Accounting firm advertising rules in the UAE, and the content AI reads

Rule two: no misleading promises to win work

FTA Decision No. 1 of 2024, issued on 15 January 2024 and in force since 1 July 2024, sets professional standards backed by black points. Seeking work through false or misleading representations, or claiming you can gain a special advantage or trigger action at the FTA through improper means, carries 100 points that stay on record for 24 months. The guide attached to the decision adds that a tax agent must not make false promises to attract clients.

The points add up. An individual agent is notified up to 75 points, warned twice on the way to 199, and removed from the register at 200; for a firm the thresholds are multiplied by its number of agents (FTA Decision No. 1 of 2024, Article 5). Two marketing slips inside 24 months can cost an agent their place on the register.

In practice this rules out pay zero tax, guaranteed refund, we know people at the FTA and any number that implies a result. The best accountant in Dubai is a question owners type into an assistant. Your page answers it with the task, the client type and the credentials, never with the phrase.

Rule three: client names need written consent

Sharing information about any taxpayer with a third party without their explicit written consent is the first item on the black points table: 100 points, unless the law requires the disclosure (FTA Decision No. 1 of 2024). The federal law on the profession says the same for accounting firms: the affairs of a client may be disclosed only with its consent or in the cases the law lists (Federal Decree-Law No. 41 of 2023, Article 18).

This touches more marketing than firms expect. A logo wall, a case study, a reply to a review that mentions the client's filing, a partner's post about a refund recovered. Each needs the client's written yes, or the client's name and details left out.

Rule four: the Chartered Accountant title and the code

The designation Chartered Accountant may be used only by someone holding a professional licence from the Ministry of Economy (Federal Decree-Law No. 41 of 2023, Article 8). A qualification from abroad does not carry the title by itself here. Write the qualification as it is, and keep the title for licensed practitioners.

The same law bars practising or advertising the profession in a way that breaks its code of conduct or the dignity of the profession (Article 17), with sanctions from a written notice to fines of AED 10,000 to 1,000,000, suspension or cancellation of the licence (Article 20).

What this means for each page

Written to these rules, an accounting site has fewer claims and more specifics than its competitors. That trade is in your favour.

• Task pages

  The task, who it suits, the documents needed, the deadline with its source, and a price range if you publish one. No promised saving, no promised refund.

• Partner pages

  Name, qualifications as awarded, the FTA accreditation number where held, the Ministry licence where held. Chartered Accountant only with the licence.

• Case studies

  With the client's written consent, or anonymised down to the company type and the task.

• Reviews and replies

  Ask for reviews that name the task. Reply with thanks and nothing about the client's tax position.

• Sign off

  A registered agent or licensed partner reads each tax page before it is published, and the page shows the date of that check.

Why the careful page is the page that gets named

An assistant writes its answer from sentences it can confirm somewhere else. The firm handles corporate tax for free zone companies. The partner is on the FTA register. The office is in Al Barsha. The rules allow every one of those sentences, and the claims they forbid are exactly the ones a model cannot confirm.

A firm that writes inside the rules gives nothing up in the answer. It is writing the only kind of page an assistant is willing to repeat.

This is what we write to, not legal advice. Rules change and they change quickly, so check the current rules with your regulator.