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    Company Formation · Dubai, UAE

    Set up in the UAE without inheriting a tax problem

    Most agents sell you a licence. We check the corporate tax position first, then pick the jurisdiction. Choose the wrong free zone and it quietly costs you 9% of profit you assumed was exempt.

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  • Free Zone Setup

    Over 40 free zones. Only a handful suit your activity.

    IFZA, Meydan, DMCC, JAFZA, SHAMS, RAKEZ and the rest are built for different businesses. We match the zone to your activity, visa needs and customers, not to whichever pays the best commission.

    Compare Free Zones Talk to a Consultant

  • PRO, Visas & Documents

    The paperwork, handled end to end

    Establishment card, immigration file, investor and staff visas, medicals, Emirates ID, licence amendments and attestation. One team, one point of contact, no chasing counters.

    PRO Services Call Us

  • Bank Account & Web Presence

    Your bank will ask to see a website

    Compliance teams check that the business is real before they open an account. We prepare the application, and build the single-page company site with one year of hosting for AED 500.

    See What's Included
10+ years of serviceAccounting, tax and company setup across the UAE
A licensed tax firmNot a licence broker earning zone commission
0% or 9% checked firstYour tax position, before the jurisdiction is chosen
We stay after launchBooks, VAT and corporate tax with the same team
Welcome to Exiloz

A business setup firm that answers to the tax law, not to a commission

Setting up in the UAE is not hard. Setting up in the right place is where people lose money.

Most consultants are paid by the free zone that issues your licence. That is why the recommendation so often arrives before the questions do. Exiloz is a licensed tax and accounting practice that also forms companies, so the incentive runs the other way: we have to live with your structure long after the licence is printed, through every VAT return and every corporate tax filing.

Tell us what the business does and who pays its invoices. The jurisdiction follows from that.

Written by the Exiloz Management & Tax Consultant advisory team, Deira, Dubai · reviewed against UAE tax legislation · last updated

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Dubai corporate towers lit at blue hour
Meeting room in a Dubai consultancy office overlooking the city
About Us

We met the problem from the other end first

Exiloz Management & Tax Consultant LLC works out of Deira, Dubai, handling accounting, VAT and corporate tax for companies across the Emirates. That work put us in the same room as the same conversation over and over: a founder eighteen months past incorporation, holding a free zone licence sold to them on the promise of 0%, and a first corporate tax return that said otherwise.

Business setup was the obvious thing to add, because by then we already knew exactly where the structure decisions go wrong. Everything on this page is written from that side of the desk.

DeiraDubai office, in person when it matters
End to endLicence, visas, bank, books and filings under one roof
Tax-ledStructure assessed before a fee is paid
Company Formation

Your path to business establishment

Three routes into the UAE market, and the choice turns on one question: who is going to pay your invoices? Settle that before anyone shows you a package price, because the structure decides your tax position for every year that follows.

Dubai mainland commercial street with ground-floor shopfronts at golden hour
Selling inside the UAE

Mainland Business Setup

A mainland licence is issued by the emirate's Department of Economy and lets you trade directly with UAE businesses and consumers, open retail premises and bid for government and semi-government contracts. It carries the widest activity list of the three routes, and since the 2021 Commercial Companies Law amendment, 100% foreign ownership applies across the great majority of activities. We take the whole process, from activity selection and trade name through Ejari, external approvals and licence issue.

Mainland setup
UAE free zone business towers and logistics warehousing at dusk
Export, services & holding

Free Zone Business Setup

A free zone is often the fastest and most affordable way into the UAE, and there are more than forty of them, each with its own activity list, visa quota and office rules. It is also the only route to 0% corporate tax, but only where the qualifying conditions are genuinely met rather than assumed. We match the zone to your activity, your customers and your visa count, and we tell you plainly whether your income will actually qualify.

Compare the free zones
Corporate document folder, company seal and brass globe on a dark desk
Holding & asset structures

Offshore Business Setup

RAK ICC, JAFZA Offshore and their equivalents are holding vehicles, not operating licences. They carry no UAE visas, no local trading rights and no physical premises requirement, which makes them well suited to owning property, holding shares in other companies and structuring a group. They are the wrong tool for a business that needs to invoice customers, and we will say so before you pay for one.

Ask about offshore
Growth Potential

Why companies keep choosing the Emirates

Not one of the real reasons is "no tax". That stopped being true in 2023, and the businesses that plan around the rules as they actually stand consistently do better than the ones still working from an old brochure.

What remains is a genuinely strong proposition: a low headline rate, full foreign ownership, free movement of capital, and a location that reaches most of the world's population inside eight hours' flying.

