointed by the court for a company in bankruptcy, or any other person legally appointed to represent another. It does not mean a lawyer as such.
• A tax agent is a person registered with the FTA and appointed to represent the business before it. For a tax group, the representative member submits.

Who may appear for a business before the TDRC is not settled. Commentators describe registered tax agents appearing there, while the UAE’s law on the legal profession deals with representation by licensed advocates before committees with judicial jurisdiction. A business whose case is heading for the committee should take a UAE advocate’s view on who files the objection and who appears. At court, a UAE advocate is needed.

How we help

If the FTA has issued a decision you disagree with, we can:

• Confirm what the decision is, when it was notified, and which deadline applies
• Test the decision against the law and the facts, and say plainly where it is strong
• Rebuild the figures, so the disputed tax and penalties can be checked line by line
• Advise on the route: a tax assessment review first, or straight to reconsideration
• Draft the reconsideration request or the objection, and assemble the evidence behind it
• Work alongside the business’s UAE advocate on the figures if a case goes to court

Related pages

• UAE tax disputes: an overview
• FTA tax audits
• Corporate Tax audits
• FTA penalties
• Voluntary disclosures to the FTA
• Tax evasion investigations