Who We Serve · United Arab Emirates
For HNIs and multinational groups with UAE entities, MHBC Finance coordinates transfer pricing, tax grouping, consolidated reporting and audit as a single, discreet point of contact.
The situation
HNIs and multinational groups with UAE entities operate inside the country's corporate tax and transfer pricing regime, where related-party and connected-person transactions must meet the arm's length standard whether domestic or cross-border.
A transfer pricing disclosure form is filed with the corporate tax return once aggregate related-party transactions exceed AED 40 million, and a Master File and Local File must be maintained where a UAE entity's revenue reaches AED 200 million or it belongs to a multinational group with consolidated revenue of AED 3.15 billion or more.
Where MHBC helps
What we coordinate.
One point of contact across the group's UAE entities — documentation, disclosure, grouping, consolidation and the audit file.
Transfer pricing documentation
MHBC prepares the Master File, Local File and benchmarking analysis that support the arm's length position on related-party and connected-person transactions.
Related-party disclosure form
MHBC compiles the transfer pricing disclosure form filed with the corporate tax return where aggregate related-party transactions exceed AED 40 million.
Tax group formation and returns
MHBC assesses eligibility, forms the tax group and prepares the single consolidated corporate tax return that the parent entity files for the group.
Consolidated and cross-border reporting
MHBC prepares consolidated and cross-border financial statements across the group's UAE entities to a single, consistent reporting standard.
Audit coordination
MHBC prepares the audit file and coordinates a Ministry of Economy-licensed auditor, remaining the single point of contact while the auditor performs the audit.
“Tax grouping, consolidated reporting across entities and the annual audit each carry their own deadlines, and documentation must reach the Federal Tax Authority within 30 days of a request.”
How it runs
Some of this is built once — the policy, the benchmarking, the group itself. The rest returns every year, and has to be producible within thirty days if the authority asks.
One-time
Transfer pricing policy and benchmarking set-up, related-party and connected-person mapping across the group, tax group formation with registration alignment, and the first Master File and Local File.
Recurring
The annual corporate tax return within nine months of the financial year-end, the related-party disclosure form filed with it, contemporaneous Master File and Local File updates, periodic VAT returns, and the yearly audit cycle.
“A group's UAE position is rarely one filing. It is several, in several entities, and they all have to say the same thing.”
Frequently asked
- When does a UAE entity need a Master File and Local File?
- Under Ministerial Decision No. 97 of 2023, a Master File and Local File are required where the UAE taxable person's revenue in the tax period is AED 200 million or more, or it belongs to a multinational group with consolidated revenue of AED 3.15 billion or more. Both must be produced to the Federal Tax Authority within 30 days of a request. MHBC prepares and maintains them alongside the annual return.
- Do domestic related-party transactions fall under transfer pricing, or only cross-border ones?
- Both. UAE transfer pricing rules apply the arm's length standard to related-party and connected-person transactions whether domestic or cross-border, including transactions involving Free Zone entities. A transfer pricing disclosure form is filed with the corporate tax return once aggregate related-party transactions exceed AED 40 million, and MHBC prepares the documentation that supports the pricing.
- Can a group of UAE companies file one corporate tax return?
- Yes. Eligible resident entities can form a tax group, after which the parent files a single consolidated corporate tax return and settles the group's liability, due within nine months of the end of the tax period. MHBC assesses eligibility, forms the group and prepares the consolidated return.
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