Company setup

Dubai Maritime City is, in the Dubai Government Media Office’s description, “a 249-hectare waterfront platform”, with 6,000-tonne and 3,000-tonne ship lifts, workshops, warehouses, office towers and residential blocks. It is a genuine industrial cluster with genuine numbers: design capacity of 1,000 vessels a year, a record 52 vessels on the dry berths on 28 July 2026, and 202 vessel calls in July 2026. Legally, however, Dubai Maritime City is neither a free zone created by its own statute nor a regulator in its own right. The law that created the “city” bearing that name was superseded on 6 February 2023 and nothing equivalent replaced it.

Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) is an international financial centre established in 2015 under Abu Dhabi Law No. 4 of 2013. Physically located on Al Maryah and Al Reem Islands in Abu Dhabi, it constitutes a separate jurisdiction with its own law, regulators, and courts. UAE federal civil and commercial legislation does not apply within ADGM — the centre operates under its own independent legal framework.

The Astana International Financial Centre (AIFC) is a separate jurisdiction within the Republic of Kazakhstan with its own English common law system, an independent court, and a dedicated tax regime — not an ordinary free economic zone.

From 23 January 2026 the activity of Astana Hub participants is governed by new Rules approved by Order No. 703/НҚ of 31 December 2025, and since July 2026 by an amended version of those Rules. The Rules replaced a 2018 order that had stood for seven years and introduced two genuinely new duties: an annual report on the structure of income, the data in which is confirmed by an auditor, and counter-obligations to develop the IT ecosystem. At the same time the tax reliefs moved into a new Tax Code — Code No. 214-VIII of 18 July 2025, in force from 1 January 2026.

The Business Registration Ordinance (Cap. 310) requires every person carrying on business in Hong Kong to register that business with the Business Registration Office of the Inland Revenue Department (IRD) within one month of commencement and to pay two distinct amounts: the business registration fee and the levy that funds the Protection of Wages on Insolvency Fund. For certificates commencing on or after 1 April 2026 a one-year certificate costs HK$2,350(HK$2,200 fee plus HK$150 levy) and a three-year certificate HK$6,170 (HK$5,720 plus HK$450). Registration under Cap. 310 is not a licence to trade and says nothing about whether the business is lawful.

The Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) is a separate jurisdiction within Dubai with its own legal system based on English common law, its own judicial system, its own financial regulator, and its own corporate legislation.

DMCC (Dubai Multi Commodities Centre) is the UAE’s largest free zone by number of registered companies, located in Jumeirah Lakes Towers (JLT), Dubai, specialising in commodities trading, finance, and technology, including dedicated platforms for virtual assets and artificial intelligence.

Dubai CommerCity (DCC) is a Dubai free zone built specifically for digital commerce: a joint venture between the Dubai Integrated Economic Zones Authority (DIEZA) and wasl Asset Management Group, located in Umm Ramool next to Dubai International Airport and forming part of the Dubai Integrated Economic Zones (DIEZ) as land plot No. 2150115. A company in DCC is registered under the DIEZA Implementing Regulations 2023 as an FZCO, a PLC or a branch, holds one of six licences (Trade, Service, Industrial, E-commerce, General Trading or Dual License with DET), and keeps its stock in the Business Cluster and the Logistics Cluster, both under customs control: for VAT purposes the zone has been on the list of Designated Zones as “CommerCity Dubai” since 1 January 2021. The decisive tax point in 2026 is that the 0 per cent corporate tax rate is available to a DCC company only as a Qualifying Free Zone Person (QFZP), and every sale to a natural person (B2C) is an Excluded Activity under Ministerial Decision No. 229 of 2025 — so the classic B2C marketplace or web-shop model in DCC pays 9 per cent, or relies on Small Business Relief up to AED 3,000,000 of revenue.

Dubai Design District (d3) is a specialist cluster for design, fashion, architecture and the creative industries, launched in 2013 and part of the portfolio of TECOM Group PJSC, a public company listed on the Dubai Financial Market. Licensing, visas and zoning are administered by the Dubai Development Authority (DDA) — the same regulator that oversees Dubai Internet City, Dubai Media City and the other TECOM clusters.

