Company registration and maintenance
- Official formation fee
No single UAE-wide incorporation total: emirate, activity, licence and approvals determine the official charges. Obtain the competent authority’s itemised quote.
- Annual state fee
Licence renewal, premises and activity approvals are separate; no universal annual amount verified.
- Share capital
Capital must be sufficient for the objects; verify any activity-specific requirement.
- Directors
One or more managers. The Commercial Companies Law does not require an LLC partner or manager to be UAE-resident.
- Shareholders
Single-member LLC permitted; otherwise up to 50 partners. Strategic activities can limit foreign ownership.
- Office / registered agent
Registered premises and competent-authority licensing conditions apply.
- Published timing
Single-member approval procedure allows five working days after a complete application; this is not a bank-account or visa timetable.
What the public can see
- Directors / managers
Manager/chairman name may appear in public commercial-register extracts.
- Shareholders
Partners register is maintained and reported; stakeholder inspection rights mean it is not absolute secrecy.
- Beneficial owners
Not open to ordinary public inspection; registrar and competent-authority disclosures remain.
- Accounts
No ordinary public-accounts extract identified; public access was not independently settled for every emirate.
Mainland baseline only. Financial free zones have separate company and disclosure rules. Registry data, tax filings and bank KYC are distinct.
Profits, company tax and distributions
- Ordinary company treatment
9% ordinary CIT above AED 375,000; 0% band below
- Standard headline comparison rate
9% — before lower bands and conditional reliefs
- Retained-profit comparison
9% — company layer
- Distributed-profit comparison
9% — company layer, excluding owner’s tax and outbound withholding
- Conditional reliefs / alternatives
Qualifying Free Zone Persons: 0% only on qualifying income, with substance and other conditions; non-qualifying income 9% without the ordinary AED 375,000 band.
- Distributions / withholding
UAE corporate-tax withholding rate currently 0%; the shareholder’s residence-country liability is separate.
- Other tax conditions
Headline ordinary marginal rate before bands/reliefs. Large multinational minimum-tax rules and regulated activities need separate review.
The ordinary company and the free-zone alternative
The ordinary 9% marginal rate applies above the AED 375,000 taxable-income band. A Qualifying Free Zone Person has a different regime: only qualifying income receives 0%. Do not substitute either rate for the personal-investment treatment discussed in the crypto section.
Privacy and operational evidence
The commercial-register rules permit publication of manager/chairman names and basic licence data. Beneficial-owner and partner data have confidentiality protection, subject to legal disclosure exceptions; stakeholder access to the company’s partners register must also be considered. Keep licences, ownership declarations and real management evidence current.