Dubai CommerCity accounting for e-commerce businesses

An online seller rarely receives the sale amount. A marketplace or payment gateway pays out a net figure after commission, shipping, returns and its own VAT-able fees. To get revenue right, each payout needs splitting back into gross sales, fees and refunds.

HelloBooks does not import settlement reports from Amazon.ae, Noon or other marketplaces automatically. The practical routine is a weekly or monthly summary journal from the settlement report, posting gross sales, fees and refunds to their own accounts. The AI agent then matches the net payout on the bank statement to that journal and flags any difference.

• Summary journal per settlement period, posted from the platform report
• Separate accounts for gross sales, platform fees, shipping and refunds
• Net payout matched against the bank statement by the AI

The FTA guide normally treats transactions with natural persons as excluded activities. For a direct-to-consumer brand, almost all revenue is therefore non-qualifying, and the company would fail the de minimis test long before the AED 5 million ceiling. A CommerCity seller of skincare with AED 3.6 million of consumer sales has a cap of AED 180,000; it cannot be a qualifying free zone person on those facts.

A B2B seller or a fulfilment business serving other companies is in a different position. Distribution of goods in or from a designated zone and logistics services are qualifying activities with conditions, and sales to other free zone persons can also qualify. The ledger has to show who the customer is on every invoice, which is where income tagging matters.

Consumer sales in the UAE generally carry 5% VAT, and exports may be zero-rated where the evidence is kept. HelloBooks applies the VAT code per line, and the accountant reviews the VAT 201 before filing. E-invoicing will not cover B2C transactions for now, according to the Ministry of Finance decisions, but B2B sellers will be in scope.

For corporate tax, a consumer-focused seller is taxed like a mainland company. If its revenue is AED 3 million or less, small business relief may be available, which a qualifying free zone person could not elect. For a settlement-journal template or an e-commerce chart of accounts, book a call at /book-a-demo or email hello@hellobooks.ai.