See What It Takes
  • 019% headline corporate taxNil on the first AED 375,000 of taxable profit, and 0% on qualifying free zone income where the conditions are met.
  • 02100% foreign ownershipAcross the great majority of mainland activities since the 2021 Commercial Companies Law amendment. No local partner required.
  • 03No personal income taxSalaries and dividends drawn by individuals are not taxed personally, which changes the salary-versus-dividend maths for owners.
  • 04Capital moves freelyNo exchange controls, the dirham pegged to the US dollar, and profits and capital repatriable in full.
  • 05Residency follows the licenceAn operating licence carries investor and employee visa quotas, with longer routes available to qualifying investors and specialists.
Successful Business Setup Structure

Six stages, in the order that keeps you out of trouble

Some stages run in parallel. Regulated activities add an external approval between two and three. The licence itself is rarely the bottleneck: visas and the bank account take longer.

1Activity & Legal FormThe activity code decides who can license you, what approvals apply, and how your income is taxed.
2Name & ApprovalTrade name reservation, shareholder documents and the authority's initial approval.
3PremisesFlexi-desk, shared desk or a physical unit. Mainland requires a lease registered with Ejari.
4Licence IssuedFees settled, MOA signed, trade licence and establishment card in hand.
5Immigration & VisasImmigration file, e-channel, entry permit, medical, Emirates ID and stamping.
6Bank & RegistrationsCorporate account, corporate tax registration, VAT at threshold, books from invoice one.
Our Services

Explore our range of business services

Company formation, licensing, PRO and visas, banking, trademarks and closure. The same team across all of it, from the first question to your first corporate tax return.

Serviced office space prepared for a newly licensed UAE company

Business Setup Services

Forming a company in the UAE is straightforward once the structure is right. We handle mainland, free zone and offshore incorporation end to end, starting from your activity code rather than from a package price. Because we file the corporate tax returns afterwards, the jurisdiction we recommend has to survive its first year.

Company incorporation
Modern retail and trading showroom interior in Dubai

Trade Licence & DED Services

The Department of Economy and Tourism issues the licence that lets you trade across Dubai and the wider UAE. Commercial, professional, industrial and tourism categories each carry their own approvals and activity lists. We match the category to how you actually earn, then take the application through to issue.

Licence categories
Modern UAE government service centre counters with the UAE flag

PRO Services & Visas

Our PRO team handles the government side so you are not queuing at counters. Establishment card, labour and immigration files, investor and employee visas, entry permits, medicals, Emirates ID, renewals and cancellations. Attestation and legal translation run through the same workflow.

PRO & document clearing
Laptop showing a company website beside documents and a bank card on a Dubai office desk

Bank Account Assistance

Opening a corporate account is where most new companies stall. We assemble the document pack, match you to a bank that actually serves your activity and size, and brief you before the compliance interview. We will also build the company website the bank expects to find, from AED 500.

Bank account & website
Certificate with an embossed seal, wax seal and stamp on a dark desk

Trademark Registration

A trade name on a licence is not a protected brand. Registering your mark with the Ministry of Economy gives you official recognition and something you can enforce. We run the search, prepare the classes and file the application, then keep the renewal dates on our calendar rather than yours.

Protect your brand
Sealed archive boxes on a desk in an office being wound down at dusk

Company Liquidation

Closing a company properly matters more than it used to. Walking away from a licence leaves penalties accruing against the shareholders. We handle the liquidator report, authority clearances, visa cancellations, and corporate tax and VAT deregistration so the file is genuinely closed.

Close a company
Official certificates carrying embossed seals prepared for UAE attestation

Document Attestation

Degrees, marriage and birth certificates, powers of attorney and corporate papers, legalised for use in the UAE or abroad. The UAE is not a party to the Hague Apostille Convention, so an apostille alone is not enough, the chain runs through the UAE mission in the issuing country and then MOFA.

Document attestation
Why Choose Us

Your free zone does not decide your tax rate

Your activity, your customers and your substance do. To apply 0% you have to be a Qualifying Free Zone Person: qualifying income, adequate substance inside the zone, transfer pricing compliance and audited accounts. Revenue billed to mainland customers is generally not qualifying, and carries 9%.

Almost nobody in this market will tell you that before you pay. It is the single most expensive gap between what gets sold and what the law says.

  • A licensed tax practice, not a licence brokerWe are not paid a commission by the zone that issues your licence, so the recommendation can follow the facts.
  • Fees confirmed with the authority, in writingNot copied from a comparison article that is a year out of date and contradicted by the next one.
  • We are still here at your first returnBooks, VAT and corporate tax continue with the same team that chose the structure. The decision has to survive contact with reality.
Read the QFZP Guide
UAE residence visa and establishment card processing for a new company
Our Business Setup Expertise

The free zones, and what each is actually built for

Every comparison article ranks these by headline licence price. That figure changes every year, excludes the visa and the establishment card, and says nothing about whether the zone will license your activity at all.

Not sure which structure you need? Fifteen minutes on the phone usually settles it. No script, no package pitch.
Speak to a consultant+971 55 685 0940
Bank Account Support

The website your bank expects to find

Corporate account applications stall for unglamorous reasons. The most common one: a compliance officer searches for the company, finds nothing, and cannot tie the stated activity to anything real. A trade licence on its own does not answer that.

