Closing properly, and getting your deposits back
Closure is an accounting exercise before it is a legal one — and the deposits, guarantees and balances nobody chased become very hard to recover once the entity no longer exists.
Closing a UAE company properly is an accounting exercise before it is a legal one. The licensing authority will want a liquidator's report and clean final accounts; the FTA will want deregistration and final returns; the bank will want the account closed only after everything has cleared; and any unreturned deposit, unrecovered guarantee or undistributed balance becomes considerably harder to chase once the entity is gone.
What the closure actually requires
- Final accounts to the cessation date, with all assets realised or distributed and all liabilities settled or provided for.
- Tax deregistration — VAT deregistration within the required period after ceasing to make taxable supplies, and the Corporate Tax position closed out with a final return for the shortened tax period.
- Employee settlement — final salaries, accrued leave and end-of-service gratuity paid, and the WPS and visa position closed.
- Asset realisation — stock cleared, fixed assets sold or written off, and the disposal results properly recorded.
- Deposit and guarantee recovery — landlord deposits, fit-out deposits, utility deposits and bank guarantees actively reclaimed. In retail this list is often long and often forgotten.
- Distribution to shareholders of whatever remains, documented.
Closing one store is not closing the company. The store's lease has to be exited on its terms, the final turnover reconciliation agreed with the landlord, the deposits chased, and the fit-out written off — while the company continues trading. Treating a store exit as a company matter, or vice versa, is a common and expensive confusion.
We prepare the accounting side and work alongside the appointed liquidator and, where the closure has legal complexity — disputes, guarantees called, contested balances — alongside Neo Legal.
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.
Liquidation accounting — frequently asked questions
Yes. Deregistration is mandatory once you cease making taxable supplies or your supplies fall below the voluntary threshold, and it must be applied for within the period prescribed by the VAT legislation. Missing it leaves a live registration with continuing filing obligations and accruing penalties for a company that has stopped trading — a genuinely avoidable cost that surfaces regularly.
The tax period ends on cessation, and a final Corporate Tax return covering the shortened period is required, with deregistration applied for within the prescribed timeframe. Practical consequences follow from the closing balance sheet — asset disposals, released provisions and written-back balances all affect the final taxable income — which is why the final accounts and the tax position should be prepared together rather than sequentially.
Typically several months, driven less by the accounting than by the authorities' processes, the notice period for creditors, visa cancellations and the time taken to recover deposits and close bank accounts. Where records are incomplete it takes considerably longer, because the liquidator cannot report on accounts that do not exist. Starting the accounting work before the formal closure begins is what shortens the timeline.
Is this your situation?
Tell us how the business is set up and where the numbers currently stand. We will tell you what is required and what it costs to have it handled properly.
Talk to an accountant →