Zoho becomes first to introduce corporate tax capabilities in the UAE

Zoho, a leading global technology company, announced the launch of new corporate tax features in Zoho Books, FTA-accredited cloud accounting software to enable businesses, solopreneurs, and freelancers to automate corporate tax compliance and gain better visibility into their tax filings.

In addition to helping businesses comply with VAT regulations, the new features launched in Zoho Books will provide businesses with automated tax calculations to ensure timely and accurate tax filing.

“When VAT was implemented in the UAE, we launched the UAE edition of Zoho Books to help businesses with tax compliance. Since then, we have witnessed a strong adoption and consistent growth in revenue in the region. This can be attributed to the fact that businesses are seeing the value of having powerful cloud accounting software that has compliance baked into the system. With the features launched today in Zoho Books, businesses can get visibility into how much they owe in corporate tax, and easily file returns. The addition of corporate tax capabilities shows our strong commitment in helping UAE businesses thrive in the ever-evolving landscape of taxation and regulation,” said Prashant Ganti, head of product management, Zoho finance and operations suite.

Zoho Books also comes with built-in collaboration capability which enables businesses to work together with their finance teams and accountants in real-time to identify and resolve any discrepancies quickly, and also obtain clarifications, resulting in improved accuracy in their financial data. The Zoho Books user interface is available in both English and Arabic.

Effective from June 1 of this year, the UAE Ministry of Finance has mandated that taxable businesses with a profit higher than Dh375,000 annually must pay 9 per cent in corporate tax on their business profits.

Zoho Books recently conducted a survey among its customers in the UAE to assess their preparedness for the upcoming corporate tax regulations. The survey revealed that more than 44 per cent of the businesses are currently in the process of setting up frameworks to ensure compliance. Additionally, more than 85 per cent of businesses feel that understanding the law and its requirements will be the main challenge in becoming compliant, while 83 per cent believe that tax compliance workshops and training are essential in preparing for the implementation of the law.

Overall, the survey also revealed that 82 per cent of the businesses successfully filed their VAT returns accurately and paid taxes on time using Zoho Books. Furthermore, more than 80 per cent were confident that Zoho Books will help businesses fulfil their corporate tax obligations.

Zoho Books held a corporate tax meetup for business owners and also offers a variety of resources online including guides, and FAQs to help businesses understand the law, and transition smoothly.

Zoho Books is amongst Zoho’s top-selling solutions in the Middle East and Africa (MEA) region. The application is a comprehensive cloud-based accounting solution that helps businesses manage their finances and stay VAT and corporate tax compliant as per the FTA’s guidelines. The software also offers advanced features like order management, budgeting, expense management, workflow automation, customisation, and business analytics.

• Business