IFZA Dubai · Audit and accounting
Financial statements that fit your reporting needs. SAIF Chartered Accountants helps IFZA businesses organise their accounts, prepare for audit and coordinate renewal and tax reporting.
A clear starting point
Renewal, a bank request and a group reporting deadline can arrive together. Start by identifying what each recipient actually needs, rather than asking for an “audit certificate” without an agreed scope.
Our audit and accounting practice, established in the UAE in 1994, supports IFZA companies with year-end reporting and separately agreed tax and advisory work.
We review the legal entity, its activities, the condition of its books and the reporting purpose. That helps define the financial statement format, any independent audit and the responsibilities of management and the engagement team.
For an owner-managed business, the first challenge may be separating business transactions from personal payments. For a trading or group company, it may be stock, overseas balances or intercompany charges. The reporting plan should reflect those differences.
Renewal reporting
Confirm the current instructions for your licence. A renewal reporting option does not override a separate tax or contractual audit obligation.
IFZA’s published renewal FAQ describes a simplified route where turnover is at most AED 3 million and headcount never exceeds nine during the completed financial year. Otherwise, audited statements are required. Eligible companies must use IFZA’s template.
The FAQ permits registered UAE auditors and calls for electronic signature and submission through the renewal form. Obtain the current instructions and template from your IFZA contact before preparing the submission.
| Check | What to establish | What to prepare |
|---|---|---|
| IFZA renewal | Confirm the financial year and applicable reporting route. | Current authority format, supporting figures and authorised signatory. |
| Federal tax | Assess the tax status and any separate audited-account requirement. | Financial statements reconciled to the tax computation and supporting records. |
| Other recipients | Check lender, shareholder, investor or group instructions. | Agreed scope, accounting framework and any additional schedules. |
Source: IFZA renewal FAQ and official renewal guidance. The latter refers to the latest completed financial year and a three-month preparation period after year-end. Confirm how the dates apply to your renewal; do not treat them as a universal extension.
How we can help
Choose the work your company needs. Preparation, assurance and tax advice remain distinct engagements with defined deliverables.
An independent audit of the company’s financial statements, planned around its activities, reporting framework and evidence. Agree the scope, financial period and intended recipients before work begins.
Explore the service →Convert reconciled accounting records into the appropriate reporting package. Where a simplified format applies, establish eligibility and obtain the current template before preparing the figures.
Explore the service →Resolve missing transactions, unreconciled bank accounts and incomplete schedules. Keep accounting preparation separate from the independent audit and assess safeguards where both services are requested.
Explore the service →Connect the accounts with tax computations, elections and supporting records. Review the company’s actual tax position; an IFZA licence alone does not establish a particular tax rate.
Explore the service →Identify group trading, management charges and shareholder financing. Assess the pricing method, evidence and documentation required for the company’s controlled transactions.
Explore the service →Agree cash-flow reports, shareholder schedules or lender information as additional deliverables. A management report, an audited set of accounts and a special-purpose certificate serve different needs.
Explore the service →Different business models
A complete audit file explains what happened—not just the final balance in a spreadsheet.
Connect revenue to contracts, milestones and work performed. Explain advances, unbilled services, subcontractor costs and reimbursable expenses. Retain evidence for services supplied across borders.
Reconcile purchases, sales, shipping and stock movements. Check ownership of goods in transit or held by third parties, customer credit notes and the timing of transactions near year-end.
Reconcile platform sales to refunds, commissions, withheld balances and settlement receipts. Identify foreign-currency differences and retain usable exports from each payment or marketplace system.
Document shareholder funding, management charges and intercompany transactions. Agree both sides of material balances and retain the underlying agreements. Separate distributions from business expenditure.
The preparation sequence does not replace audit procedures tailored to the engagement.
Audit-ready records
Prepare schedules that tie to the final trial balance. Send documents through the agreed secure channel and keep one controlled version.
Licence, incorporation documents, Articles of Association, reporting year, renewal correspondence and previous financial statements. Explain any change of ownership, activity or year-end.
Final trial balance, detailed ledger, bank statements, reconciliations and loan agreements. Identify cash transactions, owner-funded payments and transfers between company accounts.
Customer contracts, sales invoices, credit notes, receivable ageing and subsequent receipts. Support milestones, advances and unbilled work instead of relying only on bank deposits.
Supplier invoices, payables ageing, asset register, lease records and inventory schedules where relevant. Retain evidence for goods held by third parties and transactions around year-end.
Employment contracts, payroll and employee-benefit schedules; shareholder, director and group-company balances. Reconcile intercompany accounts and explain the commercial purpose of charges.
VAT and Corporate tax records, tax reconciliations, guarantees, major contracts and events after year-end. Keep a record of management’s assumptions for material estimates.
Check that bank reconciliations are complete, customer and supplier schedules agree to the ledger, and major balances have traceable support. List missing documents openly so the team can plan the next step.
