Do I still need to file an annual ESR report, or was that scrapped?

From 2019 through the end of 2022, any UAE licensee carrying on a "Relevant Activity" — banking, insurance, financing and leasing, headquarters, intellectual property, distribution and service centre, and similar categories — had to file an Economic Substance Notification within 6 months of its financial year-end, and a full Economic Substance Report within 12 months if it earned income from that activity. Cabinet Decision No. 98 of 2024, effective 2 September 2024, cancelled that obligation entirely for any financial year ending after 31 December 2022. In practice: if your financial year is 2023 or later, no ESR filing is required from you at all.

The important nuance is that the cancellation is not fully retroactive. If your company fell within scope during 2019-2022 and never filed the required notification or report for those years, you still need to file now — the Federal Tax Authority retains a six-year review window from the end of each reportable year. Any penalties assessed for years after 2022 have been cancelled, and amounts already paid are being refunded. Separately, the underlying idea of "economic substance" still matters in a different form under the Corporate Tax Law, if your entity is in a free zone and relying on the 0% rate as a Qualifying Free Zone Person. RASEEKH reviews your historical position and tells you plainly what, if anything, is still outstanding from earlier years and what your obligations look like going forward.