Transport & Logistics
A transport or logistics business runs on volume — fleets on the register, warehouses full of other people's stock, and freight costs that have to land on the job that earned them — and every movement leaves a paper trail the VAT return has to agree with. A vehicle on the register that no one can tie back to an invoice is a deduction waiting to be disallowed.
MHBC Finance coordinates the accounting, VAT and Corporate Tax work behind UAE transport, warehousing and distribution businesses, so the asset register holds, the reverse charge on imports reconciles, and the cost of each job lands in the period that earned it.
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 it, with the return due within nine months of the end of the tax period.
Where this work lands
Freight operator recovering import VAT on fleet and handling equipment
Warehousing business holding stock in a designated zone
The accounting and tax work behind the movement
The goal is simple: keep the ledger, the VAT return and the Corporate Tax computation telling the same story about the same movements. For a transport or logistics business, that work concentrates in five areas.
Import VAT and the reverse charge
MHBC records import VAT under the reverse charge mechanism and reconciles it to your customs declarations behind imported vehicles, handling equipment and spares, so that output and input tax are declared correctly in each VAT 201 return.
Rather than paying VAT at the border in most cases, you declare the import VAT as output tax and recover it as input tax in the same return, provided the goods are for taxable business use. The customs declaration and the supplier documentation are what support those entries.
Export zero-rating and exit evidence
Where goods are sold as well as moved, MHBC applies the 0% rate to your qualifying exports and maintains the official and commercial evidence proving the goods left the UAE within 90 days, as the Federal Tax Authority requires.
Charging 0% does not remove your right to recover the input VAT on related costs. What it requires is official evidence, such as an exit certificate from the customs department, set alongside commercial evidence of the export — and in this sector that paperwork is generated by the operation itself.
Fleet assets and cost allocation
MHBC maintains the fixed-asset register, capitalises your vehicles and handling equipment correctly and schedules depreciation, so capital expenditure is reflected consistently across the financial statements and the Corporate Tax computation.
The register is what the rest of the year is measured against. Once it and the allocation of operating costs to the jobs that incurred them are set, the same figures carry through the management accounts, the statutory financial statements and the tax computation, rather than being rebuilt from three different views of the same fleet.
Corporate Tax computation and filing
MHBC prepares the Corporate Tax computation and return from the accounts, 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.
The computation runs off the financial statements, so the decisions taken during the year — how vehicles are capitalised, how depreciation is scheduled, how shared operating costs are allocated between jobs — are what determine taxable income at the end of it. The records supporting both are retained for seven years under the Corporate Tax Law.
Designated zones and audit coordination
Where goods are held or distributed in or from a designated zone, MHBC assesses whether the income meets the qualifying free zone conditions and coordinates the audited financial statements with a Ministry of Economy-licensed auditor, who performs the audit.
Audited financial statements are mandatory where revenue exceeds AED 50 million in the tax period, for every Qualifying Free Zone Person regardless of revenue, and for mainland companies under the Commercial Companies Law. A free zone company pays 0% Corporate Tax only on income that qualifies; income that is not qualifying is taxed at 9%, and for goods, distribution generally qualifies only when carried out in or from a designated zone.
Related service
VAT
VAT is where the movement of goods first shows up in the numbers. MHBC handles the registration, the periodic returns and the treatment of imports, exports and the reverse charge before they are filed — so the return, the customs file and the ledger behind them are describing the same consignments.