FTA Tax Audit Support in the UAE

A tax audit is the Federal Tax Authority's formal examination of whether your returns match your records and the law. The power sits in the Tax Procedures Law, and it reaches every federal tax: corporate tax, VAT and excise, sometimes audited together, sometimes one at a time. The FTA must give at least 10 business days' notice before conducting the audit, and its auditors may examine records at your premises or require them produced.

An audit is not the only contact you may receive, and confusing them wastes the notice period. A clarification request tests a point; an audit tests a period. The audit ends with a notified result — within 10 business days of the audit's end, under the Executive Regulation — and, where the FTA finds a difference, a tax assessment. If you have just received a notice, our help with an FTA notice page covers the first 48 hours; this page covers the audit itself, and the inside view of what happens inside an FTA audit explains the fieldwork stage by stage.

Every stage of an audit and its aftermath runs on a fixed clock, and the clocks do not pause while you gather documents. These are the dates that get diarised on day one of any engagement we run.

Support is preparation, evidence and timetable — the three things that decide how an audit feels from the inside. It starts in the notice window, not when the auditors arrive.

Audits are rarely lost on the original error. They are lost on what happens next: a missed deadline, an answer that contradicts the return, a record produced in the wrong form. The penalties below are all avoidable, and all common.

An assessment is not the end of the road; it is the start of a second one, with its own clocks. The ladder is fixed by the Tax Procedures Law, and each rung must be taken in order. First, a review of the assessment under Article 28 — the FTA has 40 business days to decide and five to notify. Then reconsideration under Article 29, again on a 40 business day clock. Only then does an objection reach the Tax Disputes Resolution Committee under Article 32, and it is admissible only where reconsideration was sought first and the tax has been paid in full; the committee decides within 20 business days, and its decisions are final where the amount does not exceed AED 100,000. Beyond the committee, the federal court hears the appeal.

Money runs alongside the argument throughout. Unpaid assessed tax accrues late payment at 14% per annum for each month or part month, and administrative penalties are capped at two times the tax assessed under Article 24(4). Strategy is therefore set for the whole ladder at the outset — including where a settlement posture beats a principled fight — and our tax dispute and reconsideration support takes over where the audit phase ends.

Two facts about us belong on this page, not in small print. This business is not on the FTA Tax Agent register, and it is not a registered auditor. Formal representation before the FTA and the dispute committees is reserved to registered tax agents and legal representatives, and statutory audit opinions belong to licensed auditors. Our audit support is the preparation layer underneath that representation: the readiness review, the records pack, the drafted responses, the diarised clocks — built with your agent, or built so one can be appointed and briefed without losing the notice window.

No adviser can guarantee an audit outcome, and the honest measure of support is different: every deadline met, every answer evidenced, every number consistent from the first response to the last. Engage support on the day the notice arrives, while the 10 business days can still be used. Send us the notice and we will map your clocks and your gaps in writing — that first map costs you nothing but the time to read it.

Next step: FTA Tax Audit Support. Send your trade licence and your last return, and we will confirm the fixed fee on the call. Book a free 15-minute fit check