UAE businesses that meet specific revenue or group thresholds are required to maintain formal transfer pricing documentation — a Master File covering the wider multinational group, and a Local File detailing the specific entity’s related-party transactions and arm’s-length analysis. Our Transfer Pricing Documentation service prepares both to the standard the FTA expects, ready to be produced on request.
What's Included
We prepare your Local File, covering your entity’s organisational structure, a detailed description of each related-party transaction, the transfer pricing method applied, and supporting economic analysis demonstrating arm’s-length pricing. Where a Master File is also required, we coordinate its preparation, covering the wider group’s structure, business activities and overall transfer pricing policies.
We also review existing intercompany agreements against the transactions actually occurring in practice, since documentation that does not match what is genuinely happening on the ground is a common weakness the FTA specifically looks for.
Why Proper Documentation Matters
Transfer pricing documentation is not simply a filing formality — it is the evidence that supports your arm’s-length position if the FTA ever questions a related-party transaction. Businesses that meet the threshold but have no documentation prepared are left unable to substantiate their position if asked, regardless of whether the underlying pricing was actually correct.
Documentation prepared only after the FTA requests it, rather than maintained contemporaneously, is also considerably harder to produce convincingly — reconstructing an economic analysis for a transaction that happened years earlier rarely holds up as well as documentation prepared at the time.
Who Needs This Service
UAE businesses meeting the revenue threshold that triggers Local File requirements, and entities that are part of a multinational group meeting the consolidated revenue threshold that triggers Master File requirements.
What We'll Need From You
Your group structure and ownership chart, details of related-party transactions and existing intercompany agreements, and financial information supporting the economic analysis of each transaction.
Our Process
We confirm whether Master File and Local File requirements apply to your business, gather the necessary group and transaction information, prepare the documentation with supporting economic analysis, and review it with you before finalising.
How We Determine Arm's-Length Pricing
We apply recognised transfer pricing methods — comparable uncontrolled price, cost plus, resale price, or profit-based methods depending on the transaction type — selecting whichever best fits the nature of your specific related-party dealing, supported by relevant market or industry data.
Keeping Documentation Current
Related-party arrangements change over time — a new intercompany loan, a revised management fee, a new shared service arrangement — and we recommend reviewing and updating documentation at least annually so it always reflects what is actually happening rather than a snapshot from when it was first prepared.
Get Expert Help for Your Business
Talk to an FTA-approved tax consultant today. Free consultation, no obligation — we’ll tell you exactly what your business needs.
Getting Started
Share your group structure and a summary of related-party transactions, and we will confirm your documentation thresholds and provide a fixed quote and timeline for preparing the required files.
Documentation That Withstands Scrutiny
We prepare documentation the way we would want to receive it if we were the ones reviewing it on the FTA’s side — clear economic analysis, consistent figures across the Local File and your Corporate Tax return, and language that explains the commercial rationale behind each related-party arrangement rather than simply asserting arm’s-length compliance.
We also stress-test the documentation before it is finalised, reviewing it the way an FTA officer likely would, so any weak point in the underlying economic analysis is identified and strengthened before the documentation is ever actually needed.
Why Businesses Choose Us for Documentation
Documentation prepared by someone unfamiliar with your actual business often reads as generic and unconvincing — the same template with different names inserted. We take the time to understand the genuine commercial rationale behind each related-party arrangement, so your documentation explains the real reasons a transaction was structured the way it was.
Coordinating With Overseas Group Advisors
For UAE entities that are part of a larger international group, we coordinate directly with the group’s other tax advisors so the UAE Local File is consistent with documentation being prepared in other jurisdictions, rather than each entity’s advisor working from a different version of the group’s facts.
Where no overseas advisor is yet in place, we can also flag which aspects of the wider group’s structure would benefit from formal documentation elsewhere, so gaps in the group’s overall transfer pricing position are identified rather than left unaddressed simply because they sit outside the UAE.
Frequently Asked Questions
The Master File describes the wider multinational group’s structure and transfer pricing policies, while the Local File focuses on the specific UAE entity’s own related-party transactions and analysis.
Specific revenue and group consolidated revenue thresholds set by the FTA determine whether Local File and Master File documentation is required — we assess this against your actual figures.
Documentation should generally be maintained contemporaneously and be ready to submit to the FTA within a set period if requested, rather than prepared only after a request is received.
Yes, we coordinate the UAE Local File with the wider group’s Master File, working with your group’s other advisors where the Master File is prepared outside the UAE.
Failing to produce required documentation on request can itself trigger a penalty, separate from any adjustment to the underlying transfer pricing position.