SAIF Zone audit requirement and financial statements

The Sharjah Airport International Free Zone (SAIF Zone) describes itself on its own website as established in 1995. It is one of several free zones in Sharjah. What it has not done, as far as we can find, is publish its company regulations online.

As of October 2026, saif-zone.com refused automated access, and the archived copies of its regulations, FAQ and terms pages that we read contain no audit rule, no filing deadline for financial statements and no implementing regulation on auditors. We therefore cannot tell you, from an official SAIF Zone document, whether SAIF Zone requires audited accounts at licence renewal, by what date, or whether only SAIF-approved auditors may sign.

Two things are on the public record. SAIF Zone has kept an Auditors Directory on its website for years. Archived versions list audit firms with their P.O. box and phone number, and the 2024 site still links to the directory. Its older investor forms library also included an Auditor Registration form. Neither of these states the underlying rule. A directory tells you which firms SAIF Zone knows about. It does not tell you whether you must use one of them.

Adviser websites quote SAIF Zone deadlines and auditor rules, but they do not cite the regulation and they disagree with each other. We have not repeated them.

The rule that does apply to SAIF Zone companies, and that you can read in full, is federal. Ministerial Decision No. 84 of 2025, issued under Article 54(2) of the Corporate Tax Law, says in Article 2(1) that the following must prepare and maintain audited financial statements:

• a Taxable Person that is not a Tax Group and that derives Revenue exceeding AED 50,000,000 during the relevant Tax Period; and
• a Qualifying Free Zone Person, with no revenue threshold at all.

Article 2(2) adds that a Tax Group must prepare audited special purpose financial statements in the form the FTA specifies. Article 2(4) says that for a Non-Resident Person, only revenue through a permanent establishment or nexus in the UAE counts towards the AED 50 million.

The decision applies to tax periods starting on or after 1 January 2025 (Article 4). Article 3 repeals Ministerial Decision No. 82 of 2023, but keeps it in force for tax periods that started before 1 January 2025. Ministerial Decision No. 82 of 2023 set the same two core categories: revenue above AED 50 million, and every Qualifying Free Zone Person. So for a SAIF Zone company claiming the 0% rate, an audit has been a tax requirement since its first corporate tax period, whatever SAIF Zone itself asks for.

For a free zone company, the audit is more than a filing formality. Under Article 18 of Federal Decree-Law No. 47 of 2022, preparing audited financial statements is one of the conditions a Free Zone Person must meet to be a Qualifying Free Zone Person. The other conditions include adequate substance in a free zone, deriving Qualifying Income, not electing for the standard rates, and meeting the transfer pricing rules. Our page on the seven QFZP conditions explains each one.

A SAIF Zone company that claims the 0% rate without audited statements has not met a condition of that rate. The consequences of losing Qualifying Free Zone Person status are serious, so the audit should be planned at the start of the year, not after the return is due.

One extra layer applies to some SAIF Zone businesses. Article 2(3) of Ministerial Decision No. 84 of 2025 requires a Qualifying Free Zone Person that distributes goods or materials in or from a Designated Zone to follow any additional FTA procedures. The FTA has since issued FTA Decision No. 6 of 2026 on an agreed-upon procedures report for those distributors. If you trade goods through SAIF Zone, check whether SAIF Zone is a Designated Zone for your activity and whether that report applies to you.

The federal Commercial Companies Law has its own audit provisions, so people often ask whether they reach free zone companies. The answer depends on the zone's regulations. Article 5(1) of Federal Decree-Law No. 32 of 2021 says the law does not apply to companies incorporated in a free zone where that zone's laws or regulations make special provision. It then brings the law back where those regulations allow the company to carry on activities outside the free zone in the UAE.

Because SAIF Zone's company regulations are not publicly accessible, we cannot say from the text how this works for SAIF Zone establishments, companies or branches of foreign companies. We have not guessed. If the question matters to you, for example because you plan to trade outside the zone or you are a branch of an overseas parent, ask SAIF Zone which regulations govern your entity. Ask for a copy of the relevant articles on accounts and audit.

For corporate tax, none of this changes the position. Ministerial Decision No. 84 of 2025 applies to every Qualifying Free Zone Person and every taxable person above the revenue threshold, whatever company law governs them.

Since the SAIF Zone rule is not published, get it in writing. SAIF Zone's website gives +971 6 557 1111 as its main number. Ask the authority, and keep the reply:

• whether audited (or other) financial statements must be filed with SAIF Zone, and at what point, such as licence renewal;
• the deadline, measured from your year end or from your renewal date;
• whether the auditor must appear on SAIF Zone's Auditors Directory or be registered with SAIF Zone;
• which regulations govern your entity type, with the article on accounts.

Then build one timetable that meets both dates. The corporate tax return, and the audited statements behind a 0% claim, are due nine months after the end of the tax period. If SAIF Zone wants statements earlier, its date drives the audit. Any auditor who signs must also hold a UAE licence. Our free zone audit deadlines page sets out the published dates for other zones.

TaxAdvisors can draft the written request to SAIF Zone and line up an audit that serves both the zone and the FTA. See our audit support service.