Leitfaden
What a UAE company setup actually bills you for
Die kurze Antwort
A UAE company formation generates charges from four separate places: the licensing authority, the immigration authorities that register the company and each person on it, third parties who are not the licensing authority at all — notaries, translators, medical centres, landlords, insurers, auditors, banks and other regulators — and the advisory's own professional fee. Most of those items repeat, on cycles that do not line up with each other. In Dubai, Executive Council Resolution No. (5) of 2024 requires the licence to be issued separately from the permits and final approvals needed to actually conduct the activity, which is the structural reason a licensing department cannot tell anyone their total. This page names the line items and who charges each one, so a quote can be audited for what is missing from it.
This page carries no figures. That is deliberate, and it is what makes it useful. A number quoted out of context tells you nothing about whether the quote next to it is complete, and completeness is the thing that actually goes wrong.
What follows is the list: what gets billed, whether it repeats, and who receives the money. Read it with a quote open beside you. By the end you should be able to point at the gaps in that quote and ask specific questions about each one.
Four places the money goes
The most useful thing to know about any line on a quote is who ends up holding the money, because that tells you whether the line is negotiable, whether it repeats, and whether the person quoting you can actually control it.
Almost every charge in a UAE formation belongs to one of four groups. A quote that does not distinguish between them is a quote you cannot check.
- The licensing authority — the free-zone authority or the emirate's economic department that issues the trade licence. It sets its own schedule and publishes it, and it changes it when it chooses to.
- The immigration authorities — the federal authority that registers the company's immigration file and processes each person's residence, plus the labour authority where the route requires it. These are per-company for the file and per-person for everything else.
- Third parties who are not the licensing authority — notaries, legal translators, approved service and typing centres, medical centres, landlords, insurers, auditors, banks, couriers, and any separate regulator whose permission the activity needs. Money in this group leaves the process entirely; nobody in the licensing chain sees it.
- The advisory — the professional fee for the work of running the file. This is the only line the advisory sets, and it should be visible as its own line rather than folded invisibly into the rest.
The line-item map
Not every row applies to every business. Read the last column first: it tells you whether the row is yours at all. Anything marked recurring is a commitment, not a purchase.
Line items a UAE company formation can generate, whether each repeats, and who charges it. No amounts — the amounts belong to whoever charges them, and they change.
Trade name reservation
- One-off or recurring
- One-off
- Typically charged by
- Licensing authority
- Wann es zutrifft
- Every formation
Erste Genehmigung
- One-off or recurring
- One-off
- Typically charged by
- Licensing authority
- Wann es zutrifft
- Every formation
Lizenzvergabe
- One-off or recurring
- One-off at first issue
- Typically charged by
- Licensing authority
- Wann es zutrifft
- Every formation
Lizenzverlängerung
- One-off or recurring
- Recurring, usually annual
- Typically charged by
- Licensing authority
- Wann es zutrifft
- Every year the company stays licensed
Registration certificate and register entries
- One-off or recurring
- One-off
- Typically charged by
- Licensing authority
- Wann es zutrifft
- Varies by authority and legal form
Memorandum or articles, notarised
- One-off or recurring
- One-off
- Typically charged by
- Notary public or the authority's approved notary
- Wann es zutrifft
- Where the legal form requires a notarised constitutional document
Legal translation
- One-off or recurring
- As needed
- Typically charged by
- Licensed legal translator
- Wann es zutrifft
- Where a document is not in the language the authority accepts
Typing and service-centre handling
- One-off or recurring
- Per transaction
- Typically charged by
- Approved service or typing centre
- Wann es zutrifft
- Where the application is lodged through a service-centre channel rather than online
Workspace or premises
- One-off or recurring
- Recurring, on the lease term
- Typically charged by
- Landlord, or the free zone acting as landlord
- Wann es zutrifft
- Every company needs a registered address of some form
Tenancy contract registration
- One-off or recurring
- Recurring with the lease
- Typically charged by
- The emirate's property registration system, such as Ejari in Dubai
- Wann es zutrifft
- Mainland premises, and free-zone leases where the zone requires registration
Einwanderungsregistrierungskarte
- One-off or recurring
- One-off, then recurring
- Typically charged by
- Federal immigration authority, sometimes collected via the free zone as channel
- Wann es zutrifft
- Any company that will sponsor a residence visa
E-channel or labour file registration
- One-off or recurring
- One-off, then recurring
- Typically charged by
- Immigration authority or the labour ministry
- Wann es zutrifft
- Depends on the route and whether staff will be employed
Einreisegenehmigung
- One-off or recurring
- Pro Person, pro Visazyk
- Typically charged by
- Immigration authority
- Wann es zutrifft
- Every residence applicant
Status change inside the country
- One-off or recurring
- Per person
- Typically charged by
- Immigration authority
- Wann es zutrifft
- Where the applicant is already in the UAE rather than entering on the permit
Medical fitness test
- One-off or recurring
- Pro Person, pro Visazyk
- Typically charged by
- Approved medical centre
- Wann es zutrifft
- Every residence applicant
Emirates ID
