Accounting and Tax-Prep Support for Riyadh Businesses

Argaam's January 2026 summary of the Ministry of Commerce bulletin puts about 651,000 commercial registers in Riyadh at the end of 2025, roughly 35% of a national total of about 1.87 million (1.27 million institutions and 597,400 companies). Riyadh also issued 45,623 new registers in the fourth quarter, about 37% of the 123,000 issued across the Kingdom. The same article gives Makkah and the Eastern Province 16% each, so Riyadh issued more new registers than those two regions combined.

For a finance team the practical point is order of operations. The Ministry of Commerce issues the commercial registration first, and only then can a company register for tax, Zakat and GOSI or open a corporate bank account. A foreign-owned company generally needs an investment licence from the Ministry of Investment before it can obtain that registration. The first set of books, the opening balances and the shareholder register are built on that sequence. When the registration date, the licence date and the first bank transaction do not line up, the first return starts with a reconciliation instead of a calculation.

A Saudi company with Saudi or GCC shareholders and foreign shareholders at the same time pays both taxes. Zakat is charged at 2.5% of the Zakat base on the Saudi and GCC-owned share, and corporate income tax at 20% of net adjusted profit on the non-Saudi share. GCC citizens are treated as Saudi for this purpose. That is the position in the Worldwide Tax Summaries entry for Saudi Arabia, last reviewed on 29 July 2026.

The ledger has to support two computations at once. We keep the shareholder register with effective dates, so the ownership split used in each computation traces back to a dated record. We prepare the Zakat base workpaper and the income tax workpaper from the same trial balance and keep the reconciliation between them. A licensed tax agent reviews both, and where a filing needs a signature or representation before ZATCA, that agent files it. Finbryn does not.

Returns are due within 120 days after the year-end. For a calendar year ending 31 December 2026 that is 30 April 2027. Companies owned only by Saudis, or by Saudis and non-Saudis, must file audited financial statements with the return (Worldwide Tax Summaries, 29 July 2026). The audit is performed by an independent auditor you appoint. Finbryn prepares books that are ready for that audit and does not audit or give an opinion.

Advance payments follow their own calendar. If the company earned income in the year, three equal payments fall due at the end of the sixth, ninth and twelfth months of the current tax year. Each equals 25% of the prior year's tax liability, less tax withheld on reported income, and none is due if that figure comes to less than SAR 500,000. A late advance payment carries a penalty of 1% of the amount for each 30 days of delay. We put all four dates on the close calendar at the start of the year and carry a cash line for each payment in the forecast.

Private-sector employers in Saudi Arabia pay wages through the Wage Protection Program, which the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development monitors and which typically runs through the Mudad platform. The program checks that every registered worker is paid on time and in full through a bank or licensed payment channel (Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development, checked 29 September 2026).

Our payroll support sits before and after that step. Before each run we review the draft against employment contracts and approved allowances, and check joiners and leavers against current records. After it, we post the payroll journal, reconcile the amounts withheld from staff to what was remitted, and carry end of service and leave accruals. The wage transfer itself goes through your bank and the platform, and we do not submit anything to Mudad on your behalf.

ZATCA published the Wave 25 criteria on 24 July 2026. Taxpayers whose VAT-taxable revenue exceeded SAR 187,500 in any of 2022, 2023, 2024 or 2025 must complete integration with ZATCA's platform by 1 February 2027, according to a July 2026 tax newsflash listed in the sources below. Your own ZATCA notice is the authority on whether you are in the wave.

Integration is technical work done through your invoicing software or your own developers, and we do not integrate, certify or approve anything. What we do is the ledger side. We check that invoice numbers are sequential and unique, that the VAT code on each line matches the treatment you intend, that customer VAT numbers and addresses are complete in the master data, and that credit notes reference the invoice they reverse. A structured e-invoice carries exactly those fields, so an error in the ledger becomes an error in the invoice.

Since 1 January 2024 Saudi government entities have been restricted from contracting with foreign multinationals that have no regional headquarters in the Kingdom, with exceptions that include contracts for projects executed outside the Kingdom and contracts under SAR 1 million (DLA Piper, March 2024). A qualifying regional headquarters receives 0% corporate income tax, and 0% withholding tax on dividends and on payments to related persons, for up to 30 years, on eligible RHQ activities only. ZATCA published the implementing guidance on 16 February 2024 (Mayer Brown, April 2024). Income from other activities stays under the standard regime. The Ministry of Investment issued 34 RHQ licences in the second quarter of 2025 and 31 in the third, national figures reported by Arab News and Mubasher.

The accounting consequence is segregation. Eligible and ineligible income need separate revenue accounts, separate cost allocations and a documented basis for group recharges from the first transaction, because a relief that applies to one income stream is hard to support from a blended ledger. We build that structure and keep the allocation workpaper. We do not arrange or advise on RHQ licences, and we do not confirm that an activity qualifies.

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

We do not audit, sign or file. A ZATCA-licensed tax agent files and represents where representation is required, a SOCPA-licensed auditor performs any statutory audit, and the figures come from books we prepare and reconcile. Pricing is on the rates page, and scope and terms are set in an engagement letter.