FTA-Registered Tax Agent · Licensed Audit Firm · Business Bay, Dubai

Accounting, Tax & Audit Services
in Dubai

Corporate tax, VAT, e-invoicing, accounting and audit for businesses across Dubai and Abu Dhabi — run against a compliance calendar we watch, so you hear from us before a date, not after it.

Check my compliance status 058 101 9570
  • 10+ years in UAE tax
  • Dubai & Abu Dhabi
  • Fixed fees, agreed in writing
Deadlines we are tracking now
30 Sep 2026 Corporate tax return — Dec 2025 year end Due
31 Dec 2026 Small Business Relief ends Ends
31 Mar 2027 E-invoicing provider — under AED 50m band Plan
Full compliance calendar →
0%Corporate tax to AED 375,000
9%Above the threshold
5%UAE VAT standard rate
AED 3mSmall Business Relief ceiling

Six practices, one compliance calendar

Businesses arrive with one problem and discover it was never isolated. We run all six as a single calendar rather than six engagements that happen to share a client.

Corporate Tax

Registration, filing, Small Business Relief, free zone QFZP reviews and FTA representation.

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VAT

Registration, Form 201 returns, refunds, voluntary disclosures and classification reviews.

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E-Invoicing

Band assessment, data readiness and accredited provider selection — to your dates, not the headline ones.

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Accounting & Bookkeeping

Monthly bookkeeping, backlog rebuilds, IFRS statements and a pack an owner can actually read.

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Audit & Assurance

Statutory, free zone, internal, operational and forensic — prepared properly, to the deadline that binds.

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CFO & Advisory

Outsourced CFO, cash forecasting, valuation, M&A and the judgement without the salary.

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Why clients move to us

01

Deadline-led

You hear from us before a date, not after it. That is the entire operating model.

02

We can represent you

An FTA-registered tax agent can act for you before the authority. Most firms advise; fewer can represent.

03

One firm, both emirates

Audit and accounting under one roof, mainland and free zone, Dubai and Abu Dhabi.

04

We say what we don't know

Where a position is genuinely uncertain, we tell you it is uncertain and what the options cost.

Free zones we work in

DMCC JAFZA DIFC IFZA Meydan DAFZA ADGM KIZAD All zones →

Industries we serve

Real Estate Construction Trading E-commerce F&B Healthcare Logistics All industries →

Not sure where you stand?

Licence type, year end and revenue band — that is enough for us to map every obligation and date. No charge, and quite often the answer is that you are fine.

Start the check WhatsApp us
AQ Consultancy is an FTA-registered tax agent and licensed audit firm in Business Bay, Dubai, serving businesses across Dubai and Abu Dhabi. We handle corporate tax, VAT, e-invoicing readiness, bookkeeping, audit and outsourced CFO work, working backwards from the Federal Tax Authority’s deadlines rather than forwards from a service list. With 10+ years in UAE tax, what we actually sell is timing: compliant before the deadline, not explaining yourself after the penalty.

The deadlines your business is standing under right now

Most accounting firms in Dubai publish a menu of services. Very few publish the calendar their clients are actually being measured against. That gap is the reason businesses come to us mid-panic: nobody told them a date was approaching until it had passed.

DateObligationApplies toStatus
30 September 2026Corporate tax return, financial year ending December 2025All registered taxable personsDue
31 December 2026Small Business Relief endsRevenue up to AED 3,000,000Ends
30 October 2026Appoint an accredited e-invoicing service providerRevenue AED 50 million or moreDue
1 January 2027E-invoicing go-liveRevenue AED 50 million or moreLive
31 March 2027Appoint an accredited e-invoicing service providerRevenue under AED 50 millionPlan
1 July 2027E-invoicing go-liveRevenue under AED 50 millionPlan
The one most businesses get wrong.
Headlines about e-invoicing quote 30 October 2026, but that deadline belongs to businesses turning over revenue aed 50 million or more. If you are under that, your dates are 31 March 2027 to appoint an accredited service provider and 1 July 2027 to go live. Establishing which band you sit in is the first thing we check, because preparing a year early costs almost nothing and preparing a month late costs a great deal.

Understand Corporate Tax In UAE

UAE corporate tax applies at two rates, and the threshold sits at a level that catches far more businesses than owners expect:

Taxable income Rate
Taxable income up to AED 375,000 0%
Taxable income above AED 375,000 9%

Registration is triggered by carrying on business, not by making money. A return is mandatory for every registered taxable person, including those at 0%, those electing Small Business Relief, and free zone companies with QFZP status, which means a loss-making company, a dormant company and a free zone company on a 0 per cent rate all file. Natural persons cross into the regime at AED 1,000,000 revenue in a calendar year, with registration due 31 March of the following year. Freelancers and consultants on professional licences are routinely caught by that and almost never warned about it in advance.

Businesses at or below AED 3,000,000 of revenue may elect Small Business Relief, which treats them as having no taxable income for the period. It is an election made in the return rather than an automatic status. A distinction that has caught out a great many businesses who assumed they qualified, never elected, and were assessed on ordinary principles. It is currently set to expire on 31 December 2026.

The penalty regime changed in April 2026

Cabinet Decision No. 129 of 2025 took effect on 14 April 2026 and replaced the previous compounding late-payment model with a flat 14% per annum on overdue tax on overdue tax. Under the old model penalties compounded monthly and could escalate sharply. The flat 14% annual rate changes how the cost of a late payment should be calculated and how urgently it should be settled. Any content still describing monthly compounding is out of date.

