I invest in real estate in my personal name — does Corporate Tax apply to that?
I'm an individual, not a company, and I own property in my own name that I rent out and sometimes sell — does that income count toward Corporate Tax?
The base rule is straightforward: when a natural person (an individual, not a company) invests in real estate in their own personal name — buying, leasing, selling property, or even selling land — and the income comes from using the property itself rather than a service built around it, that income sits entirely outside Corporate Tax. It's not only exempt — it also doesn't count toward the AED 1 million turnover threshold that determines whether a natural person must register for Corporate Tax as a business. That holds even if you own an entire building generating substantial rental income, as long as the arrangement stays genuinely personal.
The condition that flips this is licensing. If the activity itself requires a licence from a licensing authority — a real estate brokerage licence, a property management licence, or development undertaken as a trade — or if the property is part of a business activity you're already licensed for, such as a sole establishment licensed for property leasing and management, the income is no longer "personal real estate investment." It becomes business income and falls under Corporate Tax like any other business income.
The practical test isn't the property's value or how many units you hold — it's whether the activity requires a licence, and whether it sits inside a business you're already licensed for. If the answer is yes, the exclusion no longer applies. This trips up plenty of owners who already hold an unrelated trade licence and assume their personal property portfolio is automatically separate — while the authority looks at the actual activity, not the intent behind it.
If you hold more than one property and also run a licensed business, it's worth reviewing your position with RASEEKH before filing anything, so we can pin down exactly what stays outside scope and what needs to be accounted for.