Business Set Up
Everyone has an opinion on which free zone you should pick, and most of them are selling one. The jurisdiction decides your running costs, whether you can invoice mainland customers, how many visas you get, and how corporate tax treats you. Getting it wrong is not a form to correct later. It is a second company.
A licence in the jurisdiction that matches what you actually intend to do, with the establishment card, the visa quota and the tax obligations understood before you pay for any of it.
Business Set Up
Everyone has an opinion on which free zone you should pick, and most of them are selling one. The jurisdiction decides your running costs, whether you can invoice mainland customers, how many visas you get, and how corporate tax treats you. Getting it wrong is not a form to correct later. It is a second company.
A licence in the jurisdiction that matches what you actually intend to do, with the establishment card, the visa quota and the tax obligations understood before you pay for any of it.
How it works
What actually happens, in order.
- 01
What you are actually doing
Who you sell to, where they are, how many people you need to sponsor, and what you expect to turn over. Those four answers decide mainland or free zone, and which free zone, more than any brochure does.
One session
- 02
Jurisdiction and activity
The options go side by side with real costs: licence, visa quota, office requirement, renewal, and the tax and audit obligations attached to each. You choose with the numbers in front of you.
2 to 3 working days
- 03
Licensing
Name reservation, initial approval, documents, and the licence issued. Then the establishment card and the visa quota, because a licence on its own does not let you hire anybody.
Authority timelines apply
- 04
Day one set up
Corporate tax registration, the VAT position, the bank account application, and the books opened from the first transaction. This is the part that usually gets left, and it costs more to fix than to do.
Agreed with you
What you hand over. What you get back.
What you provide and what we deliver
You provide
- Passport copies for every shareholder
- Proposed company names, in order of preference
- What the business will do, and who it will sell to
- Expected headcount and turnover
- Existing visa or Emirates ID, if you hold one
We deliver
- A written jurisdiction comparison with real costs
- Name reservation and initial approval
- The trade licence issued in the chosen jurisdiction
- Establishment card and visa quota
- Corporate tax registration, and the VAT position assessed
- Books opened from the first transaction
What it costs
What the fee depends on.
Government and authority fees are set by the authority, differ by jurisdiction and activity, and are passed through at cost with the schedule shown before you commit. Our fee depends on the jurisdiction, the number of shareholders, whether any shareholder is a company, and how many activities the licence carries. You always see the two numbers separately.
The rules, as they stand
What the regulations currently say.
Choosing a free zone does not put a company outside corporate tax. The UAE corporate tax regime covers free zone businesses, and continues to honour the incentives available to those that comply with all regulatory requirements.
SourceChecked
UAE rules change. These notes are general information, not advice for your entity, and we re-check every one of them on a schedule.
Before you ask
Questions about business set up
If the one you need is not here, ask it on WhatsApp. You will get an actual answer, not a callback form.
Mainland or free zone?
It depends on who your customers are. If you need to invoice mainland UAE companies directly and often, a free zone licence makes that harder. If you sell abroad or to other free zone companies, a free zone is usually cheaper to run and faster to open. Visa quota, office requirements and renewal costs differ as well. We put the real numbers side by side and you choose.
How much does it cost to set up?
It depends on jurisdiction, activity and how many visas you need, and the government portion moves. What we will not do is give you one headline number that hides the difference between the authority fee, the office cost, the visa cost and our fee. You get those four separately, before you commit to any of them.
Can you do the accounting afterwards?
That is the usual arrangement, and it is the argument for running set up and accounting through one firm. Corporate tax registration, the VAT position, the first set of books and the establishment card all depend on decisions taken during licensing. Making those decisions once, with the same people, is cheaper than explaining them twice.
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