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Business, Compliance

A UAE company needs Form 41 and a tax residency certificate

The Indian payer will not apply a treaty rate on a blank email. It wants the certificate and the Indian form for that year.

Your UAE company invoiced an Indian customer. The customer deducted tax, or it is about to. Someone asked for a tax residency certificate and for Form 10F. The form number changed, and a personal UAE residence visa is not the company's certificate.
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Last reviewed: 28 October 20265 min readBy Vipul Sharma, Founder · Reviewed by Preetesh Maloo, CA

Confirm this with a practising CA before you act. The answer depends on the year and your documents.

The short answer

From 1 April 2026 the Indian form is , filed under . For income up to 31 March 2026 it is still . The Income Tax Department says Form 41 is filed once in a tax year, with a tax residency certificate that is valid for the relevant Indian financial year. A UAE company is a treaty resident only if it is incorporated in the UAE and managed and controlled wholly in the UAE. The certificate is issued by the UAE Federal Tax Authority. Trust files the Indian form. Getting the UAE certificate is UAE-side work for a UAE-licensed firm.

Need Form 41 filed against a UAE company certificate?

Send the year of the invoice and say whether you already have the company certificate. A practising CA will file the Indian form. No obligation.

Senior CA who specialises in NRI-owned Indian companies · we handle the regulator, you stay abroad

Related situations

The two documents

The certificate proves where the company is resident. (formerly ) puts that fact on the Indian portal, with the period the certificate covers.

The department's note says the certificate must be valid for the relevant financial year in India, and that the form is filed once in that tax year. There is no separate due date. You file it when a treaty claim is made, including when an Indian payer is deciding what to deduct.

Use for income earned up to 31 March 2026. Use for income from 1 April 2026. A bank checklist that still says Form 10F is often the old name. The year of the income decides the form. The full old-to-new list is on the form-number guide.

A company certificate is not a personal one

Article 4 of the India-UAE treaty treats people and companies differently. An individual is a UAE resident for the treaty if they are present in the UAE for at least 183 days in the calendar year. A company is a UAE resident for the treaty only if it is incorporated in the UAE and managed and controlled wholly in the UAE.

A director's Emirates ID, visa or personal certificate does not stand in for the company's certificate. If the company is in fact run from India, read place of effective management before anyone claims the treaty rate.

The Federal Tax Authority issues the UAE certificate. Its service page says a legal person applying for a treaty certificate must already have been incorporated for at least 12 months, and that the certificate does not cover any period after the start date you select. Trust does not apply to the Federal Tax Authority. A UAE-licensed firm does that. We file in India against the certificate you receive.

What the Indian payer still has to judge

and a certificate support a treaty claim. They do not, by themselves, decide that the invoice is business profit, a royalty, or something else. Withholding on a payment to a non-resident still sits under section 195 (old Act). We do not state a new section number for that rule, because the successor number is disputed.

If the payer deducted too much in a year the company was actually entitled to a lower rate, the extra is dealt with in the Indian return for that year. That is a separate job from filing the form.

What's involved

What the CA actually does

  1. 1

    We check the year and the form

    We match the invoice date to or , and to the period printed on the certificate.

  2. 2

    We file the Indian form

    A practising CA files , or for an older year, and gives the payer the acknowledgement.

  3. 3

    We leave the UAE certificate in the UAE

    A UAE-licensed firm obtains the Federal Tax Authority certificate. We do not file that application.

What to have ready

Documents you'll typically need

  • The UAE company's tax residency certificate, and the period it covers
  • Trade licence and incorporation date
  • The Indian invoice and the payer's name
  • PAN, if the company has one

References on this page

  • Income Tax Department, Form 41 FAQs: the form is filed once per tax year, and the TRC must be valid for the relevant Indian financial year. https://www.incometaxindia.gov.in/documents/d/guest/form-41-faqs
  • Income Tax Department note on Form 41 (formerly Form 10F): https://www.incometaxindia.gov.in/documents/d/guest/fn-41
  • Rule 75, Income-tax Rules, 2026: Form 41 is the document a non-resident provides under section 159(8). https://www.incometaxindia.gov.in/w/rule-75-3
  • India-UAE DTAA Article 4(1)(b): a UAE company is a resident if it is incorporated in the UAE and managed and controlled wholly in the UAE. https://www.incometaxindia.gov.in/w/uae-comprehensive-agreements-1
  • UAE Federal Tax Authority, tax residency certificate service: https://www.tax.gov.ae/en/services/issuance.of.tax.certificates.aspx

Frequently asked questions

Common questions

For income up to 31 March 2026, yes. From 1 April 2026 the form is Form 41. File the form that matches the year of the income.

No. The treaty's company test is incorporation in the UAE plus management and control wholly in the UAE. That is a company certificate, not a director's personal one.

No. The payer still has to accept the documents and decide the character of the payment. File before the payer credits or pays you, and ask when any change will apply.

The exceptions that change the answer

Where the general rule stops applying to you

Every rule below has a carve-out, a cut-off date or a condition that flips the answer. These are the ones that decide real cases.

UAE Tax Residency Certificate: presence requirement

Right now: 183 days of physical presence in the UAE, plus a valid residence visa and Emirates ID

Where it works differently

You hold a Golden Visa but spend most of the year elsewhere
A visa alone does not get you a TRC. The FTA tests physical presence against the ICA travel log.
Presence is evidenced, not asserted.
There is no UAE personal income tax to point to
That is not a bar. Green Emirate Shipping held 'liable to tax' means the state has the RIGHT to tax you, not that it collected anything.
The case the whole Gulf corridor rests on.
The Indian financial year straddles two UAE certificates
You may need two TRCs to cover one Indian FY, since the UAE certificate is issued for its own period.
Calendar vs financial year mismatch.

Commonly got wrong

  • A UAE residence visa is enough for treaty benefit. The FTA requires 183 days of evidenced physical presence, and India requires the TRC itself under s.90(4).You need 183 days of physical presence evidenced by your ICA travel report, plus the Emirates ID and visa, before the FTA will issue a TRC.

Related

If this matched your situation, these go further

The UAE certificate and India's financial year do not start togetherWhy an Indian customer still deducts tax on a UAE invoiceThe UAE certificate you need to claim the India treaty rateA UAE company run from India can fail both testsForm 10F filing serviceDTAA TDS recoveryForm 10F generatorDTAA rate lookup

Need Form 41 filed against a UAE company certificate?

Send the year of the invoice and say whether you already have the company certificate. A practising CA will file the Indian form. No obligation.

Request a free CA callChat on WhatsApp

No card, no obligation. All certification and filing work is handled by ICAI-registered practising Chartered Accountants.