Are you willing to start a business in Dubai? You are going to be a part of world’s top rated and favourite spot for the investors. Dubai is the best option for setting up a new company in entire Middle East as it offers liberal economic policies. It offers modest corporate tax rates, lavish infrastructure, trade route accessibility and many other tempting schemes. These appealing policies encourage many well known corporations and entrepreneurs willing to set up a company in Dubai. The interesting part is that there are many primary industries that are secured by providing free zones in Emirates. The purpose of that zone is to provide 100% tax free foreign ownership with the policy of returning all capitals and profits back to the investor.
Once you are done with your all legal procedures, setting up a business in Dubai will take almost a week. Prepare yourself before moving to the whole procedure. Today we will see deeply what ways are needed to adopt in order to form a successful company in Dubai.
Let’s talk about the elements that are very important to know before starting the process.
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Know Your Business Activity
First question raises here is that, “what type of license you need?” Answer is simple; the nature of your business will tell you the type of the license you need. It would be a commercial license, a professional license, or an industrial license. The license will affect directly the activities of your company in future. Few of businesses need extra approvals from Govt departments.
The Department of Economic Development (DED) in Dubai holds a list of more than 2100 activities and you can opt a choice from that list. If you think that you are not able to find your favourite one in there, you can contact the DED. They will definitely adjust you at right place.
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know your Ownership Rights
Get 100% ownership of the company even if you are a foreign national; opt for a license and location in one of the many exciting spaces like free zones of the UAE. get complete information related to all free zones first then go for the best option. There are 45 free zones activating in the region, you can find the best choice for you easily. Getting a local license to operate your business locally, you will need to go to DED Department of Economic Development. DED works on few rules and regulations for foreign ownership that are important to be followed in order to activate your company in Dubai smoothly.
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Learn about Legal structure
Your dream company formation needs a step by step procedure to be followed. You must know all the legal regulations before moving forward. The best decision you can take here is to hire an expert firm that can handle all your legal matters to get registered and to form a successful business. All the free zones have their own restrictions and regulation structure. A business services provider company will help you to cope up with all the challenges easily.
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Choose a Trade Name
The very first and most important step is to decide a trade name for your company to be. Your company’s trade name will indicate the activities of your business in the future. So it is very important to select the name wisely unless it is a branch of already existing company. You can easily get to know the rules from official website of DED.
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Share capital
Your Company’s MOA Memorandum of Association will set the share capital of your company. It is not necessary in all cases to pay the minimum capital while you are setting a company in Dubai.
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Locations and Premises
Now you are all set to go for legal procedure. But wait…! One more important thing is still needed to be done. Make a list of your suitable locations for your company and examine the amount they cost. This will help you to start your activities right after you are done with the legal procedure. Free zones will help you to find the best premises in the region. Keep in mind the requirements regarding networking, electricity, water etc.
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Hire Employees
Make a plan how to manage the hiring procedure. One important point we need to highlight here is that license like Intelaq doesn’t allow hiring employees as this license is only for the home based business owners. If you have rights for hiring employees, you would need a manager to look over the all operations keenly and to make everything done for you.
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Get Local support
If you want to fom a business in Free zone, you will need a local agent a UAE national. That partner or sponsor will provide you all legal support. Your business will grow fast with the collaboration of a local sponsor.
Planning a mainland business setup ?
This section provides information about planning a business on the mainland in the UAE.
Setting up a Business in the Mainland
There are many benefits of setting up a business in mainland. Some of them are:
- Mainland business is flexible. You can be activated in whole UAE
- Unlimited number of Visas are available
- Licenses allow more activities for the growth of business
- No personal taxes apply
Key government entities
DED Department of Economic Development is the authority that issues a license and handles all the legal processes regarding to the formation of your company. It will register your trade name and will see all the initial approvals. They offer eServices facility to do all the jobs online. You need to get initial approvals and then you are good to go for eServices for further approvals.
There are five most famous spots that refer to the Department of Economic Development in the emirates
- Abu Dhabi
- Dubai
- Sharjah
- Ras Al Khaimah
- Ajman
If you want to know the authority working in Fujairah then it is not DED, it is Fujairah Municipality that is responsible for all processes regarding company formation.
The question is Where to start?
Following information will help you to give a quick and easy start to setup a company in Mainland Dubai.
