Economic Substance Regulations (ESR) - Notification Resubmission and Annual Reporting Deadlines
04 November 2020
The UAE Ministry of Finance (MoF) has announced the ESR Filing Requirements and Deadlines along with the relevant templates for ESR notification and ESR report.
Key takeaways and highlights from the notice published by the MoF are:
- ESR notifications are due to be filed within 6 months of FY end applicable to FYs commencing from 1 January 2019 onwards.
- A re-submission would be required for licensees who are performing a Relevant Activity or are performing a Relevant Activity and are applying for an exemption during the relevant FY.
- The MoF portal is scheduled to go live in the first week of December 2020 and the due date for filing the ESR notification would be 31 December 2020.
- In addition to the licensees who have previously submitted the ESR notification to their Regulatory Authorities, the above mentioned due date will also be applicable for ESR notifications due to be submitted before MoF portal goes live.
- Licensees and/or exempted licensees who fail to submit or resubmit the ESR notifications by the due date will be subject to a penalty of AED 20,000.
- ESR Reports are due to be filed within 12 months of the FY end for periods commencing from 1 January 2019.
- The deadline for the report submission is 31 December 2020 for FY ending 31 Dec 2019. This deadline will also apply to short FYs where the 12 months deadline lapsed before the go live date of the MoF portal. For instance, where a licensee with a short FY commencing 1 April 2019 and ending on 31 October 2019 was required to file by 31 October 2020 as per the ESR law, the ESR report will now be due for submission by 31 December 2020 on the MoF portal.
- Failure to submit the ESR Report before the due date mentioned above will be subject to a penalty of AED 50,000.
With the extended timelines, Licensees who previously did not file the ESR notification within the deadline announced by the Regulatory Authority earlier this year, will now have the opportunity to meet their ESR obligations.
Further, with the release of templates for ESR notification and ESR report ahead of the MoF portal go live date, will allow sometime for Licensees perform an ESR assessment on their business activities in light of the new ESR law and submit the required notification and/or report due by the end of this year.
You can access them on the MoF website by clicking here.
We, at BDO UAE, will be happy to support you in meeting the ESR compliance. For any enquiries, do reach out to our ESR Advisory services leaders.