Published monthly prices run from from AED 49 a month for software you operate yourself, through AED 500–2,500 a month for outsourced bookkeeping and AED 3,000–10,000+ a month for a traditional firm, up to AED 12,000–25,000+ a month for an in-house hire. On top sits the annual corporate tax return at AED 2,500–5,000 a year, or AED 5,000–10,000 with documentation and advice.
Chart data
| Route | A month |
|---|---|
| Software, you do the work | from AED 49 |
| Outsourced bookkeeping, small business | AED 500–2,500 |
| Tech-enabled accounting firm | AED 1,000–2,500 |
| Traditional firm, often hourly | AED 3,000–10,000+ |
| In-house finance hire, all in | AED 12,000–25,000+ |
What each route really buys
Software. Cheap and, for a simple business, sufficient. Cloud plans start at from AED 49 a month; a desktop licence in this market is listed at AED 2,340 and AED 7,020 for single-PC and multi-user editions. You are buying a ledger, not judgement. Every classification decision remains yours.
Outsourced bookkeeping. Someone else codes transactions and reconciles monthly. This is the route that fits most owner-managed businesses, and the one that keeps a VAT quarter from becoming a weekend.
A traditional firm. More expensive, often billed by the hour, and worth it when your structure is genuinely complicated: multiple entities, free zone status in question, related-party transactions, or a history of corrections.
An in-house hire. A finance person in the building is not a compliance decision. It is an operations one, justified by collections, supplier management and cash, not by four VAT returns.
The DIY route is legitimate
Nothing requires you to use a firm. The FTA states that returns can be filed through EmaraTax or an approved tax agent. For a single-stream business with one bank account, standard-rated sales and an owner who closes the month properly, self-filing costs a licence fee and a few hours a quarter.
Where it goes wrong is not the submission. It is the adjustments between accounting profit and taxable income, input tax that was never recoverable, and an asset register nobody kept. Those surface later, when correcting them costs more than the fee you saved.
A worked comparison over one year
A Dubai consultancy, AED 1.4 million revenue, one bank account, VAT registered, no audit requirement. On software alone: roughly AED 600 a year in licence, plus the owner's time, plus whatever an accountant charges to review the corporate tax computation. Outsourced at the low end: AED 6,000 for the year plus a filing fee of AED 2,500–5,000 a year. A traditional firm on retainer: AED 36,000 and up. The gap between the first two is a few thousand dirhams a year, which is the price of not thinking about it.
Choose on risk, then on price
- One revenue stream, standard-rated, one account: software is defensible.
- Mixed rates, imports, or more than about fifty transactions a month: outsource the bookkeeping.
- Free zone status, group structure, related parties: pay a firm, and pay for the advice rather than the data entry.
- An audit ahead of you: whatever route you pick, close the books monthly. Published audit fees of AED 15,000–40,000 a year move with how much mess the auditor has to untangle.
Put your own combination through the compliance cost calculator to see the annual total.