- One-off or recurring
- Pro Person, pro Visazyk
- Typically charged by
- Federal identity authority
- Wann es zutrifft
- Every resident
Residence visa issuance and stamping
- One-off or recurring
- Pro Person, pro Visazyk
- Typically charged by
- Immigration authority
- Wann es zutrifft
- Every resident
Visa renewal
- One-off or recurring
- Recurring per person
- Typically charged by
- Immigration authority
- Wann es zutrifft
- Every resident, on that person's own cycle, not the licence's
Medical insurance
- One-off or recurring
- Recurring per person
- Typically charged by
- Insurer
- Wann es zutrifft
- Mandatory for residents; the scheme and minimum cover depend on the emirate
Refundable deposits or guarantees
- One-off or recurring
- One-off, refundable
- Typically charged by
- Authority or bank
- Wann es zutrifft
- Some authorities, some visa categories, and some premises types
Share capital
- One-off or recurring
- One-off, paid into your own company
- Typically charged by
- Nobody — it is your money, held by your entity
- Wann es zutrifft
- Where the authority sets a capital requirement or requires it evidenced
Attestation and legalisation of foreign documents
- One-off or recurring
- One-off
- Typically charged by
- Notary and foreign ministry in the issuing country, then UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs
- Wann es zutrifft
- Any document issued outside the UAE; heaviest where a corporate shareholder is involved
Courier of original documents
- One-off or recurring
- Per event
- Typically charged by
- Courier
- Wann es zutrifft
- Wherever originals must physically move between countries
Permit or final approval from another regulator
- One-off or recurring
- One-off, and recurring where the permit is time-limited
- Typically charged by
- The competent regulator — not the licensing authority
- Wann es zutrifft
- Activity-dependent; see the section below
Premises inspection and clearance
- One-off or recurring
- Per event, sometimes recurring
- Typically charged by
- Municipality, civil defence, food safety or equivalent
- Wann es zutrifft
- Physical premises, public-facing sites, food, and health activities
Körperschaftsteuerregistrierung
- One-off or recurring
- One-off
- Typically charged by
- The FTA charges no registration fee; a tax agent or service centre may charge for handling it
- Wann es zutrifft
- Every taxable person
Corporate tax return preparation and filing
- One-off or recurring
- Recurring, annual
- Typically charged by
- Your accountant; the FTA charges no fee to file
- Wann es zutrifft
- Every registered taxable person, profit or not
Umsatzsteuerregistrierung und -erklärungen
- One-off or recurring
- Recurring where registered
- Typically charged by
- Your accountant; FTA sets the filing cycle
- Wann es zutrifft
- Where the registration threshold is met or a voluntary registration is made
Audited financial statements
- One-off or recurring
- Recurring, annual
- Typically charged by
- A registered audit firm
- Wann es zutrifft
- Where the authority makes an audit a renewal condition, or tax rules require one
Bank account onboarding and maintenance
- One-off or recurring
- Recurring
- Typically charged by
- The bank
- Wann es zutrifft
- Every company that opens an account
Mid-year amendments
- One-off or recurring
- Per event
- Typically charged by
- Licensing authority, plus notary and translator where relevant
- Wann es zutrifft
- Change of activity, shareholder, manager, name, or address
Licence cancellation and liquidation
- One-off or recurring
- One-off, at the end
- Typically charged by
- Licensing authority and immigration; a liquidator where required
- Wann es zutrifft
- Closing the company down
Advisory professional fee
- One-off or recurring
- One-off for formation; recurring where support is retained
- Typically charged by
- The advisory
- Wann es zutrifft
- Where you engage one
| Line item | One-off or recurring | Typically charged by | Wann es zutrifft |
|---|---|---|---|
| Trade name reservation | One-off | Licensing authority | Every formation |
| Erste Genehmigung | One-off | Licensing authority | Every formation |
| Lizenzvergabe | One-off at first issue | Licensing authority | Every formation |
| Lizenzverlängerung | Recurring, usually annual | Licensing authority | Every year the company stays licensed |
| Registration certificate and register entries | One-off | Licensing authority | Varies by authority and legal form |
| Memorandum or articles, notarised | One-off | Notary public or the authority's approved notary | Where the legal form requires a notarised constitutional document |
| Legal translation | As needed | Licensed legal translator | Where a document is not in the language the authority accepts |
| Typing and service-centre handling | Per transaction | Approved service or typing centre | Where the application is lodged through a service-centre channel rather than online |
| Workspace or premises | Recurring, on the lease term | Landlord, or the free zone acting as landlord | Every company needs a registered address of some form |
| Tenancy contract registration | Recurring with the lease | The emirate's property registration system, such as Ejari in Dubai | Mainland premises, and free-zone leases where the zone requires registration |
| Einwanderungsregistrierungskarte | One-off, then recurring | Federal immigration authority, sometimes collected via the free zone as channel | Any company that will sponsor a residence visa |
| E-channel or labour file registration | One-off, then recurring | Immigration authority or the labour ministry | Depends on the route and whether staff will be employed |
| Einreisegenehmigung | Pro Person, pro Visazyk | Immigration authority | Every residence applicant |
| Status change inside the country | Per person | Immigration authority | Where the applicant is already in the UAE rather than entering on the permit |
| Medical fitness test | Pro Person, pro Visazyk | Approved medical centre | Every residence applicant |
| Emirates ID | Pro Person, pro Visazyk | Federal identity authority | