The Mid-Market Safety Net: What the Small Business Relief Extension to 2029 Means for UAE Startups
Small Business Relief now covers Corporate Tax periods ending on or before 31 December 2029. Ministerial Decision No. 131 of 2026, announced by the Ministry of Finance on 7 August 2026, pushed the old 31 December 2026 cut-off back by three years. The revenue ceiling did not move: it is still AED 3 million. For a […]
Going Paperless Under Pressure: Complying with the FTA’s Electronic Record-Keeping Rules
FTA Decision No. 4 of 2026 lets UAE businesses keep accounting records as electronic copies. It also attaches conditions. Each copy must be complete, identical to the original, readable on screen and open to the Federal Tax Authority on request. The Decision took effect on 30 July 2026. If your books sit in a cloud platform […]
UAE Pillar Two Registration Deadline: 30 November 2026
If your multinational group has UAE entities and a fiscal year that ended before 30 April 2026, you must register for the UAE’s Top-up Tax by 30 November 2026. FTA Decision No. 12 of 2026 sets that transitional deadline for entities whose fiscal year ended before 30 April 2026. That leaves about seven weeks. Not every […]
Do You Need a CFO? 7 Signs Before You Hire One
Most growing UAE businesses need CFO-level thinking well before they can justify a full-time CFO salary. An outsourced or fractional CFO brings that strategic layer – cash flow forecasting, board-ready reporting, capital-raising support – without the cost of a full-time senior hire. Here is how to tell which stage your business is actually at. What […]
FTA TAXP010: Free Zone vs Designated Zone Status
Is Your Free Zone a ‘Designated Zone’ for Corporate Tax Too? The FTA Says Don’t Assume So If your free zone is a Designated Zone for VAT, that does not automatically make it a Designated Zone for Corporate Tax. The Federal Tax Authority confirmed this in Public Tax Clarification TAXP010, issued on 2 October 2026. The […]
Outsourced Bookkeeping & Payroll: What UAE SMEs Are Getting Wrong
Messy books rarely stay a back-office problem in the UAE anymore. Corporate tax filings, VAT returns, and – for many groups – audited financial statements are now tied directly to your accounting records. A late payroll run or an unreconciled ledger can turn into a compliance issue within a single filing cycle. Outsourced bookkeeping and […]
FATCA, CRS & CbCR: Is Your UAE Entity Reporting Correctly?
UAE Reporting Financial Institutions must complete their CRS and FATCA submissions – including nil returns and the mandatory Risk-Based Assessment – by 30 June 2026 for the 2025 reporting year. Separately, multinational groups above AED 3.15 billion in consolidated revenue carry Country-by-Country Reporting duties with the Ministry of Finance. These are three distinct regimes, easy […]
FTA Decision No. 17 of 2026: When Can You Recover Input VAT on Employee Expenses?
You can recover input VAT on employee expenses in the UAE, but only in six defined cases, and only when every condition for that case is met. Federal Tax Authority (FTA) Decision No. 17 of 2026 was issued on 9 September 2026 and takes effect on 1 October 2026. It covers employee transport, food and […]
UAE e-invoicing is a finance control programme
Technology enables the exchange. Controls protect the outcome. E-invoicing is often assigned to technology because systems must connect and structured data must move. That is necessary, but it is not sufficient. The programme changes how an invoice becomes an accounting record, a VAT record, a customer obligation, and auditable evidence. That makes it a finance […]