Dubai Industrial City is a TECOM Group industrial district in Dubai that sits administratively within the jurisdiction of the Dubai Development Authority (DDA), which states on its own site that it is responsible for company registration and licensing across the group’s districts. No published Dubai instrument names the district as a free zone, and for VAT Dubai Industrial City is not on the Designated Zone list — which is what drives the economics of locating there.

Dubai International Academic City (DIAC) is the business park of the education cluster inside the Dubai Development Authority free zone, licensing universities, branch campuses of foreign universities, schools, nurseries and education service companies. From 1 January 2026 the regime for free zone universities has been rebuilt: Federal Decree-Law No. 31 of 2025 on Higher Education and Scientific Research applies expressly to “universities, institutes, and colleges established in the free zones”, requires federal Institutional Licensure and subjects every programme to federal Program Accreditation. A DIAC licence costs AED 15,000 a year for any of the five segments, and the minimum paid-up capital across all five is AED 50,000 — five times the zone’s standard AED 10,000.

Dubai Internet City (DIC) is the UAE’s oldest and largest technology free zone, launched in October 2000 as the first zone in the MENA region created specifically for IT companies.

Dubai Knowledge Park (DKP) is a district of the Dubai Development Authority free zone in which companies engaged in human resources, recruitment, corporate training and professional development are licensed. The annual licence costs AED 15,000 for any of the fourteen segments in Part Six of Decision No. 1 of 2021, the minimum paid-up capital of an FZ-LLC is AED 10,000, and a freelancer permit is AED 7,500 a year. The defining feature of the jurisdiction: training activity requires two permissions at once — a DDA licence and a KHDA Authorisation — while recruitment activity runs into the federal prohibition in Article 6 of Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021.

Dubai Media City (DMC) is the media cluster within the free zone regulated by the Dubai Development Authority (DDA). Its legal basis is Law No. 15 of 2014, issued on 27 October 2014, which superseded Law No. 1 of 2000 establishing the Dubai Technology and Media Free Zone. Three forms of presence are available: a Free Zone Limited Liability Company (FZ-LLC), a branch of a foreign or UAE company, and a freelancer permit. The law fixes no single minimum share capital — the requirement is set by the licensed activity.

Dubai Outsource City (DOC) is a TECOM Group business district in Dubai, part of the free zone administered by the Dubai Development Authority (DDA) and dedicated to outsourcing and shared-service providers: call centres, transaction processing, IT support, document management and disaster-recovery data centres. The DOC licence is issued under a single segment, 17.1 Outsource, with eight activities, costs AED 15,000 a year and requires a minimum paid-up capital of AED 300,000 — thirty times the standard AED 10,000 that applies in most other DDA districts. The district was launched in 2004 as Dubai Outsource Zone; according to TECOM it hosts more than 80 customer companies from the aviation, banking and telecommunications industries.

Dubai Production City (DPC) is not a free zone of its own. It is a licensing business unit inside the single Dubai Development Authority zone, and it has no statute. No law, decree or Dubai Executive Council resolution names DPC: the zone exists as cadastral plots inside the Clusters under Law No. 15 of 2014, and as a licensing business unit created by a decision of the DDA Director General.

Dubai Science Park is one of the ten districts for which the Dubai Development Authority (DDA) issues licences under its Decision No. 1 of 2021, and one of the ten districts TECOM Group calls its own — two lists of ten that do not coincide. A DDA licence opens the door to life sciences activity but confers no right either to sell medicines and medical devices or to treat patients: the product layer belongs to the federal Emirates Drug Establishment (EDE), and patient-facing services to the Dubai Health Authority (DHA). All three licences run in parallel, and none substitutes for another.

Dubai Silicon Oasis (DSO) is a Dubai free zone, and the Dubai Integrated Economic Zones Authority (DIEZ) is the body that runs it, issues the licences and keeps the register of companies. IFZA (the International Free Zone Authority) is not a free zone: it is a commercial operator occupying premises inside Dubai Silicon Oasis and selling incorporations of companies that are, in law, created in the DSO free zone under DIEZ regulations. A company “in IFZA” is a company in Dubai Silicon Oasis.

