International Group Support — UAE-side Accounting and Tax for Cross-border Groups

What "UAE-side" means

Your group has multiple entities across jurisdictions — say a Cyprus parent, a UK trading company, and a UAE OpCo. We are the accountants for the UAE entity: bookkeeping, IFRS financial statements, Corporate Tax registration and filing, VAT, transfer-pricing documentation for related- party flows, and audit liaison. We do NOT replace your group auditor, your foreign tax advisor, or your group CFO. We are the local team that interfaces with them — sending audit-ready financial statements upward into group consolidation, applying the group accounting policies, and handling UAE-specific compliance without distracting the group team.

The model fits when the group already has competent finance leadership elsewhere and needs a UAE counterparty that can speak the same professional language. We take engagements where this is the structure from the start; we will not displace incumbent advisors elsewhere.

When this engagement fits

• EU, UK, or US-headquartered SME / scale-up establishing a UAE OpCo for the MENA market
• Cyprus or other EU holding structure with a UAE operating subsidiary
• Russian-speaking-CIS founder relocated to the UAE with operating entities still elsewhere
• Multi-jurisdiction holding structures with the UAE as one node
• Groups approaching the EUR 750M Pillar Two threshold and needing UAE-side GloBE compliance

We do not take engagements that require the UAE entity to be opaque to its group, or that ask us to under-document UAE positions to manage the group narrative. We are an FCCA-led practice; the books we prepare are defensible to any auditor in any jurisdiction.

Transfer pricing in practice

The CT law adopts the OECD-aligned arm's-length principle for transactions between Connected Persons and Related Parties. Under Ministerial Decision No. 97 of 2023, a Master File and Local File are required where the Taxable Person's revenue reaches AED 200 million in the relevant period, OR where the Taxable Person is part of a Multinational Enterprise Group with consolidated group revenue of AED 3.15 billion or more.

Country-by-Country Reporting under Cabinet Resolution No. 44 of 2020 applies to Ultimate Parent Entities resident in the UAE within the EUR 750 million scope. Below the Master File / Local File thresholds, a Disclosure Form is still required for related-party and connected-person transactions above specified limits — the documentation obligation is lighter but not zero.

We prepare transfer-pricing documentation aligned with the OECD Transfer Pricing Guidelines and the FTA's expectations: function-asset-risk analysis, comparability study, intercompany agreements, year-end benchmarking. Where the group already has a Master File, we prepare the UAE Local File to integrate with it; where the UAE entity is the Ultimate Parent, we coordinate the Master File too.

Pillar Two readiness

The UAE Domestic Minimum Top-up Tax (DMTT) applies to financial years starting on or after 1 January 2025 for in-scope MNE Groups — defined as groups with consolidated annual revenue of EUR 750 million or more in at least two of the four financial years preceding the tested year.

The DMTT is computed on a jurisdictional basis under the OECD GloBE rules and tops up the effective tax rate on UAE income to 15%. The compliance work involves: GloBE-compliant financial statement adjustments for the UAE entity, jurisdictional ETR calculations, GloBE Information Return preparation, coordination with the group's central GloBE team (typically located at the UPE jurisdiction). For groups below the EUR 750M threshold, no DMTT applies — but tracking is worthwhile because crossing the threshold can take effect within months of an acquisition or strong revenue year.

Group consolidation under IFRS 10

For groups consolidating into a UAE parent, or where the UAE entity is a sub-consolidator within a wider group: we prepare the consolidation working papers under IFRS 10 Consolidated Financial Statements, eliminate intra-group balances and transactions, recognise non-controlling interests under either fair-value or proportionate-share methodology, and produce the consolidated statements ready for audit.

For groups where the consolidator is offshore, we prepare the UAE reporting package in the group's required format (HFM, Tagetik, OneStream, or an Excel template) and feed it upward on the group's reporting calendar.

Working alongside your foreign advisors

Your overseas advisors stay your overseas advisors. We coordinate with them on: tax-residency confirmations and tax residency certificates; withholding-tax positions on intra-group payments; permanent establishment analysis; transfer-pricing comparability; group audit liaison; consolidation reporting timelines; double-tax treaty applications. We maintain a single point of contact at our end and respond on the timezone the group operates in.

When to engage Consorata

Best engagement window is at the establishment of the UAE entity, so the first set of books is built to group standards from the start. For groups taking over an existing UAE entity, engage at the start of a financial year for a clean transition; mid-year handover is routine but typically includes a clean-up phase to bring prior-period entries up to group standard.