Statutory filings every UAE employer must make
Reviewed by Mellow Editorial Team, HR & payroll content team
Employers registered in the UAE have a defined set of statutory filing and reporting obligations — even with no corporate income tax on salaries and no personal income tax at all. Missing these obligations carries real financial and reputational risk.
Wage Protection System (WPS) reporting
Every private-sector employer must pay salaries through the WPS, the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation (MOHRE) electronic salary-transfer system. The process works like this:
1. You instruct your bank, exchange house or other approved agent to transfer wages.
2. The agent submits a Salary Information File (SIF) to MOHRE confirming that each employee has been paid.
3. MOHRE timestamps and records the payment.
Wages must be paid within the period specified on each employee's contract, and no later than the end of the month following the period the wages cover. If you miss the WPS deadline, MOHRE can freeze new work-permit applications, issue fines and — for repeated or serious breaches — refer the matter for criminal prosecution. There is no grace period built into the legislation, so a late transfer is a late transfer.
Domestic workers and employees of certain free zones operate under different frameworks, so check which regulatory authority governs your entity before assuming standard MOHRE rules apply.
GPSSA pension contributions for UAE and GCC nationals
If you employ UAE nationals — or nationals of other GCC states who elect coverage under the General Pension and Social Security Authority (GPSSA) — you have a monthly filing and payment obligation. Both the employer and the employee contribute a percentage of the basic wage to GPSSA each month.
Registration must happen at the point of hire: you cannot retrospectively enrol a national employee. Contributions are reported and remitted directly to GPSSA, and late payments attract penalties. Expatriate employees are entirely outside this scheme — they instead accumulate end-of-service gratuity (see below).
If your workforce is entirely expatriate, you have no GPSSA obligation, but you must still track gratuity accruals.
End-of-service gratuity calculations and records
The UAE does not require a periodic "gratuity return" in the way some countries require payroll tax filings. However, Federal Decree-Law No. 33/2021 creates a substantive legal liability that must be calculated and documented accurately:
- First five years of service: 21 days' basic wage per completed year.
- Beyond five years: 30 days' basic wage per completed year.
- Cap: total gratuity cannot exceed two years' basic pay.
Part-years are calculated on a pro-rata basis for employees who have completed at least one year. The obligation crystallises when employment ends, but the wise approach is to accrue it in your payroll records monthly. If you are audited or a dispute is raised with MOHRE, you need to show the calculation is correct from day one.
Certain free zones — most notably the DIFC — run alternative end-of-service savings schemes with their own reporting requirements, so confirm the rules for your specific jurisdiction.
Labour contract registration with MOHRE
Before an employee starts work, their offer of appointment must be formalised as a MOHRE-registered contract. This is not optional paperwork: the registered contract is the document MOHRE refers to when reviewing any wage or employment dispute. It also determines the contractual wage that flows through WPS — the two must match.
When contract terms change (salary increases, role changes, working-hours adjustments), the amendment must be reflected in a new or updated registered contract. Failing to update MOHRE records means the registered wage and the WPS-reported wage can diverge, which triggers compliance flags.
Annual leave accrual records
Employees become entitled to 30 calendar days of paid annual leave after completing one year of service, with a proportional entitlement during the first year. While there is no separate government "leave return" to file, you are required to maintain records that MOHRE can inspect. In practice this means:
- Tracking leave entitlement, taken and balance for every employee.
- Paying leave salary in advance when an employee takes their annual leave (not as a lump sum at termination unless contractually agreed and legally permissible).
- Recording any carry-over or encashment in line with the employment contract and applicable law.
MOHRE labour inspectors can request payroll and leave records at any time. Employers who cannot produce accurate records are treated as non-compliant regardless of whether they believe they have followed the rules.
Emiratisation quota reporting
If your company employs 50 or more staff in the private sector, you are subject to Emiratisation targets and must report UAE national headcount to MOHRE through the Tawteen system. Targets and contribution rates for companies that fall short are reviewed periodically by MOHRE, so the specific percentages are subject to change — confirm current requirements directly with MOHRE or through how Mellow runs payroll across six countries. The key filing discipline is the same as every other obligation above: keep your registered employee data current and accurate, because the quota calculation is based on MOHRE's own records, not yours.
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