Owing no tax and having nothing to file are two different things. The Federal Tax Authority said on Wednesday that a business must send in its return and pay what it owes within nine months of the end of its trading year. For a year that ended on 31 December 2025, the date is 30 September, four weeks from now. Shops on Small Business Relief, the scheme that takes the tax bill itself to zero, still have to file, though on a shorter form.

The authority also set out what those records must hold: the year's deals, a list of what was bought and sold, what the business owes, and who owned shares at the year end. Not keeping them brings a penalty under the tax law, though no figure was published with the reminder. Filing runs through EmaraTax, the tax office's own website, and can be done by the owner or by an agent the authority has approved.

Four trade shows overlap at the Dubai World Trade Centre on 9 September, the busiest single day in the venue's month. The Media Office put out the calendar on 31 August, and the run starts on the 7th with the AIM Congress, which drew 15,000 people last year, alongside the International Property Show. Dubai Derma follows on the 8th, with more than 25,000 visitors expected and 1,875 brands, while Crypto Expo opens on the 9th and expects over 7,000.

That weight falls on the cafes, salons and small shops within walking distance of the halls, and the calendar says exactly which days it lands on. Arabian Travel Market takes the 14th to the 17th, GISEC brings 25,000 or more to the Dubai Exhibition Centre from the 16th, and Seamless Middle East adds 20,000 from the 22nd. The counts come from the show organisers and were printed with the calendar, so they say what is expected rather than what has happened.

Two extra lanes are now open on the five-kilometre stretch of Emirates Road towards Wadi Al Amardi. The work takes that section from six lanes to eight, lifts what it can carry by about 33 per cent, and should cut peak-hour trips by up to a quarter. A 500-metre tunnel under the Al Taawun roundabout comes next, built to take 4,200 cars an hour each way and to cut waiting there by up to 85 per cent.

All of this sits on the Dubai to Sharjah commute, which sets when staff reach a shop in the morning and how late the evening trade runs. A separate Dh140-million scheme on Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Street takes the run to Maliha Street from about 20 minutes to about 10. The tunnel opens in a first phase in November and is complete in February 2027, so the lanes already open are the only part of the work trading against this autumn.