RAKEZ Approved Auditor: Annual Audited Financial Statements

RAKEZ requires registered companies to have their annual financial statements audited by a firm on the RAKEZ approved auditor list. The auditor's standing is tested at the date the report is signed, so a firm that has left the list between engagement and signature is a problem the company discovers late.

The statements are prepared under IFRS. Preparing them is the company's responsibility and the auditor's role is to express an opinion on them, so the ledger needs to be closed and reconciled before fieldwork starts. The legal name and registration number on the statements must match the licence, and the period covered must match the financial year RAKEZ holds on record.

Audited financial statements are due within six months after the financial year end. For a company with a 31 December year end, that places the deadline at 30 June. The period runs from the year end, not from the licence expiry date.

Bank confirmations are requested from the bank directly and the bank sets its own turnaround, so they determine the critical path more often than the fieldwork does. Requesting them in the first week of the engagement is the practical way to protect the date.

RAKEZ does not require audited financial statements at licence renewal. The renewal and the audit filing are separate processes.

It is the point companies most often get wrong. A company that treats the audit as a renewal formality schedules it against the licence expiry date and misses a deadline that runs from a different date entirely. The six month period is fixed to the financial year end.

RAKEZ applies a fine of AED 2,500 for filing audited financial statements late. The fine attaches to the late filing itself, so it is incurred by the delay rather than by anything the company does or fails to do afterwards.

The signed report and the audited financial statements are filed with RAKEZ against the company's licence record. The submission route, and the portal access it requires, sit with the company's authorised signatory, and both are worth confirming with RAKEZ at the start of the engagement rather than in the last week before it. The auditor's approval with the zone is what allows the filing to be accepted.

Assembling the set before fieldwork rather than during it is what most shortens a RAKEZ audit. Expect: the trade licence and any amendments; the memorandum and articles and the share register; the trial balance and general ledger for the year; bank statements for every account for the full period with the closing confirmations; the fixed asset register with additions and disposals; receivables and payables ageing; inventory counts where inventory is held; payroll summaries and end of service provision workings; the lease for the premises; loan and related party agreements; and the resolution approving the accounts.

The same audited financial statements can also carry the company's corporate tax position, and the obligation there has two separate limbs. A Qualifying Free Zone Person must prepare and maintain audited financial statements to satisfy the conditions applicable to Qualifying Free Zone Person status, regardless of revenue. Any other Taxable Person that is not a Tax Group must do so where its revenue exceeds AED 50 million in the tax period, under Ministerial Decision No. 84 of 2025. Running one audit that serves both is a matter of scoping the engagement correctly at the start.

The sequence is: confirm the financial year and the deadline and issue the engagement letter; request the document set and the bank confirmations immediately, since those set the critical path; carry out fieldwork; issue the draft for management review; then the signed report and the filing. Every engagement is led personally by Abdulrahman AlNuaimi.

AABDxb is licensed by the UAE Ministry of Economy under auditor licence number 948 and holds current approval as an external auditor at RAKEZ. For the position across the other zones the firm is approved in, see the licence renewal audit guide, the DMCC, JAFZA, DAFZA, IFZA and Ajman Free Zone pages, and the article on free zone audit requirements.