This page sets out how Symbol Consulting prepares the material published here: where each figure comes from, how we handle numbers that do not agree, and where our own judgment enters the text. It is the same standard we apply in advisory work, written down so that a reader can check it.
Every figure traced to the authority that sets it
Our core discipline is simple: every threshold, rate and deadline traces back to the federal law, the Federal Tax Authority (FTA) or the free-zone authority that sets it, and carries an as-of date shown in the text. When we state that Corporate Tax applies at 9% above AED 375,000, or that a new company must register for Corporate Tax within three months of incorporation, the underlying instrument — the relevant Federal Decree-Law, Cabinet Decision or FTA decision — is identifiable, not asserted on our own authority.
How we handle divergent figures
UAE regulation moves quickly, and secondary sources frequently disagree — on visa salary thresholds, on penalty amounts, on practical bank-account timelines. Where reputable sources diverge, we show both figures and explain the difference rather than averaging them into a single misleading number. A regulatory target (for example, a Central Bank rule) and observed market practice are two distinct things: we present them separately, each attributed, never blended.
Where the rule ends and our judgment begins
Two different things appear in these texts, and we keep them visibly apart:
- What the rule says: the text of a decree-law, a Cabinet Decision, an FTA decision or a free-zone rulebook, reported as it stands, with its source and date.
- What we think it means in practice: our reading of how that rule plays out for a founder, an investor or a finance team. This is the firm’s opinion, formed in advisory work, and it is written so that a reader can tell it apart from the rule itself.
Readers should also keep the obvious in view: we are a business-advisory firm writing about the field in which we are paid to advise. The material promotes our expertise. We think that is a reason to state our sources more carefully, not less.
What we never do, and how we correct
We do not invent figures, we do not attribute statements to authorities that never issued them, and we do not present our own estimates as official data. When no reliable primary source exists for a relevant figure, we either flag it as our own estimate or leave it out. Where an error is identified after publication, we correct it promptly and note the correction; readers can flag a factual error through the contact form on this site. The absence of a verifiable source is sufficient reason not to publish a figure, however useful it would be for a headline.
Why we publish this standard
A firm that asks to be trusted on Corporate Tax thresholds and visa criteria should be willing to show its working. Setting out the method in public lets a reader — or a prospective client — test any claim we make against the instrument behind it, and hold us to the correction rule when we get something wrong. That is the point of this page.