Many-a-times people who open a business want to have full ownership of it. UAE offers freezone areas where you will be able to do exactly that. Know that in such places you will be able to get a tax-residency certificate, tax exemption, full foreign ownership, and other such attractive incentives. As such it makes UAE very favourable locations to set up companies.
When it comes to freezones, UAE has 42 of them and all of them come with their jurisdiction. As such company registration procedures differ in different freezone. Yet, overall here’s how you can start freezone company formation in UAE:
- Chose the kind of legal type: You will have to determine what sort of legal type or entity your company is going to take up. In any of the free-zones you will be allowed to set up two kinds of businesses. One is the FZ Co. and the other is the FZ LLC. The FZ in the abbreviations refers to Free Zone whereas Co. and LLC refer to Company and Limited-Liability Company respectively. The difference between the two is in the total number of its shareholders as well as whether those shareholders are a legal or natural person. Note that not all freezones allow the registration of both kinds.
- Choose a name: When you will deciding your company’s legal-entity, you will also have to decide a name for it. In most such cases, you will have to check with the freezone authorities or the relevant Economic Development department. They will instruct you about the approved trade names. Also, you will have to choose another name if the one you have chosen is already registered.
- Set up branches: Note that the existing foreign and local companies will be able to set up their company branch in freezones.
- Capital requirements: The capital needed to set up your company will vary from one freezone to the other. For example, if you are setting up a company at Abu Dhabi’s twofour54 then know that there’s no minimum capital needed for that. Contrast this with the fact that if you want to form a company at KIZAD then you will need to arrange for a minimum paid-up of AED 150,000 for an LLC.
The above listed are only the first stage steps needed to set up your freezone company. As you might have been able to discern, the benefits from a freezone are myriad but the process to set up a company are long and lengthy. But, you don’t have to worry, there are plenty of pro services Dubai and in other areas. You can contact them to speed up the registration of your company.
