Financial Services
A financial-services business is read by more parties than most — a licensing authority, a lender, a board, the Federal Tax Authority — and each of them opens the same set of accounts expecting it to answer a different question. A number that cannot be traced back to the ledger is not evidence of anything.
MHBC Finance coordinates the accounting, Corporate Tax, transfer pricing and audit-readiness work behind financial-services businesses with UAE entities, so the statutory accounts hold to one standard, related-party arrangements are documented at arm's length, and the audit file is ready before the auditor asks for it.
Corporate Tax applies at 0% on taxable income up to AED 375,000 and 9% above it, with the return due within nine months of the end of the tax period, and audited financial statements are required where revenue exceeds AED 50 million in the tax period and for every Qualifying Free Zone Person regardless of revenue.
Where this work lands
A UAE entity funding and charging affiliates inside the group
An entity preparing its accounts for audit and licence renewal
The accounting and tax work behind the reporting
The goal is simple: one set of numbers that answers to the ledger, the return and the audit file at the same time. For a financial-services business, that work concentrates in five areas.
Financial statements and reporting quality
MHBC maintains the ledgers and prepares the financial statements under the applicable IFRS standards, with records and supporting documents retained for the seven years the Corporate Tax Law requires, so every later filing is drawn from one record.
A VAT return, a Corporate Tax computation and an audit are each only as reliable as the books beneath them. One record that all three are drawn from is what keeps an entity from rebuilding the same year three times at the end of it.
VAT treatment and the evidence behind it
MHBC tracks the AED 375,000 registration threshold across a twelve-month period and records the basis on which each type of supply has been treated, so every figure in the return can be traced to the supply behind it.
The standard rate is 5%, but some supplies are zero-rated or exempt depending on their nature, and that affects both what is declared and what input VAT can be recovered on costs. That is a position to establish and document when the supply is first made, rather than reconstruct at the return.
Related-party pricing and documentation
MHBC prepares the transfer pricing disclosure form filed with the Corporate Tax return once aggregate related-party transactions exceed AED 40 million, together with the benchmarking behind it, so intra-group funding and service charges stand up as arm's length.
Under Ministerial Decision No. 97 of 2023, a Master File and Local File are required where revenue in the tax period reaches AED 200 million, or the entity belongs to a multinational group with consolidated revenue of AED 3.15 billion or more, and both must be produced to the Federal Tax Authority within 30 days of a request. Thirty days is not long enough to build them from scratch.
Corporate Tax computation and filing
MHBC builds the Corporate Tax computation off the financial statements, applying 0% on taxable income up to AED 375,000 and 9% above it, and files the return within nine months of the end of the tax period.
Registration is required regardless of profit level, so an entity with nothing to pay still has a return to file. The computation is only as defensible as the accounts it runs off — which is where the reporting decisions taken during the year are finally tested.
Audit coordination and free zone status
MHBC prepares the financial statements, schedules and supporting documents the audit draws on and coordinates a Ministry of Economy-licensed auditor, who performs the audit, so an entity whose revenue exceeds AED 50 million in the tax period meets the obligation in one pass.
Audited financial statements are also required of every Qualifying Free Zone Person regardless of revenue, mainland companies must maintain them under the Commercial Companies Law, and most free zones require audited accounts for licence renewal in any case. A free zone entity pays 0% Corporate Tax only on income that qualifies; income that is not qualifying is taxed at 9%, and that status depends on maintaining adequate substance in the UAE and preparing audited financial statements.
Related service
Audit Coordination & Assurance
Everything on this page is eventually read by someone outside the business. MHBC prepares the statements and schedules, appoints and coordinates the licensed auditor, and stays the single point of contact through to the signed opinion — so the audit tests the year's work instead of becoming another project on top of it.