Accountants for businesses in JAFZA
The Jebel Ali Free Zone, adjacent to Jebel Ali Port, is the UAE's established base for logistics, manufacturing, distribution and heavy trading operations.
The Jebel Ali Free Zone, adjacent to Jebel Ali Port, is the UAE's established base for logistics, manufacturing, distribution and heavy trading operations.
JAFZA companies are usually physical-goods businesses, which puts inventory and landed cost at the centre of the accounting. Getting freight, duty, insurance and clearing into the cost of stock rather than expensing them as overheads is the difference between a real gross margin and an imaginary one — and the error is extremely common among traders who price from the wrong number.
The free zone position also raises questions a purely onshore business never faces: goods moving between the free zone and mainland, duty suspension, and the VAT treatment of each movement. Where the entity relies on Qualifying Free Zone Person status, the distinction between qualifying and non-qualifying revenue matters directly, and distribution into the UAE onshore market is precisely the activity that tests the de minimis limits.
JAFZA has its own licence renewal and reporting requirements, including audited financial statements — so the audit is an annual fixture, and it is far cheaper when the stock count was planned and attended.
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.
JAFZA — frequently asked questions
At full landed cost — invoice price plus freight, insurance, customs duty, clearing and inland transport, less trade discounts and recoverable taxes — under IAS 2. Storage costs after the goods are ready for sale, selling costs and general administration are excluded. The practical consequence of getting this wrong is a gross margin that is too high and an operating margin that is too low, with the distortion growing whenever stock levels move. See trading and logistics accounting.
Movements from a designated zone into the UAE mainland are generally treated as an import into the UAE, with import VAT accounted for by the importer and, where applicable, customs duty becoming payable. Movements between designated zones, and supplies within a designated zone, follow separate rules. The mechanics depend on the specific zone's designated status, the nature of the goods and who acts as importer of record — so it is worth mapping your actual movement patterns once rather than treating each shipment as a fresh question.
Yes. We act for clients across all seven emirates and in every major free zone; the location pages cover the areas we are asked about most, not the limits of where we work. Cloud accounting makes physical proximity largely irrelevant — what matters is knowledge of the UAE regime and of your sector.
Based in JAFZA?
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.
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