Accounting and Tax-Prep Support for Dubai Businesses

Besides the 71,830 new members and 292,486 active members (a 13.2% rise on 2024), Dubai Chamber reported exports and re-exports of a record AED 356.5 billion in 2025, up 15.1% (Gulf News, 14 January 2026). Trade on that scale is multi-currency by nature. A Dubai trading company often pays suppliers in dollars or euros, invoices customers in dirhams and moves stock between sites, so the monthly close needs revalued foreign-currency balances, a clear cut-off for goods in transit and a margin report per product line. That is the part of Dubai bookkeeping that concerns the trade rather than the tax, and it comes first because every tax computation is built on it.

Dubai's licensing model is now layered. The Dubai Free Zones Council announced the Freezone One Passport on 22 July 2025, which lets a company licensed in one Dubai free zone operate in others without separate trade licences or re-incorporation (tax insight, July 2025). Under Executive Council Decision No. 11 of 2025, a free zone company holding a Dubai Unified Licence can apply online for a Free Zone Mainland Operating Permit. Gulf News reported on 8 October 2025 that the permit costs AED 5,000 for six months, covers non-regulated sectors such as technology, consultancy, design, professional services and trading first, requires separate financial records, and that mainland-related revenue is subject to 9% corporate tax under Federal Tax Authority rules.

Separate financial records are a bookkeeping instruction in themselves. We set up revenue accounts, cost allocations and customer mapping that keep free zone income apart from mainland income from the first invoice, so the split can be shown to anyone who asks for it.

A Qualifying Free Zone Person that meets the conditions of the Corporate Tax Law is taxed at 0% on its Qualifying Income and must keep complying with the rest of the law (Ministry of Finance, checked 29 September 2026). Income that is not qualifying falls outside that relief. Audited financial statements by a UAE-licensed auditor are required where revenue exceeds AED 50 million or the person is a Qualifying Free Zone Person (Worldwide Tax Summaries, reviewed 9 September 2026).

That turns the classification of each receipt into a monthly task rather than a year-end one. We tag each customer and revenue line as qualifying or not, keep the contract references that support the tag and reconcile the split to the trial balance. Whether the conditions are met is a decision for you and your tax agent, the audit belongs to your auditor, and we prepare the records both rely on.

The Dubai International Financial Centre reported on 5 February 2026 that it ended 2025 with 8,844 organically acquired active companies, up 28%, with revenue of AED 2.13 billion and net profit of AED 1.48 billion (Dubai Media Office). DIFC runs its own English common law system with independent courts, and it maintains a public list of DIFC-registered auditors (DIFC, checked 29 September 2026).

The audit and filing rules inside DIFC come from its own companies law and regulators, and published summaries of the small-company exemption differ, so we do not restate thresholds here. For a DIFC company we build the books to the standard the DIFC or its auditor asks for. Free zone status does not remove UAE Corporate Tax either: a Qualifying Free Zone Person still files, at 0% on qualifying income, so one ledger has to serve both sets of requirements.

A UAE Corporate Tax return is filed electronically, and any tax due is paid, within nine months of the end of the tax period (Worldwide Tax Summaries, 9 September 2026). For a year ending 31 December 2026 that is 30 September 2027. The Federal Tax Authority set 30 September 2026 for the year ended 31 December 2025, so that date has just passed; if a return is outstanding, speak to your tax agent now.

Small Business Relief lets an eligible resident person elect to be treated as having no taxable income where revenue is AED 3,000,000 or less in the current and every earlier tax period, for tax periods ending on or before 31 December 2026, and a Qualifying Free Zone Person cannot elect it (Federal Tax Authority, checked 29 September 2026). VAT registration becomes mandatory when taxable supplies and imports exceed AED 375,000 in the preceding 12 months. We prepare the computation workpapers, and a tax agent registered with the Federal Tax Authority files or represents where needed.

Ministerial Resolution No. 340 of 2026 took effect on 1 June 2026 (tax alert, 26 May 2026). Wages are due no later than the first day of each month for the previous month's work, an employer counts as compliant if it pays at least 85% of total wages due by the deadline, and from the fifth day MOHRE can suspend new work permits for a non-compliant employer.

For a Dubai employer with mainland and free zone payrolls, pay-run timing becomes a month-end control. We review each draft run against contracts and approved allowances before your bank or exchange house submits it, post the payroll journal, track gratuity and leave accruals, and put the first-of-the-month date on the close calendar. The wage protection submission goes through your bank, not through us.

The service is remote. We have no office, address or staff in Dubai, and nothing on this page implies otherwise. A named contact keeps your books, runs the monthly close, prepares corporate tax and VAT workpapers and supports payroll, in the accounting software you already use.

We do not audit, sign or file. A tax agent registered with the Federal Tax Authority files and represents where representation is required, and a UAE-licensed auditor performs any audit. We make no claim of approval or registration with the Federal Tax Authority, DIFC, DMCC or the Dubai Department of Economy and Tourism. The rates page carries pricing, and the engagement letter sets scope and terms.