Accounting and Tax-Prep Support for Abu Dhabi Businesses

The Abu Dhabi Registration Authority's figures for 2025 show new economic licences up 29% on 2024, renewals up 20% and active licences up 13.5%. New licences grew fastest in the occupational category, up 122%, followed by professional and commercial licences at 28% each, industrial licences at 20%, agriculture, fishery and livestock at 12% and tourism at 10%.

The category matters because each one needs different books. An occupational licence holder needs a clean separation of personal and business money and a simple annual record. A commercial licence holder carries stock and supplier credit. An industrial one adds raw materials, work in progress and costing. We set the chart of accounts by licence type at the start, so a first-year company does not outgrow its books in its first year.

ADGM reported 12,671 active licences at the end of 2025, up 30%, and a workforce of 44,339, up 51% from 29,338 in 2024 (ADGM release, 31 March 2026). It was established under Abu Dhabi Law No. 4 of 2013 with its own civil and commercial laws based on English common law, and its Registration Authority is both the registrar of companies and the commercial and audit regulator (ADGM guidance, August 2025).

That dual role is why ADGM's own guidance, not a general UAE summary, governs an ADGM company's accounts. The guidance also requires every company, dormant ones included, to keep adequate accounting records for at least ten years from the date they are made. We keep the ledger, the supporting documents and the reconciliations in an order that a registrar or auditor can follow years later.

ADGM's Registration Authority guidance of August 2025 starts from the position that a company's annual accounts must be audited unless it qualifies for an exemption, and that any audit under the Companies Regulations 2020 must be carried out by an ADGM-registered auditor. The exemptions are for a small company, for a subsidiary of an ADGM company, and for a dormant company.

A small standalone company must have turnover of no more than USD 13.5 million and no more than 35 employees. A small parent company must meet those tests itself, and its group must pass them too, with group turnover of no more than USD 13.5 million net or USD 16.2 million gross. The subsidiary route under section 452 requires, among other conditions, a commitment from the ADGM parent for that financial year and inclusion in the parent's consolidated accounts. The dormancy route under section 455 requires no significant accounting transactions in the period. We record turnover, headcount and group structure through the year so the test can be run from the books and not reconstructed.

ADGM's guidance is explicit that a company wanting the 0% corporate tax rate on Qualifying Income as a Qualifying Free Zone Person must prepare and maintain audited financial statements regardless of its size, whether it is a subsidiary or whether it is dormant. The requirement comes from the Corporate Tax Law read with Ministerial Decision No. 84 of 2025 for financial years starting on or after 1 January 2025. Where an audit is carried out, an ADGM-registered auditor must do it.

So a small ADGM company that is comfortable with the small-company exemption can lose it by choosing Qualifying Free Zone Person status. The choice is yours and your tax agent's. We show what the audited pack would need from the books, so the extra work is visible before the decision is made.

The Statistics Centre Abu Dhabi reported on 2 October 2025 that real GDP reached AED 306.3 billion in the second quarter of 2025, up 3.8%, with the non-oil economy up 6.6% to AED 174.1 billion. Finance and insurance rose 10.3% to a record AED 21.8 billion, and construction rose 9.7% to AED 30 billion.

Those two sectors need different ledgers. A finance or fund-related start-up in ADGM needs a monthly close, reconciled bank accounts, a dated record of share issues and a clear line between fee income and investment income, because investors and counterparties ask for the accounts early. A contractor needs cost and billing tracked per project, with retention held in its own accounts. We build the first for the start-up and the second for the contractor, and we do not describe any regulatory licensing.

Corporate tax: the return is filed electronically, and tax paid, within nine months of the end of the tax period (Worldwide Tax Summaries, 9 September 2026), which means 30 September 2027 for a year ending 31 December 2026. Audit: where an audit applies, the ADGM-registered auditor needs the full close, so the books should be final well before that date. Wages: Ministerial Resolution No. 340 of 2026, in force since 1 June 2026, makes wages due by the first day of each month, sets the compliance threshold at 85% and lets MOHRE suspend new work permits from the fifth day (tax alert, 26 May 2026).

Payroll support here means checking the draft pay run against contracts and approved allowances before your bank submits it, posting the journals and carrying gratuity and leave accruals. The submission itself is made through your bank.

The service is remote. We have no office, desk or address in Abu Dhabi or at ADGM, and nothing here suggests one. A named contact keeps your books, runs the monthly close and prepares the corporate tax workpapers, in the accounting software you already use.

We do not audit, sign or file, and we are not an ADGM-registered auditor. A tax agent registered with the Federal Tax Authority files and represents where required. Pricing sits on the rates page, with scope and terms agreed in an engagement letter.