Sets a five-year period after the relevant year-end, including specified excluded entities and cases affected by audit or dispute.
What should you do now?Do not dispose of a year's file before checking for an ongoing audit, review or objection.
What does the official Article provide?
The official source is Arabic. This English commentary is explanatory and is not presented as an official translation.
Sets a five-year period after the relevant year-end, including specified excluded entities and cases affected by audit or dispute.
This is a verified summary rather than a verbatim reproduction. Consult the official Arabic text, the Law and later decisions before making a final determination.
What does the Article mean in plain language?
The ordinary retention period is five years after the relevant Fiscal Year's end, including specified excluded entities. Real-estate and capital-asset records require ten years. Before expiry NBR may notify an extension of up to five additional years. Count from the relevant year-end, not upload or deregistration. Do not destroy records after the general period if a longer category or notified extension applies.
The filing entity and compliance, finance, legal and governance teams.
Do not dispose of a year's file before checking for an ongoing audit, review or objection.
How can the rule appear in practice?
A 2025 record is not timed from its creation date; the five-year rule runs after the relevant fiscal year-end.
This illustration is not an NBR case or a binding outcome for a particular fact pattern.Applying five years to capital-asset records or deleting them on deregistration.
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Before relying on the result
Is this Article enough on its own?
Usually not. Read it with the connected Law Article, definitions, any effective election and current NBR guidance, especially for an amount or deadline.
Does NBR guidance replace the Regulations?
No. Guidance explains application and supports procedures and examples, but current legislation and decisions prevail in case of inconsistency.