This matters more than a rate change usually would, because a large amount of the guidance still circulating online, including on competitor websites, describes the old compounding structure. If your exposure was calculated on that basis, the number is wrong. We can recalculate it under the rules that actually apply now.

The five mistakes we are called in to fix

After a decade of this, the same failures recur. None are exotic, and every one of them was cheaper to prevent than to correct:

  1. Assuming no profit means no obligation. A dormant company still registers and still files. The late-registration penalty does not ask whether you traded.
  2. Qualifying for Small Business Relief but never electing it. The relief is claimed in the return. Businesses that assumed it applied automatically have been assessed on ordinary principles and had no answer.
  3. Treating exempt supplies as zero-rated for VAT. Both show no VAT on the invoice, so nothing looks wrong. The difference is whether you were entitled to recover input tax, and the exposure compounds quietly across every return.
  4. Skipping the reverse charge entries. For a fully taxable business the cash effect is nil, so the entries get missed. Their absence is one of the first things a reviewer notices, and almost every business buying overseas software or foreign consultancy is affected.
  5. Reading somebody else’s e-invoicing deadline as their own. The dates are banded by revenue. Acting on the wrong band means either wasted spend or a missed go-live.

The obligations that are not tax

Corporate tax and VAT dominate the conversation, but they are not the only filings with penalties attached, and the others are frequently the ones nobody owns:

  • Economic Substance Regulations: Economic Substance Regulations, notification and, where a relevant activity is carried on, an annual report. The notification is the easy part; establishing whether you carry on a relevant activity at all is where businesses get it wrong.
  • Ultimate Beneficial Owner register: Ultimate Beneficial Owner register must be maintained and filed with the licensing authority. It must be kept current, so a change in ownership triggers a filing rather than waiting for renewal.
  • AML and goAML: Designated non-financial businesses and professions must register on the goAML portal and meet AML/CFT obligations. Real estate brokers, dealers in precious metals and stones, corporate service providers and auditors are all designated, and many do not know it.
  • Wage Protection System: salaries paid through the WPS on time, with non-compliance affecting the ability to renew visas and process new ones.
  • Audited financial statements: Most free zones require audited financial statements; requirements differ by zone (for example DMCC expects audited accounts within 90 days of financial year end).

What a month with us looks like

Recurring compliance should be unremarkable, and the measure of whether it is working is how little of your attention it takes:

  • Week one: the previous month is closed. Bank and ledger reconciled, supplier and customer balances agreed, anything unexplained queried while people still remember it.
  • Week two: management accounts issued with a short commentary. What moved, why, and anything that needs a decision.
  • Ongoing: filings prepared ahead of their dates rather than against them, with the supporting schedules kept as they are built rather than reconstructed later.
  • Before every deadline: you hear from us. That is the whole point.

How an engagement starts

  1. Compliance status check. Licence type, financial year end, revenue band, existing registrations. We tell you what applies to you and whether anything is already late. No charge and no obligation, because the answer is often that you are fine.
  2. Scope and fee in writing. Fixed where the work is predictable, which most recurring compliance is.
  3. Catch-up if you need it. Backlog cleared and reconciled before we take on the recurring cycle, so we are not building on records we cannot stand behind.
  4. The recurring cycle. Bookkeeping, returns and filings against a calendar you can see, with reminders before each date.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need to register for corporate tax if my business makes no profit?

Yes. A return is mandatory for every registered taxable person, including those at 0%, those electing Small Business Relief, and free zone companies with QFZP status Registration and filing are separate questions from whether tax is payable, and the AED 10,000 late-registration penalty applies regardless of profitability.

Does e-invoicing apply to me if I am not VAT registered?

Yes. The mandate covers all persons conducting business, regardless of vat registration status. Your deadline depends on revenue band rather than VAT status, so the first step is establishing which band you are in.

When does Small Business Relief end?

It is currently set to expire on 31 December 2026. Businesses relying on it move into standard corporate tax treatment after that, which changes both the computation and the standard of record-keeping expected. Planning that transition across a year is far cheaper than reacting to it in a single quarter.

What is the VAT registration threshold?

Registration is mandatory once taxable supplies and imports exceed AED 375,000 over the previous twelve months, or where you expect to exceed it within the next thirty days. Voluntary registration is available from AED 187,500. You have thirty days from crossing the mandatory threshold.

Can you represent me in front of the FTA?

Yes. As an FTA-registered tax agent we can act for you with the Federal Tax Authority, including during audits, clarification requests and reconsideration applications.

Do you work with Abu Dhabi companies?

Yes. Abu Dhabi mainland licensing runs through ADDED rather than Dubai’s DET, and ADGM operates its own common-law framework with separate audit expectations. We work to whichever applies to your licence rather than assuming Dubai rules travel.

How much do your services cost?

It depends on transaction volume, the number of entities and whether there is a backlog to clear. We quote in writing after the compliance status check, and we fix the fee wherever the work is predictable. We would rather scope properly than publish a headline price that changes once we see the records.

Not sure where you stand?
Tell us your licence type, financial year end and revenue band. We will map exactly which obligations apply to you and when they fall due.
Check my compliance status 058 101 9570

Last reviewed 27 July 2026. Rates, thresholds and deadlines change, the e-invoicing provider deadline has already moved once. Confirm current requirements with the Federal Tax Authority before acting, or ask us to check your position.


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