Verification report: UAE Corporate Tax Computation Workbook
Bindler, 17 October 2026. This report exists so a buyer can see what checking was done before
paying, instead of taking the word "verified" on trust. It reports the checking. It is not the
workbook and it is not a method: no formulas, no input template and no computation sheet are
reproduced here.
1. What was checked
The file checked is the file sold: `UAE_Corporate_Tax_Computation_Workbook.xlsx`, as shipped.
Nothing was rebuilt for the check and no separate "test copy" of the model exists.
The workbook carries 31 live formulas on its Computation sheet, driven by 32 input cells
on its Inputs sheet. There are four sheets: Inputs, Computation, Guide, Sources. No macros, no
locked cells, no hidden sheets.
2. What it was checked against
Two independent things, and both matter:
An independent calculation engine. The workbook's formulas were recalculated outsideMicrosoft Excel and outside Google Sheets, by the open-source Python `formulas` package
(version 1.3.4, on schedula 1.6.15), which parses the stored formula strings and evaluates the
dependency graph itself. Excel never computes the numbers that are checked. If a formula had been
written to depend on a stale cached value, or broken when the file was saved, the recalculation
would not reproduce it.
Expected figures worked by hand from the law first. Each test case has its expected taxableincome, tax payable and carry-forward figures worked out by hand from the legislation before the
run, and those figures are written into the harness as assertions. The check is not "does the
workbook agree with itself". It is "does the workbook agree with a number derived separately from
the statute".
The statutory sources behind those hand-worked figures, all public, are the same ones cited on the
workbook's Sources sheet:
- Federal Decree-Law No. 47 of 2022 on the Taxation of Corporations and Businesses
- Cabinet Decision No. 116 of 2022 (the AED 375,000 zero-rate threshold)
- Ministerial Decision No. 73 of 2023 and FTA guide CTGSBR1 (Small Business Relief)
- Ministry of Finance announcement of 7 August 2026, Ministerial Decision No. 131 (Small Business
Relief extended to Tax Periods ending on or before 31 December 2029)
- Ministerial Decision No. 126 of 2023 (the AED 12,000,000 net interest safe harbour)
- Cabinet Decision No. 100 of 2023 (Qualifying Income of a Qualifying Free Zone Person)
- Ministerial Decision No. 265 of 2023 (the Free Zone de minimis test)
- Cabinet Decision No. 10 of 2024 (the fixed late-registration penalty)
Two of those citations are the reason this product was rechecked at all: Cabinet Decision
No. 55 of 2023 and Ministerial Decision No. 139 of 2023 were repealed and replaced with effect
from 1 June 2023, and material still in circulation cites the repealed pair. The workbook cites
100/2023 and 265/2023.
3. The cases and the result
Seven cases, run on 17 October 2026. All seven passed. Each case loads the shipped workbook,
changes only input cells, recalculates every formula in the independent engine, and compares the
results against the hand-worked expectations.
| Case | What it exercises | Result |
|---|---|---|
| A | Small Business Relief elected: taxable income treated as nil, and nothing accruing to the loss carry-forward while the election stands (Art. 21, 37; MD 73/2023) | pass |
| B | Standard rates with no election: the Article 20(2) adjustment chain, exempt dividends (Art. 22(1)), entertainment at 50% (Art. 32), fines (Art. 33(2)), non-qualifying donations (Art. 33(1)), the 75% cap on loss relief (Art. 37(2)), the 0% band and 9% rate (Art. 3(1); CD 116/2022) | pass |
| C | Interest limitation for a large company: EBITDA for the rule, the AED 12,000,000 safe harbour not met, the 30% cap applied, and the disallowed amount carried forward (Art. 30(1)-(4), (6); MD 126/2023 Art. 8) | pass |
| D | Qualifying Free Zone Person passing the de minimis test: 0% on Qualifying Income, 9% on the rest, and Small Business Relief correctly refused (Art. 3(2), 18; CD 100/2023; MD 265/2023) | pass |
| E | The same Free Zone entity failing de minimis by a small margin: standard rates apply to the whole of taxable income (MD 265/2023) | pass |
| F | A current-period loss: taxable income floored at nil and the loss added to the carry-forward rather than producing a negative charge (Art. 37) | pass |
| G | The filing and payment deadline derived from the Tax Period end date (Art. 48, 53) | pass |
Case G is reported as a single verified figure, because it is the one most often got wrong: for a
Tax Period ending 31 December 2026 the workbook returns a return-and-payment due date of
30 September 2027, the nine-month rule in Articles 48 and 53.4. One worked sample, in full
Case B, the standard-rate case, is published in full so the arithmetic can be judged rather than
accepted. A resident company with accounting income of AED 520,000, an AED 30,000 exempt UAE
dividend inside that figure, AED 40,000 of entertainment spend (half of it
non-deductible), AED 19,000 in total of fines, non-qualifying donations and non-business
expenditure, net interest expenditure well inside the safe harbour, and AED 120,000 of tax losses
brought forward.
Recalculated independently, the workbook returns taxable income before loss relief of
AED 529,000, loss relief of AED 120,000 (inside the 75% cap, so the whole brought-forwardloss is used and nothing carries forward), taxable income of AED 409,000, and
Corporate Tax payable of AED 3,060, an effective rate of 0.59% on accounting income. Thosewere the hand-worked figures; the engine reproduced them to the cent.
The other six cases are described above but their figures are not published. That is the line this
report holds: the proof is the count, the coverage and one case a reader can check; the working
itself is the product.
5. What this does not prove
- It is not tax advice and carries no FTA endorsement. The workbook is a computation tool.
- It proves the workbook computes what the hand-worked cases say it should. It does not prove the
workbook covers every fact pattern in the Corporate Tax regime. Transfer pricing adjustments,
tax groups and the Participation Exemption conditions need judgement, which is why the Guide
sheet names them as judgement calls rather than automating them.
- It proves nothing about a copy of the file a buyer has since edited.
6. How to reproduce it
The checking harness lives in Bindler's repository, not in the file a buyer downloads. Any buyer
who wants the seven cases re-run against their own copy, or a case added, can ask: the recalculation
is the part Bindler keeps, and running it is cheap.
Harness run 17 October 2026. Result: 7 cases, 7 passed, 0 failed.