Real Estate
A property business earns across years and reports one financial year at a time — the money arrives on one schedule, the profit belongs to another, and the distance between the two is where most real-estate reporting goes wrong. A payment received is not a profit earned.
MHBC Finance coordinates the accounting, VAT and Corporate Tax work behind UAE developers, landlords and asset owners, so that revenue lands in the period it was earned, the computation follows the accounts rather than the cash, and the audit file is ready when the licence and the return fall due.
Registration for VAT is mandatory once taxable supplies exceed AED 375,000, and Corporate Tax applies at 0% on taxable income up to AED 375,000 and 9% above that, with the return filed and any tax paid within nine months of the end of the tax period — and the records behind the computation retained for at least seven years under the Corporate Tax Law.
Where this work lands
Developer carrying project costs across two financial years
Asset owner keeping service-charge accounts apart from its own
The accounting and tax work behind the asset
The goal is simple: keep the ledger, the VAT return and the Corporate Tax computation describing the same project in the same period. For a real-estate business, that work concentrates in five areas.
Revenue recognition and work in progress
MHBC recognises project and fee income as the work is performed under the applicable IFRS standards, so that work delivered but not yet invoiced is carried as work in progress and included in the period it relates to.
A development does not respect a financial year: cash can arrive long before the work it pays for is done, and long after it in other cases. The question is therefore not when the money moved but which period the revenue belongs to, which is what keeps taxable profit aligned with the work delivered rather than with the dates on the invoices.
VAT treatment and the evidence behind it
MHBC determines how each supply is treated for VAT, registers the entity once taxable supplies exceed AED 375,000, and documents the basis for the treatment applied so that every return can be substantiated.
Not every supply a property business makes carries the same treatment; some supplies are zero-rated or exempt depending on their nature, which affects both what is charged and what input VAT is recoverable on costs. MHBC records the reasoning behind the treatment applied and keeps the documents that support it, because that file is what a review actually tests.
Corporate Tax and the timing of profit
MHBC prepares the Corporate Tax computation and return from the financial statements, applying the 0% band up to AED 375,000 and 9% above it, and files within nine months of the end of the tax period.
Because the computation runs off the accounts, the judgements taken during the year — when revenue is recognised, how costs are capitalised, which period a completion falls into — are what set the taxable income at the end of it. For a business whose projects span more than one tax period, that timing is the exposure.
Cash flow, working capital and funding
MHBC builds the cash-flow plan, working-capital cycle and funding runway behind a development or a portfolio, so that committed project spend, receivable cycles and the date the Corporate Tax payment falls due are planned against each other rather than discovered in sequence.
Profit and cash are not the same thing in this sector, and an entity can report a strong year while holding very little of it. Planning receivable and payable cycles against committed project spend is the difference between a profitable business and a solvent one, and it is the work that turns clean monthly accounts into a decision.
Audit coordination and audited financial statements
MHBC prepares the financial statements and supporting schedules and coordinates a Ministry of Economy-licensed auditor, who performs the audit, where revenue exceeds AED 50 million in a tax period, where the entity is a Qualifying Free Zone Person, and where a mainland company must maintain them under the Commercial Companies Law.
Many free zones also require audited accounts for licence renewal, so the date that binds is often the licence rather than the return. MHBC prepares the file, appoints and coordinates the auditor and remains your single point of contact throughout, but the opinion is signed by that auditor and not by MHBC.
Related service
Accounting & Bookkeeping
Every question on this page is a question about periods. MHBC keeps the books that decide which year a project's revenue belongs to, and the VAT return, the Corporate Tax computation and the audit file are all drawn from that same ledger — so a completion is not counted twice in one place and missed in another.