Construction companies across the UAE may be overlooking one of the most valuable outcomes of the country’s new R&D Tax Credit regime. Introduced under Ministerial Decision No. 24 of 2026 and effective from 1 January 2026, the framework offers credits of 15% to 50% on qualifying R&D expenditure. Yet, according to Dhruva, a Ryan Affiliate, many construction businesses have yet to identify the full extent of qualifying activity or put in place the processes required to claim these benefits.

As one of the UAE’s most economically significant sectors, construction is uniquely positioned to benefit from the regime. Innovation in this sector is continuous, spanning materials, construction methods, digital tools and safety systems but much of it has historically not been classified or documented as R&D.

“The construction sector innovates constantly, in materials, in methods, in software, in safety. The challenge is that much of this activity has never been labelled R&D, and therefore never documented as such. That is precisely where value is being left on the table. Companies that begin mapping their qualifying activities now, and build the evidence trail the regime demands, will be the ones positioned to capture this benefit when it matters most,” said Nimish Goel, Leader Middle East, Dhruva, Ryan LLC Affiliate.

To qualify under the regime, R&D activities must meet five criteria aligned with the OECD Frascati Manual: they must be novel, creative, uncertain in outcome, systematic, and transferable or reproducible. For construction businesses that approach innovation with defined objectives, structured experimentation and documented results, a wide range of activity meets this threshold.

In practice, qualifying activity in the construction sector can include the development of advanced materials such as low-carbon concrete and smart composites, experimentation with modular construction techniques and prefabrication systems, and proprietary software development for Building Information Modelling (BIM), digital twins and AI-driven project management. Sustainability innovation also qualifies, including net-zero building systems and passive cooling technologies suited to UAE conditions, as does the adoption of robotics and drone-based construction and inspection methods.

The critical distinction lies between routine construction activity and genuine R&D. Applying an established methodology to a new project does not qualify. Systematically resolving technical uncertainty through experimentation and documenting that process does.

A distinguishing feature of the UAE regime is its dual-threshold structure. Each credit tier requires businesses to meet both a minimum level of qualifying expenditure and a minimum average R&D headcount. The first AED 1 million of qualifying spend attracts a 15% credit with at least two R&D staff; spend between AED 1 million and AED 2 million qualifies for 35% with at least six staff; and spend between AED 2 million and AED 5 million attracts 50% with at least fourteen. Where headcount thresholds are not met, the applicable credit rate is reduced accordingly.

For construction companies, this makes workforce planning integral to tax strategy. Specialist roles including materials scientists, structural engineers working on novel challenges, proptech developers and robotics engineers not only drive innovation but also determine access to higher credit tiers. Staff costs additionally benefit from a 30% uplift in qualifying expenditure, further strengthening the case for building dedicated R&D capability.

“This is not just a tax incentive; it represents a structural shift in how innovation is recognised within the construction sector. Businesses that act early will not only benefit financially but also strengthen their long-term technical capabilities,” added Nimish.

The regime places significant emphasis on contemporaneous documentation and structured processes. Pre-approval from the relevant authority is mandatory, and businesses must maintain detailed technical records of R&D objectives, methodologies, experiments and outcomes for a period of seven years. For construction companies, this requires embedding R&D tracking into project workflows from the outset, rather than attempting to reconstruct evidence retrospectively.

Construction groups operating centralised engineering or shared technology platforms should also review their structures carefully. Intra-group transactions are excluded from qualifying expenditure, making it critical to ensure that R&D costs are appropriately allocated at the entity level.

“The UAE’s construction sector is building the physical infrastructure of a knowledge economy. It is fitting that those who innovate within it now have access to the same calibre of R&D incentive as their counterparts in technology or manufacturing. The question is not whether to engage, but how quickly companies can build the processes to do so effectively,” concluded Nimish.

By Nader Antar, Executive Vice President and President for Brink’s Global Services (BGS)

Much like a stable internet connection or accessibility to clean water, when we consider global finance we tend to take continuity for granted – until it is tested. Capital moves, liquidity flows, and billions in high-value assets cross borders each day, all with an expectation of certainty. Yet courtesy of the ongoing conflicts across the region, that certainty is being challenged in real time.

