A corporate tax year end checklist UAE owners can work through in a week

Get a forecast of taxable income for the year. Run the profit and loss to the end of November, add a realistic December, and apply the obvious add-backs. If the result is close to AED 375,000 or revenue is close to AED 3 million, those thresholds deserve attention now, not in March.

Example: a Dubai events company forecasts revenue of AED 2.9 million. A AED 250,000 contract signed for a January event will be invoiced in December under the client's request. Revenue recognition follows the work, not the invoice date, so the January event belongs to next year whatever the invoice says. Getting that right may keep the company inside small business relief.

• Forecast taxable income and revenue against AED 375,000 and AED 3 million
• Review contracts spanning year end for correct revenue timing
• Check related party charges have been invoiced for the year
• Plan any asset purchases on business grounds, knowing capital costs are not expensed

Chase supplier bills for work already done, so costs are complete. Review the owner's expense claims and card statements and move personal items to the shareholder account. Confirm staff bonuses and provisions under your accounting policy and document them.

Look through general expenses for entertainment, fines and donations posted in the wrong place. Each one moved now is one fewer adjustment for your accountant to discover.

Reconcile every bank, card and wallet account to 31 December. Count stock and agree it to the ledger. Send balance confirmations to related parties and major customers. Review receivables for debts unlikely to be collected and agree the treatment with your accountant.

Post accruals for December costs billed in January, and deferred income for amounts invoiced in advance. Then lock December so nobody posts into the closed period by accident.

• Reconcile every bank and card account
• Stock count and valuation
• Accruals and deferred income
• Related party balance confirmations
• Lock the closed period

Produce draft financial statements and a draft computation. Agree add-backs, exempt income and loss relief. Decide elections: small business relief, any group relief, and whether a qualifying free zone person still meets its conditions.

Then set the dates: auditor fieldwork if needed, final sign-off, return submission and payment, all well inside the nine-month deadline of 30 September.

Booking revenue on invoice date rather than when the work was done, in either direction. Missing December supplier bills that arrive in February. Leaving fines in general expenses. Electing small business relief in a loss year without thinking about the loss. And forgetting that a nil-tax company still has to file.

None of these needs tax expertise to avoid. Each needs a routine and someone to own it.

A qualifying free zone person has more to check at year end. Calculate non-qualifying revenue against the lower of 5% of total revenue and AED 5 million, confirm substance in the free zone, and book the auditor, since audited statements are required whatever the company's size.

Groups should agree intra-group balances between every pair of companies before the accounts are drafted, and confirm that intra-group charges for the year have been invoiced at the prices in the group's policy. If a tax group exists, the special purpose audited statements need their own timetable.

HelloBooks' AI agent handles most of the mechanical work: reconciling uploaded statements, posting late bills it reads from email or photos, and listing unreconciled lines, missing attachments and transactions in suspicious accounts. Ask 'what is left to close December?' and it gives a list.

It then produces the statements and a draft 9% computation for your accountant to review. Period locks prevent changes after sign-off, and the audit log records any reopening. Accounting firms can ask for their own year end checklist built into the client console by booking at /book-a-demo.