Included with bank account support

Single-page company website & hosting

  • One professionally designed page covering your activity, services and company details
  • A full year of hosting included
  • Business email address on your own domain
  • Company address, trade licence details and a working contact form: what compliance actually checks
  • Mobile-ready and live before your account interview

Domain registration is charged at cost. Multi-page sites, e-commerce and branding are quoted separately.

One-off price AED 500 Website plus one year of hosting Add This Live before your bank interview
Get Started

Request a written quote

Give us the activity, the customers and the visa count. Back comes a written quote at the authority's current fees for that exact activity, with the corporate tax position spelled out alongside it.

  • Fees confirmed with the authorityPriced for your activity and visa count, not lifted from a blog.
  • 0% or 9% assessed up frontBefore you commit to a jurisdiction, not at your first return.
  • Same working day replyFrom a consultant, not an auto-responder.
10+ years serving UAE businesses

Tell us what you need

Three quick steps. No obligation, and we will not add you to a mailing list.

Which service do you need?
Where do you want to trade?
How many visas?
How do we reach you?

Prefer to talk? WhatsApp us or call +971 55 685 0940.

Which is better for my business, mainland or free zone?

It depends on who your customers are. If you sell to UAE-based businesses and consumers, or you want government and semi-government contracts, a mainland licence lets you do that directly. If you export, hold assets, or serve clients outside the UAE, a free zone is usually simpler and cheaper. A free zone company can still reach the UAE market, through a distributor, a mainland branch or a dual licence. It just cannot invoice mainland customers directly under the free zone licence alone.

Does choosing a free zone give me 0% corporate tax?

No, and this is the single most common misunderstanding we correct. The zone does not decide your rate. To apply 0% you have to be a Qualifying Free Zone Person, which turns on your income being qualifying, keeping adequate substance in the zone, meeting transfer pricing requirements and filing audited accounts. Revenue earned from mainland customers is generally not qualifying and is taxed at 9%. Plenty of companies are sold a free zone licence on the promise of 0% and find out at their first return.

Which free zone is the cheapest?

The cheapest headline licence is rarely the cheapest company. Entry packages in the northern emirates undercut Dubai substantially, but the total depends on visa count, office type, activity add-ons and renewal, and a zone that will not license your activity is not cheap at any price. We price the whole first year and the renewal against the authority's current schedule so you are comparing like with like.

Do I still need a local Emirati partner?

For most mainland commercial and industrial activities, no. The 2021 amendment to the Commercial Companies Law opened 100% foreign ownership across the majority of activities. A limited list of strategic-impact activities and certain professional structures still carry specific requirements, so it is worth confirming against your exact activity code before you commit to anything.

How long does company formation take in the UAE?

A straightforward free zone or mainland licence is commonly issued within a few working days once the trade name, initial approval and documents are in place. Activities that need external approvals (financial services, healthcare, education, some industrial categories) run to several weeks. In practice the licence is rarely the bottleneck. Visas and the bank account usually take longer.

Why do banks ask for a company website before opening an account?

Compliance teams have to satisfy themselves that the business is real and that the stated activity matches what the company actually does. A live website showing the activity, contact details and address is one of the fastest checks available to them. Applications from companies with no online presence attract more questions and take longer, which is why we build the site alongside the account application.

What happens after the licence is issued?

Corporate tax registration is required for every taxable person, including free zone companies applying 0%. VAT registration becomes mandatory once taxable turnover reaches AED 375,000 and is voluntary from AED 187,500. You will also need bookkeeping from day one, an establishment card and visas for anyone working in the business, and a customs client code if you import or export goods.

Official sources

Every figure and rule on this page traces back to primary UAE legislation or the issuing authority. Verify anything here against the source before you act on it.

  • Corporate tax, 9% above AED 375,000 → Federal Decree-Law No. 47 of 2022 on the Taxation of Corporations and Businesses. Federal Tax Authority
  • Qualifying Free Zone Person and 0% qualifying income → Cabinet Decision No. 100 of 2023 and Ministerial Decision No. 265 of 2023. FTA legislation register
  • VAT at 5%, registration from AED 375,000 (voluntary AED 187,500) → Federal Decree-Law No. 8 of 2017 as amended. Federal Tax Authority
  • 100% foreign ownership on most mainland activities → Federal Decree-Law No. 26 of 2020, in force June 2021, consolidated into the Commercial Companies Law (Federal Decree-Law No. 32 of 2021). Ministry of Economy
  • Licensing, activity lists and trade names → the licensing authority for your jurisdiction: the emirate's Department of Economy for mainland, or the individual free zone authority.

Free zone package fees are set by each authority and change through the year, so they are quoted to you in writing rather than published here.

Ready to set up your company in the UAE?

Tell us what the business does and where you want to trade. We come back with the right jurisdiction, the current authority fees in writing, and a realistic timeline to licence, visas and a working bank account.

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