My free zone company has a small amount of non-qualifying revenue — does that cost me the 0% rate?

Not necessarily. The law includes a de minimis requirement precisely so a Qualifying Free Zone Person (QFZP) doesn't lose the 0% rate on its entire income over a small amount of non-qualifying revenue. The condition: non-qualifying revenue in a tax period must not exceed the lower of two figures — 5% of the company's total revenue in that same period, or AED 5,000,000. Non-qualifying revenue here covers income from excluded activities, income from otherwise qualifying activities carried out with parties that aren't free zone persons, and income from free zone persons who aren't the legally defined "beneficial recipient."

Breach the threshold, though, and the consequence is severe: the entity loses QFZP status entirely and falls under standard corporate tax rules and rates from the start of the tax period the breach occurred in — and for the following four tax periods as well, not just that one year. The test is applied period by period, so a clean result last year is no guarantee for this one. RASEEKH tracks free zone clients' revenue mix on an ongoing basis so this threshold isn't crossed without anyone noticing.