Dubai Studio City is one of ten business parks in the free zone constituted by Dubai Law No. 15 of 2014; it is licensed by the Dubai Development Authority (DDA) and operated by TECOM Group PJSC. A production licence costs AED 15,000 a year and requires paid-up capital of AED 50,000; a satellite television licence costs AED 25,000–40,000 a year and requires AED 1,000,000. Media activity inside the zone is licensed by the DDA, not by the federal regulator.

The Dubai World Trade Centre Free Zone incorporates companies and issues commercial licences, but it does not regulate virtual assets: the regulator is VARA, whose remit covers every free zone in Dubai except the DIFC. A virtual asset business in DWTC needs two licences from two different bodies: an operational licence from the DWTC Authority and a VASP licence from VARA. The detail almost nobody spells out: the DWTC non-operational licence is valid for one year, and if the VARA VASP licence is not obtained within it, the licence is not renewed and the fees paid are forfeited.

IFZA (International Free Zone Authority) is the UAE’s most popular free zone by number of registrations — an operator within Dubai Silicon Oasis (DSO), which since 1 January 2022 falls under the Dubai Integrated Economic Zones Authority (DIEZ) pursuant to Dubai Law No. 16 of 2021. Established in August 2018 in Fujairah, IFZA relocated to Dubai (Dubai Silicon Oasis) in August 2020. IFZA issues two base licence types — Commercial and Professional — with the ability to combine several business activities under a single licence. Base cost starts at approximately AED 12,900 per year, with no minimum capital requirement. The key practical difference from DAFZA/DMCC: IFZA is not a VAT Designated Zone, and it operates through a network of Professional Partners rather than dealing directly with applicants.

Among entrepreneurs first exploring the UAE free zone market, RAKEZ is often perceived as a 'budget alternative to Dubai'. That is accurate but fundamentally incomplete.

RAKICC (Ras Al Khaimah International Corporate Centre) is the sole offshore corporate registry in the emirate of Ras Al Khaimah, registering International Business Companies (IBCs) with no right to conduct commercial activity within the UAE.

SAIF Zone (Sharjah Airport International Free Zone, هيئة المنطقة الحرة لمطار الشارقة الدولي) is a free zone of the Emirate of Sharjah, located immediately adjacent to Sharjah International Airport and established by Emiri Decree No. 2 of 1995. The zone has held Designated Zone status for UAE VAT purposes since 1 January 2018 and sits squarely inside the federal corporate tax perimeter, where its licensees can access the 0% rate only by satisfying the Qualifying Free Zone Person (QFZP) conditions. The emirate-level tax guarantee runs to 29 May 2073 under Emiri Decree No. 28 of 2023. The zone publishes no corporate rulebook of its own — no companies law, no employment regulations, no court — so federal UAE law applies to SAIF Zone companies to a far greater extent than in the UAE’s financial free zones.

A starter SHAMS licence costs either AED 5,750 or AED 5,760 a year — the zone publishes both prices across its own live sites, for three activities and for five respectively — and neither figure includes visas or the immigration card. Sharjah Media City is a free zone of the Emirate of Sharjah, created by Amiri Decree No. 11 of 2017 and answerable to the Sharjah Media Council. The zone occupies the bottom of the UAE price range and is built around a single product: a legal entity with a co-working seat. That is precisely where the problem starts, because this configuration almost certainly fails the economic substance test that a zero rate of corporate tax depends on.

