Setting up in the UAE
Free zone or mainland, subsidiary or holding: I analyse what each option means for your business in the Emirates and for your group back home, and I handle the incorporation from start to finish.
Before you choose
A jurisdiction is not chosen from a brochure. It comes from answering these questions with your case on the table.
Selling within the Emirati market or abroad shapes almost everything else, starting with the type of licence.
Licences are granted for specific activities. Some are regulated and need additional approvals before you can start.
This determines where the company may be considered resident and, with that, what happens with tax back home.
The number of visas is usually tied to the licence and the space you rent. What seems enough today may fall short within a year.
New partners, a sale, succession or a move into other markets: the structure is designed with the end of the road in mind, not just the first step.
Comparison
A first orientation. The final decision depends on your activity and your group back home.
To work with clients outside the UAE or within the zone itself.
To sell directly in the Emirati market or contract with local clients.
To hold shares, organise a group or ring-fence an asset.
What I see go wrong
The cheapest licence may not cover your real activity or may make it harder to open a bank account.
Problems of effective management, controlled foreign company rules or transfer pricing can arise back home and are not easily fixed afterwards.
Next come Corporate Tax registration, the beneficial owner, renewals and the obligations that apply to your activity.
The bank will ask about your activity, the source of funds and your presence here. The file is prepared from day one.
From start to finish
You tell me about your situation, whether you are abroad or already in the Emirates. This conversation is to understand it, not to sell you a structure.
I analyse your case and explain your options, what each one involves and which I recommend, with its legal basis.
Before we start, you know what will be done, by when and what it will cost.
I handle your matter from start to finish as your single point of contact, and I stay with you afterwards, letting you know when something that affects you changes.
Common questions
It depends above all on where your clients are and what activity you will carry out. A free zone company is designed to operate within its zone and with clients outside the UAE. To sell in the local market it usually needs a distributor or an additional licence. A mainland company can operate in the local market with fewer limitations. The right answer comes from analysing your case, not from a comparison table.
In most commercial and industrial activities, no: since the 2021 company law reform a foreigner can own 100% of the company. There are exceptions for activities considered to have strategic impact and each emirate sets its own conditions, so it has to be checked activity by activity.
It is subject to Corporate Tax and must register like any other company. The general rate is 9% on taxable income above AED 375,000. The preferential free zone regime only applies to qualifying income and only if the company meets all the Qualifying Free Zone Person requirements.
It can affect the parent's tax position: the treatment of dividends, transfer pricing between related companies and the place where the subsidiary is considered to be managed. If the Emirati company is in fact run from abroad, it may be considered resident there. That is why I analyse it before anything is incorporated.
It depends on the jurisdiction, the activity and the documents that need to be legalised back home. I give you specific timeframes after the assessment. The step that usually needs the most leeway is opening the bank account.
I reply personally and suggest the first step.
