Who Should Prepare Your QFZP Filing Pack

Start With The Transactions

QFZP filing support should start with the trial balance and general ledger, then move to the revenue detail and the documents behind material transactions. The free-zone licence matters, but it does not identify the beneficial recipient, prove adequate substance or classify every invoice. A useful review turns the ledger into a revenue map that management can read before it approves the return.

The company remains responsible for its Corporate Tax registration, self-assessed return and payment. A consultant can inspect the accounts, compare the activity with Ministerial Decision No. 229 of 2025, reconcile the tax computation and list missing evidence. That work supports management's decision. It does not transfer responsibility to Exiloz, and it is not a registered Tax Agent service.

If you are choosing support now, send the trial balance, general ledger, licence, Corporate Tax registration record and revenue listing first. Those objects show whether the work is a classification review, a reconstruction of the books, a return preparation exercise or a combination. The answer should shape the engagement before anyone promises a filing date.

The Right Support Has A Clear Boundary

A focused filing review fits a company with reconciled books, a known Tax Period and contracts that support each revenue stream. A larger engagement is needed when income is mixed between customers, free zones, permanent establishments or related parties. The same applies when bank balances, inventory, customs records and the general ledger do not agree. The evidence gap is part of the work, not a footnote.

Ministerial Decision No. 84 of 2025 requires a Qualifying Free Zone Person to prepare and maintain audited financial statements. Exiloz can organise the evidence, reconcile the tax workpapers to the signed statements and prepare questions for the appointed auditor. It does not perform statutory audits. For a Designated Zone distributor, FTA Decision No. 6 of 2026 requires an independent auditor's agreed-upon procedures report where its conditions apply.

We would start with the ledger rather than the licence because the ledger shows the income streams that the return must explain. That opinion is practical, not cosmetic. A licence can remain unchanged while the customer base, contracts, import route or head-office charges change during the Tax Period, and those changes are what alter the review.

• Reconciled or mixed books
• Revenue and customer map
• Audit status
• Designated Zone distribution check

Name The Inputs And The Handoff

The starting file should contain the licence, Corporate Tax registration record, trial balance, general ledger, revenue and expense listings, bank reconciliation, customer contracts, invoices, lease records, related-party agreements and available audit schedules. A distributor should add customer licences or reseller confirmations, customs declarations, bills of lading, inventory logs and goods-movement records where the FTA procedure applies.

The finished support pack should contain the revenue classification note, the de minimis calculation, the expense-allocation explanation, a reconciliation to the financial statements, an exceptions list and management's approval. It should also say which documents were not available. The next reviewer should not have to infer whether a missing contract was overlooked, requested or judged irrelevant.

The FTA Free Zone Persons guide confirms the need for sufficient documentation to demonstrate how Qualifying Income was calculated, but it does not specify one universal file for every business model. That is the boundary of the evidence. Name the actual contract, invoice, customs paper or customer record that makes the claim true, and state plainly when the available document does not settle the point.

• Source documents
• Classification and allocation notes
• Reconciliation to accounts
• Open-items register

Make The Revenue Bridge Visible

The review should show how the ledger total becomes the tax computation. Separate qualifying revenue, non-qualifying revenue, income attributable to a permanent establishment and any amounts excluded by the applicable decisions. Then show the expense allocation and tie the result back to the signed financial statements. The reader should be able to test the arithmetic without opening a second spreadsheet.

Worked example: a trial balance has AED 7,200,000 of qualifying revenue and AED 300,000 of other revenue. The total is AED 7,200,000 plus AED 300,000, which equals AED 7,500,000. Five percent of that total is AED 375,000, so the AED 300,000 other-revenue amount is below the AED 375,000 percentage test in this illustration, subject to its correct classification and the AED 5,000,000 cap in Ministerial Decision No. 229 of 2025.

The arithmetic does not decide the activity. The contract, customer record and invoice still need to show what the company supplied and to whom. If a revenue line cannot be classified from those objects, mark it as an open item and explain the effect of leaving it unresolved. A visible bridge is more useful than a clean-looking final number with no path back to the ledger.

Finish With Approval And Proof

The process should run from Tax Period to evidence request, ledger review, current-rule analysis, computation, management approval and EmaraTax submission. Article 53 of Federal Decree-Law No. 47 of 2022 gives nine months after the end of the relevant Tax Period for the return. A calendar-year company whose Tax Period ended on 31 December 2025 therefore works toward 30 September 2026.

The mistake we see most is asking for submission support before deciding who owns the unresolved documents. Put the responsibility beside each open item: management for a customer confirmation, the logistics team for a customs declaration, the auditor for the audit report and the consultant for the reconciliation or classification note. That turns a vague request into a file that can actually be closed.

Exiloz is not an FTA-accredited e-invoicing Service Provider, is not a registered Tax Agent and does not perform statutory audits. It can review the ledger, prepare workpapers, explain evidence gaps and support the company's filing process. If a required audit or agreed-upon procedures report is still missing, the return plan should show that dependency instead of implying the support engagement supplies it.