Dubai business setup: what it will cost you over 3 years

A lean free zone company with one visa and no office lands around AED 30,000–50,000 in year one, then AED 25,000–40,000 in each of years two and three — roughly AED 85,000–130,000 across 36 months. A Dubai mainland company with a tenancy and two or three visas is commonly three to four times that. The licence is usually less than half of any single year; the rest is visas, workspace and staying compliant.

Because one year flatters the decision — it is the year the discount applies, no licence has renewed and no visa has come up. The costs that decide whether a structure was affordable all land after month twelve: the licence repricing to list, the visa cycle coming round in year three, and the audit repeating. Three years is the first horizon at which the cheap option and the right option can be told apart.

They price the licence, visa processing and a desk, for one year. They routinely exclude the establishment card (annual, not once), visa quota sold separately from processing, Ejari re-registration at every tenancy renewal, the 5% Dubai Municipality charge on rent, 5% VAT on commercial rent, Chamber membership, bookkeeping, and the audit some free zones require to renew. Most of those repeat every year.

It is decided by who your customers are, not by price. If you sell to UAE mainland businesses, consumers or government, or you operate a shop, clinic or restaurant, you need a mainland licence. If your revenue comes from outside the UAE or from other free zone companies, a free zone costs less and takes nothing away. Where you sell to both, price the free zone plus the cost of a distributor or a mainland branch, and compare that against a mainland licence.

Three separate things can trigger it. A Qualifying Free Zone Person must maintain audited financial statements at any revenue. Several free zones — DMCC, JAFZA, Meydan, DIFC and ADGM among them — require audited accounts to renew the licence regardless of size. And under Ministerial Decision No. 84 of 2025, revenue above AED 50m makes audited statements mandatory for corporate tax. Most small mainland companies below AED 50m are not required to have one.

Yes. Qualifying Free Zone Person status gives 0% on qualifying income, but it obliges you to maintain audited financial statements permanently, meet substance requirements, and stay inside the de minimis limit on non-qualifying revenue. It also rules out Small Business Relief. Mainland-sourced income is generally not qualifying income, so check what share of your revenue actually qualifies before electing.

The voluntary pilot opened on 1 July 2026. Businesses with revenue of AED 50m or more had to appoint an Accredited Service Provider by 30 October 2026 and go live on 1 January 2027. Everyone else must appoint a provider by 31 March 2027 and exchange structured e-invoices from 1 July 2027. For a company incorporating now, the appointment deadline falls inside its first year — so the subscription and the data clean-up belong in the year-one budget.

Corporate tax registration is mandatory for every taxable person, including one that will owe nothing. VAT registration becomes mandatory once taxable supplies pass AED 375,000 over a rolling twelve months, and is voluntary above AED 187,500 — voluntary registration lets you recover input VAT on setup costs at the price of quarterly filings.

Usually not. The first AED 375,000 of taxable income is taxed at 0%, and Small Business Relief treats a company with revenue up to AED 3m as having no taxable income. That relief was extended by Ministerial Decision No. 131 of 2026 and now runs to tax periods ending on or before 31 December 2029. It tests revenue rather than profit, it must be elected in the return, and electing it forfeits loss carry-forward.

Digital banks such as Wio and Mashreq NeoBiz can open an account in one to seven days with no minimum balance. Traditional banks take one to three weeks and hold AED 25,000–50,000 as a minimum balance — money that stays yours but cannot be spent. Banking, not licensing, is the step that most often delays a launch, and a jurisdiction with a weaker banking reputation can add weeks.

Year two is the steady state: registrations disappear, but workspace, bookkeeping, filings, insurance, the establishment card and any audit all repeat. The licence rarely gets cheaper — free zones discount the first year and renew at list, with published 2026 comparisons putting year-2 renewals 35–60% above the promotional figure. Year three then beats year two with nothing new bought, because residence visas run a two-year cycle and every launch visa comes up for renewal: repeat medical, new Emirates ID and re-stamping for each person.