The Iran war is both reshaping geopolitical dynamics and disrupting the very corridors through which global trade and financial flows depend. Volatile energy markets, heightened concerns about broader economic spillovers, and early signs of how critical trade arteries such as the Strait of Hormuz can suddenly turn stability to systemic risk have sharpened the focus on resilience across the Gulf.

Of course, even amid these heightened tensions, the region continues to project stability, with governments advancing long-term infrastructure and supply chain strategies. Saudi Arabia’s new Logistics Corridors Initiative – which among its objectives aims to establish Red Sea routes capable of bypassing Hormuz entirely – reflects a deliberate approach to ensure the movement of goods, and especially the movement of value, remains uninterrupted.

Within this environment, the transport of high-value assets – banknotes, precious metals, and other commodities – has come under increased scrutiny. These flows are deeply embedded in the functioning of financial systems, linking central banks, commercial institutions, and global markets. When disruption occurs, the consequences extend beyond delayed shipments and can impact everything from liquidity to market confidence to operational continuity.

The question then, during a period of geopolitical conflict, is not whether disruption will occur, but how quickly and smoothly systems can adapt when it does. At Brink’s, our approach to this particular challenge is anchored in three core principles: Infrastructure, diversification, and visibility.

Infrastructure is the foundation of resilience. A globally distributed network of high-security facilities across major trade hubs ensures continuity by allowing rapid shifts when disruptions occur. Whether that is in the UAE, Switzerland, Singapore, or the United States, these facilities enable valuable commodities to be securely stored, repositioned, and mobilised as conditions evolve. In an unpredictable environment, the ability to absorb shocks and shift assets quickly without compromising security or compliance is crucial.

Diversification ensures flow flexibility. Traditional logistics models, often optimised for efficiency along fixed corridors, are no longer sufficient. Today’s operating environment demands multi-route, multi-modal strategies that allow shipments to be rerouted rapidly when disruptions occur. By integrating storage and transport into a single, coordinated system, it becomes possible to maintain continuity even as specific routes or markets face constraints.

Visibility, however, is what brings resilience into focus. Real-time monitoring across operations provides the situational awareness needed to anticipate risks and respond proactively. Through centralised platforms, our teams maintain continuous oversight of shipments, facilities, and transport networks. This level of transparency goes far deeper than simply tracking assets; it is about enabling faster, more informed decision-making in moments where timing is critical.

The UAE offers a compelling example of how these principles come together in practice. As one of the most stable and strategically positioned logistics hubs in the world, the Emirates has built an ecosystem defined by advanced infrastructure, strong regulatory frameworks, and deep connectivity across global trade corridors. In many respects, operations remained business as usual throughout these past couple of months. Yet this continuity is not accidental; it is the result of deliberate investment in systems designed to withstand disruption — even when the country found itself pulled into what might yet be one of the most consequential conflicts in recent history.

Beyond transport, the scope of secure logistics continues to expand. From safeguarding high-value assets at major international exhibitions to ensuring the uninterrupted availability of cash through extensive ATM networks, resilience must be embedded across the entire financial ecosystem. In markets such as India, innovation is also reshaping how cash and digital systems interact, creating new models that enhance both security and accessibility.

None of this happens in isolation. Secure logistics operates within a broader framework that depends on close coordination with regulators, customs authorities, and law enforcement agencies. These partnerships are essential to maintaining compliant, uninterrupted cross-border flows, particularly during periods of heightened geopolitical tension.

What we are witnessing today is a broader transformation in how the logistics sector approaches risk. The emphasis is moving from efficiency to adaptability, from linear supply chains to dynamic, interconnected networks. Resilience, flexibility, and visibility are now considered non-negotiables.

Global trade will continue to evolve, shaped by shifting geopolitical dynamics and emerging economic corridors. But one constant will remain: The need for trust. It is only with this that assets will move securely, that systems will hold under pressure, and that continuity will be maintained.