Read the IFZA preparation guide →The engagement
Plan backwards from the actual reporting date, leaving time to resolve questions and approve the final accounts.
Share the licence, financial year, renewal date, turnover, headcount and trial balance. Identify other recipients and agree the appropriate assignment.
Resolve bookkeeping differences and prepare supporting schedules. Assign a contact for evidence requests and flag unavailable documents early.
Where an audit is required, provide the evidence needed for independent testing. Discuss proposed adjustments and disclosures with management.
Obtain the necessary approvals, retain the final reporting pack and complete the agreed submission steps. Track requests for clarification and keep the receipt.
Scope and fees
The proposal should identify the reporting framework, period, intended users and expected output. For an audit, it should distinguish the financial statements and independent opinion from optional management-letter observations or group schedules.
Management prepares and approves the accounts and provides the records. The auditor assesses the evidence and determines the opinion independently. Authority acceptance and lender decisions remain with the relevant recipient.
Ask for a written fee breakdown and milestones. A low headline price is difficult to compare if it excludes the preparation work your records need.
Accounts and tax
Ministerial Decision No. 84 of 2025 requires audited financial statements for QFZPs and for non-Tax-Group taxable persons with revenue exceeding AED 50 million. It applies to tax periods beginning on or after 1 January 2025 and separately addresses Tax Groups.
Assess that obligation even where the company qualifies for a simplified renewal submission. Free-zone incorporation does not automatically establish QFZP eligibility.
Corporate tax services →Explain differences between the financial statements and tax workings. Keep a clear bridge for adjustments, related-party transactions and any income classification. A tax computation should not become a second, inconsistent set of books.
Review the actual arrangements behind group charges and financing. A benchmarking study may support the analysis where appropriate, but it does not replace transaction records, contracts or a defensible pricing method.
Transfer pricing benchmarking →Identify who closes the ledger, prepares the tax computation, approves the accounts and submits each return or report. If different advisers are involved, agree how changes are communicated.
Frequently asked questions
Practical guidance for owners and finance teams. Confirm the requirements for your entity and reporting period.
Speak with our team →No. Establish the renewal reporting route and separately consider tax, banking, shareholder and contractual requirements. The comparison above explains the published simplified-reporting criteria.
Ask which legal entity will sign, whether its UAE professional registration is current and whether it meets the intended recipient’s requirements. A search phrase or website badge is not a substitute for those checks.
No sales does not mean there are no transactions. Capital, licence costs, rent, bank charges and owner-funded expenses still need to be recorded. Confirm the reporting requirements for the company rather than assuming that inactivity removes them.
Check the financial year stated in its incorporation documents and the current renewal instructions. Ask IFZA how a first period that has not yet closed should be handled; do not invent a twelve-month history or submit another entity’s accounts.
Provide the licence, financial year, trial balance, approximate transaction volume, employee count, prior report and required date. Mention inventory, overseas activity, group balances and missing records so the scope and price are realistic.
Records and discussions can often be handled securely online. An audit may also require inventory observation, external confirmations or other evidence. Agree those arrangements rather than assuming that every procedure can be performed remotely.
Timing depends on the completeness of the books, the evidence required and management response times. Agree milestones after reviewing the records, with time for adjustments, approval and submission before the relevant deadline.
Fees depend on the work, not only the licence type. Transaction volume, reporting complexity, stock, overseas balances and bookkeeping quality affect the quote. Separate audit fees from cleanup, tax work and additional reporting.
No. Keep the renewal reporting and federal tax workstreams separate. The financial statements should be consistent with the tax computation, but submitting one does not automatically complete the other.
Accounting assistance and audit must be scoped separately, with an independence assessment and appropriate safeguards. Management remains responsible for the records, accounting policies, estimates and approval of the financial statements.
Start with an agreed reconstruction and reconciliation plan. An auditor needs sufficient appropriate evidence; missing records cannot be resolved simply by issuing a standard report. The available evidence can affect timing and the audit opinion.
No. An audit provides reasonable assurance on the financial statements, not a guarantee of an authority’s or lender’s decision. Agree the recipients and any additional forms before commissioning the work.
Relevant guidance
AuditPrepare your IFZA reporting file with clear responsibilities, reconciled records and a practical year-end checklist for renewal, audit and tax coordination.
Read insight ↗
Corporate TaxAssess QFZP eligibility, qualifying income, excluded activities, de minimis, substance, audit and transfer pricing requirements under UAE Corporate tax.
Read insight ↗
Transfer PricingUnderstand UAE transfer pricing benchmarking: documentation thresholds, comparable searches, methods and practical examples for margins, loans and director remuneration.
Read insight ↗Official references
Updated 17 September 2026. General information, not entity-specific advice. Confirm current authority instructions and applicable tax rules.
SAIF Chartered Accountants · IFZA Dubai
Share the licence, financial year, trial balance and required date. We will assess the work and propose a practical reporting plan.
Discuss your IFZA company →Continue on WhatsApp
