The 40-Business-Day Reconsideration Deadline, Explained

If you want to challenge an FTA decision, the single most important rule is this: a reconsideration request must be submitted within 40 business days from the date you were notified of the decision, under Article 29 of Federal Decree-Law No. 28 of 2022 on Tax Procedures.

Miss that window, and your right to challenge the decision may close. Extensions past the window are possible only in limited, documented cases — not something to plan around.

What counts as a business day?

The UAE working week is Monday to Friday. Weekends don't count toward the 40 days, and neither do UAE public holidays. That sounds generous — 40 business days is roughly eight calendar weeks — but two things eat that time faster than people expect:

• Holiday clusters. Eid periods can remove most of a working week at once.
• The date that governs is on your notice, not the day you first read it carefully. If a notification sat unread in an inbox for two weeks, those business days are already gone.

Our deadline calculator counts the business days from your notification date, holiday-aware, and shows your estimated final date. It's free and takes ten seconds — but the estimate is only that: the notification date on your FTA notice governs.

When the clock starts

The window runs from the date of notification of the FTA decision. Find that date on your penalty notice and treat it as day zero. Everything else — gathering evidence, drafting, translating, submitting — has to fit inside what remains.

Why the deadline shapes the whole submission

A reconsideration request isn't a complaint form. To be taken seriously it needs to be properly reasoned, supported by evidence, and drafted in Arabic — the language of formal submissions to the FTA. Each of those takes real time:

• Evidence gathering often takes days: bank confirmations, medical records, and IT logs all have their own turnaround times.
• Drafting and review take longer than expected when the facts span months.
• Arabic drafting is not a last-minute step if you want the submission to read like a formal document rather than a machine translation.

The practical rule: if you intend to challenge a decision, start the moment you're notified. The businesses that get into trouble aren't usually the ones with weak cases — they're the ones that started in week seven.

After you submit

The FTA may take up to 45 business days to respond to a reconsideration request, and may extend this period. There's nothing to do in that window except respond promptly if the Authority asks for more information — which is one more reason to submit early rather than at the wire.