In the end, the true measure of a network — be it global finance, logistics, or indeed telecommunications — is not how it performs when conditions are stable, but how effectively it responds when they are not. 

Amit Dua, President, SunTec Business Solutions

E-invoicing in the UAE is no longer a distant policy idea; it is a dated commitment. From July 2026, the Federal Tax Authority (FTA) will begin the first mandatory phase of a national e-invoicing regime, with larger taxpayers required to comply from January 2027 and smaller businesses following later that year. Penalties of up to AED 5,000 per violation have already been announced for non-compliance.

This is happening against the backdrop of a fast-expanding non-oil economy. At the same time, artificial intelligence is projected to contribute close to 14 percent of UAE GDP by 2030, the highest relative impact in the region.

In such an environment, e-invoicing is not a narrow tax exercise. It is a test of whether companies can manage real-time regulatory obligations while improving the speed, integrity, and usefulness of their financial data. Firms that treat it as another compliance chore will scramble to catch up. Those that approach it as a strategic capability will emerge with cleaner processes, faster cash conversion, and better insight into how their businesses actually work.

Four disciplines, in particular, will separate the merely compliant from the genuinely prepared.

1. Start by really understanding the new rulebook

The first discipline sounds obvious but is frequently ignored: know the rules in detail. Under the UAE framework, an invoice will no longer be a PDF attachment travelling quietly from seller to buyer. It will be a structured data packet, typically in XML, and in some cases JSON, that must be generated by the supplier’s systems, routed through an accredited service provider operating on the Peppol five-corner model, and delivered simultaneously to the buyer and to the FTA.

This architecture is deliberately more complex than the old email-and-attachment world. Each invoice must pass schema checks, integrity checks, and business-rule validations before it is accepted as a tax-compliant document. The FTA will then use the incoming data stream to pre-populate returns, reconcile declarations with actual invoice flows, and flag discrepancies almost in real time.

There is also a long tail of procedural obligations. Businesses must understand which transactions fall within scope in each phase, how credit notes and cancellations will be handled, how to deal with cross-border supplies, and which exemptions, if any, apply to their sector. Beneath all of this sits a familiar but often neglected requirement: record-keeping. UAE tax law already obliges businesses to retain accounting records, including tax invoices, for at least five years after the end of the relevant tax period, with longer periods for certain assets and real estate. E-invoicing will not replace this obligation; it will tighten it, because the Authority will have its own copy of every invoice.

Companies that only half-understand this rulebook will find themselves constantly reacting to surprises. The ones that invest early in a precise, shared understanding, across finance, tax, IT and operations, will be able to design systems and processes that meet the requirements without strangling the business.

2. Redesign the systems, not just patch them

The second discipline is technical, but it cannot be delegated entirely to IT. Large and mid-sized UAE businesses typically run a patchwork of ERPs, billing engines, and industry-specific platforms. Many were built for a world where an “invoice” was whatever the system could print. They were not designed to produce standardized, structured e-invoices or to connect to a Peppol-based network in which every document is validated by an external access point before it counts.

Trying to bolt e-invoicing on to this kind of landscape in the last quarter of 2026 would be professionally reckless. Boards must insist on a hard-headed mapping of how invoices are currently created, routed, approved, and stored.

The UAE framework gives firms some architectural freedom. They can consolidate invoice generation in a central “hub” that talks to multiple access points, or they can adopt a more decentralized model with business-unit-specific systems feeding into a common provider. But there are hard deadlines. Large taxpayers with annual revenues above AED 50 million must appoint an accredited service provider by 31 July 2026 and go live with e-invoicing by 1 January 2027; smaller taxpayers follow six months later, with their own appointment and go-live dates in 2027.

Accredited service providers themselves face strict requirements on uptime, performance, and information security. Many must demonstrate ISO/IEC 27001-level controls and keep pace with evolving FTA specifications. Choosing one in a hurry, without proper due diligence on their scalability and roadmap, will store up trouble. The more disciplined approach is to treat system redesign as a staged program: clean up master data, rationalize templates, decide which systems are sources of truth and which are consumers, and only then build or buy the integration layer that connects to the Peppol network.