Know the Cost of setting up a business
Business formation in Dubai holds many steps that need a big and clear investment. The cost of setting up a business depends on:
- The type of license your company requires; there are three types, commercial, service based and industrial
- The type of the business your want to set up like if it is an organization, establishment or a branch of a company.
Capital requirements in mainland
Your company’s legal form will decide the Capital requirements your company have. The minimum capital for PJSC is AED30 Million. And it is almost AED5 Million for PRJSC.
Businesses other than the PJSC and PRJSC doesn’t require exact minimum capital but it varies on some conditions like:
- The minimum capital should be mentioned in the MOA Memorandum of Association
- The minimum capital must be a ‘sufficient capital’ to achieve the purpose of the business incorporation.
Companies that are willing to establish an LLC company in UAE and they are foreign companies then they need to know the current situation regarding minimum share capital.
Nationality of partners
Partners’ nationality is very important in order to form a company in Dubai. If one of the partners is UAE National then it is very easy to avail all the types of businesses available specifically following ones:
- Joint liability companies
- Simple commandite companies
- An industrial or commercial type sole proprietorship
- Licence for home-based businesses
- SME licence in Dubai
GCC countries’ Nationals can have the other available options in licenses. But they would need to show a UAE National as a 51% sponsor for their company. The rules to have a sponsor are following:
- A UAE National with the rights of 51% partnership in the company
- An LSA ( local service agent) that can provide an investor with 100% ownership of the company.
There are four types of companies that require a UAE national partner:
- LLC companies
- Public Joint Stock Companies (PJSC)
- PrJSC Companies
- An engineering Civil company
There are three types of companies that require LSA:
- A professional type sole establishment
- Civil company
- A branch of a Foreign Company
Set up a business in a free zone
Get access to the highest advanced infrastructure, demonstrative sites, telecommunications, very affordable resources and many more in UAE free zones to invest for a successful business setup. We at EBMS, are excited to help you setting up a victorious business in UAE Free zones.
What is a free zone?
There are three categories of free zones: seaport free zones, airport free zones, and mainland free zones. There are so many freezones across Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, Fujairah, Ajman, Ras al-Khaimah and Umm al-Quwain. Dubai alone has more than 30 free zones.
The objective of free trade zones or economic zones is to offer tax concessions and custom duty benefits to attract the foreign investors.
If we talk about one freezone that is recognized globally as best freezone it is DMCC. There are 10,000 businesses registered only in this zone and winning their goals efficiently.
All zones provide specific help for the particular industry. The interesting part is that now free zones have changed their strategies and have opened their doors to multiple industries.
Advantages Of Company Setup In A Freezone
Free Zones are a big appeal to the foreign investors. The purpose behind the existence of Free Zones is the same; to entice the big and small both business entities from various industries to invest inside the UAE.
The successful establishment of Free Zones encouraged Authorities to create more Free Zones to facilitate foreign investors as well as to improve UAE’s economy. Therefore, new free zones are being declared every year.
All Free Zones rely on same rules regulations but the environment and services they offer are slightly different. Here are some advantages and services that Free Zones usually offer:
- Ownership: You own your company 100%
- Freedom: No Taxation
- Sponsorship: No sponsorship of a UAE citizen is required
- Custom Duties: your imports and exports both are duty free
- Residency Visa: Business partners or shareholders and employees can have UAE residency visas
- Workforce: Very affordable workforce availability
- Work Timing: Free Zone company can operate its functions 24 hours
- No personal income tax, capital gain tax and corporate tax
- Restriction free money transaction
- Easiest and fastest procedure to register a business or company
- Setting up business at low cost is possible
- Employees visas process is easy and restrictions free
- Clear and Secure rules regulations
- Affordable skilled professionals availability
- A complete infrastructure with unquestionable communication system
- Business support and other additional services available
- Best working locations and perfect working environments
How EBMS helps investors to setup a company in Dubai
Free Zone visa process is basically very easy but only for those who are professionally expert in this field. This is very important to choose a proper platform for your business so you will be able to establish a successful entity.
You need an authorized company registration agent or professional business consultants in UAE to guide you through the whole process. EBMS provides you comprehensive range of services from getting registered to fully functional stage of your Business. Give your fate a chance and try to explore easy and efficient way of business startup with our professional business services providing staff.
