Accountants for businesses in IFZA
The International Free Zone Authority is one of the most widely used Dubai free zones for smaller companies — consultancies, service businesses, holding entities and early-stage ventures — largely on the strength of its cost and speed of setup.
The International Free Zone Authority is one of the most widely used Dubai free zones for smaller companies — consultancies, service businesses, holding entities and early-stage ventures — largely on the strength of its cost and speed of setup.
IFZA's popularity with small businesses produces a recurring pattern: an entity set up quickly and cheaply, trading for a year or two with minimal record-keeping, and then confronting Corporate Tax registration, a first return and possibly a VAT threshold crossing all at once. None of it is difficult; all of it is worse if the books do not exist.
The Corporate Tax question for an IFZA entity is the same as for any free zone company. Being in a free zone does not exempt you — it makes the 0% rate on qualifying income available if you meet the Qualifying Free Zone Person conditions, which include adequate substance, de minimis compliance and audited financial statements. For a small consultancy serving UAE mainland clients, the honest answer is often that QFZP status is not achievable and Small Business Relief is the more useful election — which is worth establishing early rather than assuming the 0% applies.
What we do
- Monthly bookkeeping and bank reconciliation, closed on a fixed date.
- VAT registration and returns reconciled to your ledger.
- Corporate Tax registration, computation and filing, with the elections modelled.
- Payroll and WPS, including end-of-service provisioning.
- Financial statements and audit support, with an independent registered auditor appointed where one is required.
- Management accounts — the monthly pack that tells you what is actually happening.
Reviewed 18 August 2026 by Ahmed Nabil Selim. UAE tax rates, thresholds and deadlines change — confirm the position for your period before relying on it.
IFZA — frequently asked questions
Not automatically. A free zone licence makes the 0% rate on qualifying income available if you satisfy every Qualifying Free Zone Person condition — adequate substance in the zone, qualifying income as defined, non-qualifying revenue within the de minimis limits, transfer pricing compliance and audited financial statements. A small consultancy invoicing UAE mainland clients typically fails the qualifying income test, in which case standard rates apply and Small Business Relief may be the more relevant election. Assuming the 0% applies is one of the most common and costly errors we correct.
Register for Corporate Tax; keep records supporting the return for seven years; monitor your rolling twelve-month revenue against the AED 375,000 VAT threshold; file a Corporate Tax return within nine months of your period end even if no tax is due; and consider whether Small Business Relief applies. That is genuinely the floor, and it is not onerous — but each item has a deadline and a penalty attached, and doing none of them because the business is small is the most expensive available option.
Tell us the licence type, roughly how many transactions a month, what systems you use and where things currently stand. From that we can scope the work and quote a fixed monthly fee, usually within a couple of days. If the books are behind, we scope and price the catch-up separately so you can see both numbers before deciding.
Based in IFZA?
Tell us the licence type, roughly how many transactions a month and where things stand. We will scope the work and quote a fixed monthly fee.
Talk to an accountant →