United Arab Emirates · Compliance hub
UAE Accounting Software with VAT & Corporate Tax
HelloBooks runs UAE small business books in dirhams, classifies every supply for the Federal Tax Authority, and prepares the VAT 201 return in the layout the FTA portal expects. This page is a quick orientation for UAE businesses landing here from the country switcher — pricing, features, and a deeper UAE-specific tree are on the way.
Local currency & pricing
Invoices, bills, bank feeds, and reports can run in UAE dirhams (AED) end-to-end. Mainland and free-zone entities both work the same way — the base currency is AED, foreign-currency lines revalue against the UAE Central Bank rate on the day of supply (the FTA- accepted source for cross-border VAT), and consolidations to a USD or GBP parent run as a single click at month-end. We hold UAE plan pricing in AED at parity with our published USD list, so FX movement inside a quarter never surprises your annual renewal.
VAT at 5% + corporate tax at 9%
UAE VAT is 5% on most goods and services, administered by the Federal Tax Authority since 1 January 2018. Standard-rated supplies attract 5%, exports outside the GCC are zero-rated, certain healthcare and education supplies are zero-rated, and residential property after the first sale plus bare land are exempt. VAT registration is mandatory once taxable supplies in any rolling 12-month period cross AED 375,000, with voluntary registration allowed from AED 187,500. Separately, the federal corporate tax regime now applies a 9% rate on taxable profits above AED 375,000 per financial year, with qualifying free-zone persons potentially retaining 0% on qualifying income. HelloBooks runs the VAT 201 return live off your ledger, tracks the AED 375,000 thresholds for both regimes, and prepares the trial balance that the corporate-tax return refers back to.
Migrating from Zoho Books or Xero
HelloBooks migrates a Zoho Books UAE or Xero ledger into a new entity in one import: chart of accounts, customers, suppliers, items, opening balances, and historic transactions come across with VAT codes intact. From day one your AI assistant categorises fresh bank feeds against the chart you already know, recurring invoices keep firing, and the VAT return rolls forward without manual remapping. Switching playbooks live at HelloBooks vs Zoho Books and HelloBooks vs Xero.
Where to next
Need something UAE-specific that's not here yet — FTA-listed accounting software status, e-invoicing on Peppol once mandated, free-zone qualifying-income tagging, or DMCC / IFZA / RAKEZ templates? The team replies inside one business day from /contact.