UAQ Free Trade Zone (UAQ FTZ, Umm Al Quwain Free Trade Zone) is the free zone of the emirate of Umm Al Quwain (UAE), governed by a government body, the Umm Al Quwain Free Trade Zone Authority, which — according to the zone’s own rules — was established by Emirate Law No. 3 of 2014 on the foundation of the Ahmed Bin Rashid Port and Free Zone created by Emiri Decree No. 2 of 1987. The zone registers companies in three forms — the Free Zone Establishment (FZE), the Free Zone Company (FZC) and the Branch — issues commercial, consultancy, service and industrial licences and a freelance permit, and its cheapest official package without a visa (UAQ LYTE) costs AED 5,500 a year with renewal at the same price. Both of the zone’s sites — in Ahmed Bin Rashid Port and on Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Road — have been on the list of Designated Zones for VAT under Cabinet Decision No. 59 of 2017 since 1 January 2018. The key difference from what the marketing promises: Designated Zone status is a VAT and customs instrument, while the 0 % corporate tax rate depends not on it but on meeting the Qualifying Free Zone Personconditions of Article 18 of Federal Decree-Law No. 47 of 2022.

IMPORTANT: In the UAE, a trade licence activity is not a formality. It affects the licence type, banking, payment gateways, VAT, corporate tax, customs, visas, external approvals, and the ability to operate onshore or cross-border.

Most entrepreneurs thinking about "two jurisdictions" imagine two offshore entities for tax reduction. The Hong Kong + UAE dual structure operates on a fundamentally different logic. These are two complementary jurisdictions with different geographic reach, different legal systems, and different banking ecosystems — which together deliver more than either achieves alone.

The UAE has ranked first globally in the entrepreneurial context index (GEM NECI) for the fifth consecutive year (2025/2026). Zero personal income tax. Corporate tax at 9% — one of the lowest among global-tier jurisdictions. 137 active double taxation treaties. 100% foreign ownership — on the mainland and in free zones. A bank account can be opened within weeks; a company can be incorporated within days.

A licence from Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) is mandatory for anyone carrying on a business in one of the regulated activities listed in Part 1 of Schedule 5 to the Securities and Futures Ordinance (Cap. 571). The Schedule lists thirteen activities, but only eleven are live: Types 1 to 10 and Type 13. For each activity a corporation must have at least two approved Responsible Officers (ROs), the prescribed paid-up share capital, and liquid capital maintained at all times under the Financial Resources Rules.

Opening a healthcare facility in Dubai requires two parallel, independent licensing tracks: a Facility License for the establishment itself, and a separate Professional License for every practising clinician, both issued by the Dubai Health Authority (DHA).

The UAE financial market is one of the most complex regulatory architectures in the world. Unlike most countries that have a single financial regulator, the UAE operates a multi-tier system: federal regulators, emirate-level regulators, and independent financial centre regulators. Selecting the wrong regulator means a licence that does not cover where you operate. A DFSA licence does not authorise dealing with UAE mainland clients. A VARA registration does not permit activities outside Dubai. CBUAE authorisation does not apply within DIFC or ADGM.

A Hong Kong stablecoin issuer licence is required of any person who, in the course of business, issues a specified stablecoin in Hong Kong, or issues outside Hong Kong a stablecoin referenced wholly or partly to the Hong Kong dollar. Licensing is administered by the Monetary Authority (HKMA). The regime has been in force since 1 August 2025.

When an entrepreneur first explores company registration options in the UAE, the mainland is often perceived as the more complex and expensive alternative to free zones. This is a persistent misconception that costs those who follow it both time and money.

Choosing between a limited liability partnership and a company in the Astana International Financial Centre is not a choice between two corporate forms but between two legal orders inside one country. An LLP sits under Kazakhstan law and the general tax regime. An AIFC company operates under Acts of the AIFC modelled on English common law, supervised by AFSA and served by its own courts, with a tax regime set by Article 6 of the Constitutional Statute of the Republic of Kazakhstan "On the Astana International Financial Centre" No. 438-V of 7 December 2015.

Federal Decree-Law No. 20 of 2025 took effect on 15 October 2025. It amended Federal Decree-Law No. 32 of 2021 on Commercial Companies — the UAE's primary corporate law. The main changes: companies can now transfer between jurisdictions without liquidation (re-domiciliation), LLCs can issue multiple share classes, drag-along and tag-along rights are now statutory, and free zone companies conducting mainland activities are expressly subject to the CCL.