3. Train the organization for real-time tax

The third discipline is organizational. E-invoicing looks, at first glance, like a back-office affair. In reality, it will touch sales, procurement, operations, customer service, and even treasury. Every group that raises, approves, disputes or chases an invoice will have to change behavior.

In markets that have already implemented similar regimes, many of the worst early-stage problems had little to do with software. They arose from people trying to work around the new rules. Sales teams promised bespoke formats or unusual discount structures that the system could not express in a valid e-invoice. Shared service centers reverted to spreadsheets when confronted with a new edge case. Managers asked IT to “override” rejections to recognize revenue faster, undermining both controls and audit trails.

The UAE will not be an exception. Training cannot be limited to a single webinar or a set of user manuals. Front-line staff need to understand what makes an invoice “real” in the new world, which fields are non-negotiable, and what to do when an invoice fails validation. Middle managers need to know how to interpret new exception reports and how to balance commercial pressures with compliance obligations. Senior leadership needs a clear view of key metrics such as rejection rates, average time from issue to acceptance, and the volume of manual interventions as leading indicators of whether the new regime is bedding in or beginning to buckle.

The most effective organizations are already running “shadow” or pilot cycles, issuing e-invoices alongside traditional ones and using the results to refine processes ahead of the legal deadlines. That kind of rehearsal requires coordination, and coordination requires visible sponsorship. When the CEO, CFO and CIO jointly own e-invoicing, it becomes a transformation initiative. When it is dumped quietly into the IT work queue, it becomes an expensive troubleshooting exercise.

4. Treat data, security, and retention as strategic infrastructure

The fourth discipline goes beyond the launch date. E-invoicing will generate one of the richest, most sensitive data streams in a business. Each invoice reveals who is paying whom, on what terms, for what goods or services, and under what tax treatment. In the UAE’s Peppol-based five-corner model, this data will flow more widely than before, passing through access points and central systems on its way to the FTA.

Regulators have attempted to pre-empt security concerns. Accredited providers must meet rigorous information-security standards, and the technical specifications call for encryption, digital signatures and auditable logs. But no external standard can compensate for weak internal governance. Boards must be asking very basic questions now: who can change tax codes or customer master data; how access rights are granted and revoked; what happens if an access point is compromised or goes offline; and how quickly the company can detect unusual patterns, such as repeated rejections for a particular counterparty.

Record-keeping deserves similar attention. Existing VAT rules already require businesses to retain tax records, including invoices, for at least five years after the end of the relevant tax period, with longer retention periods for some categories. E-invoicing will make it easier to store these records in a structured way, but it also raises the bar. If the Authority holds a copy of every invoice, gaps or inconsistencies in a company’s own archive will be harder to explain.

If managed well, this new data environment is an asset. Structured e-invoice data can give leadership teams a real-time view of receivables, payables, pricing, and discount patterns across business units and geographies.

From four steps to one mindset

The UAE’s e-invoicing mandate will not dominate headlines in the way that new trade agreements or record non-oil trade figures do. Yet, quietly, it will shape how companies in the country bill, collect, report and plan. It is tempting for boards to think of it as a discrete project with a defined end date. In reality, it marks a shift to a more transparent, data-intensive relationship between business and state, one that will continue to evolve as tax rules, digital infrastructure, and trade flows change.

The four disciplines outlined here, understanding the rulebook, redesigning systems, training the organization, and treating data and security as strategic infrastructure, are not an exhaustive checklist. They are, however, a good proxy for mindset. Companies that embrace them are likely to find that e-invoicing improves the quality of their numbers, the speed of their decisions and the robustness of their controls. Those that do not, may meet the letter of the law but miss the larger opportunity.

In a country positioning itself as a global hub for trade and AI-driven digital commerce, e-invoicing is part of the plumbing. As every good engineer knows, the quality of the plumbing determines how much pressure the system can take.