Dubai Healthcare City – Mandatory Audit
Dubai Healthcare City Authority – Regulatory is an independent arm of Dubai Healthcare City Authority. The DHCA is the body of Dubai Healthcare City that regulates it as the largest healthcare free zone for health and wellness globally.
Dubai Healthcare City Authority – Regulatory, now referred to as DHCR, regulates the free zone and directly reports to the DHCA Board. It ensures the compliance of international quality and regulatory standards for clinical and non-clinical establishments. It also provides the licensing of all healthcare professionals, operators and educators incorporated within the DHCC.
Registering and licensing of firms is possible in the DHCC through the registration department in DHCA. The department is made up of a company registry and a licensing unit.
The company registry unit is in charge of –
- The incorporation of a free zone LLC company, branch offices of any UAE company or branch office of any foreign company
- Keeping and updating company register
The business licensing unit issues licenses and renews them at the expiry of such licenses; one of the most common licenses is the commercial license that needs to be renewed every year.
Mandatory Audit of Financial Statements
On February 07, The Dubai Healthcare Authority – Regulatory, the regulatory in the free zone, passed a statement with the context that.
“It is mandatory to submit audited financial statements during the commercial license renewal for entities with the legal frame as ‘Free zone Limited Liability Companies’ effective from March 01 2021.”
This regulation requires Auditing and Assurance Services to have their financial statements audited to renew their commercial license once it expires.
Audit by an Approved Auditor
After the passed regulation, in addition to the above documents, the entity is also required to submit their audited financial accounts by an Approved Auditor to renew their license.
Every free zone LLC in the Dubai Healthcare city needs to get its financial statements audited by a registered auditor or an Auditor Approved by the Free Zone Authority to renew its commercial license.
The points to keep in mind while auditing the financial statements of a free zone LLC is given below
- 100% foreign ownership of the enterprise
- 100% export and import tax exemption
- 100% repatriation of capitals and profits
- Corporate tax exemptions
- No personal income taxes
As the financial year in the UAE is the calendar year, a company can choose its financial year as per requirement. The chosen financial year should not be less than six months and no more than 18 months.
Annual audit of financial statements is now mandatory, and failure to comply with this regulation may lead a registered business to be penalised with a hefty fine, or the LLC will lose its license.