A UAE offshore company is a legal entity registered with one of three specialised registries: RAK ICC, JAFZA Offshore, or Ajman Offshore. The fundamental distinction from a free zone company is that an offshore company may not conduct commercial activities within the UAE, may not rent office space or maintain a physical presence in the country under its own name, and may not sponsor work or residence visas.

Hong Kong charges profits tax only on profits arising in or derived from Hong Kong. The residence of the taxpayer is irrelevant. A Hong Kong company may therefore lawfully pay no profits tax where the operations that produced the profits were carried out outside Hong Kong. That position is asserted through an offshore claim, which is neither a relief nor a permissive procedure: it is the application of section 14 of the Inland Revenue Ordinance (Cap. 112).

IMPORTANT 2026: Since 2023, the Corporate Tax Registration Certificate (issued by the FTA via EmaraTax) has been a mandatory document for licence renewal. Without it, renewal will be rejected — on both mainland and in most free zones.

Registering a Private Company Limited by Shares in Hong Kong is done entirely online through e-Registry, takes 1–2 working days, and requires no physical presence from a non-resident founder or director.

Before 15 October 2025, changing a UAE free zone meant one thing: liquidate the old company, register a new one. Corporate history was erased, contracts had to be renegotiated, bank accounts closed and reopened, all visas reissued. For a company with three to five years of history, established banking relationships, and an active contract portfolio, this was a significant operational and financial undertaking.

Redomiciliation (also known as continuance or delocalisation) is the legal process by which a company transfers its jurisdiction of incorporation from one country to another while preserving its legal personality, corporate history, existing contracts, and all rights and obligations. The company does not cease to exist and is not re-incorporated: it continues to operate as the same legal entity — simply in a new jurisdiction.

A special economic zone (SEZ) in Kazakhstan is a precisely delimited part of the national territory on which legal entities entered in the unified register of participants enjoy a special legal regime: a 100 per cent reduction of corporate income tax, a zero coefficient on land tax and the land-use fee, a zero rate of property tax, the free customs zone procedure and land granted free of charge. The regime rests on the Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan No. 242-VI of 3 April 2019 “On Special Economic and Industrial Zones”, chapter 80 of the Tax Code No. 214-VIII of 18 July 2025 and chapter 29 of the Code “On Customs Regulation”. An industrial zone is a different instrument: a territory with ready engineering infrastructure where a participant receives land and utilities but no tax preferences. As at September 2026 Kazakhstan has 18 SEZs and 67 industrial zones on the unified register.

Hong Kong charges Profits Tax only on profits arising in or derived from Hong Kong; profits from foreign sources are not taxed, but only if the company can document that the activity generating the profit genuinely took place outside Hong Kong.

An LLP (Limited Liability Partnership, “TOO” in Kazakh law) is the only business form available to foreign nationals without a Kazakhstan residence permit, allowing 100% foreign ownership without a local co-founder requirement.

A Hong Kong trust is governed by the common law and by the Trustee Ordinance (Cap. 29), not by a dedicated trusts statute; the trust itself is not a legal person, and the taxpayer is the trustee. Hong Kong trust law took its present substance on 1 December 2013, when the Trust Law (Amendment) Ordinance 2013 came into force, and has not changed in substance since; the consolidated version of Cap. 29 is nevertheless dated 23 May 2025, because of consequential amendments made by the company re-domiciliation regime.

A branch and a representative office of a foreign company are not legal entities and undergo record registration (учётная регистрация) rather than state registration; an LLP is created as a separate legal entity and answers for its own obligations. The difference between the three forms runs along four lines: legal personality, tax regime, sector restrictions and exit procedure. The decisive fork is not the choice of legal form but the question of whether a permanent establishment arises — that is what determines whether corporate income tax becomes payable at all.

Hong Kong offers two domestic fund vehicles: the open-ended fund company (OFC), a corporate structure with variable capital and segregated sub-funds, and the limited partnership fund (LPF), a contractual structure built for private equity and venture capital. As at July 2026 the Companies Registry recorded 765 OFCs and 1,842 LPFs. Both rely on the unified funds exemption in section 20AN of the Inland Revenue Ordinance (Cap. 112), but the conditions differ — and only an OFC can access the Government grant administered by the SFC.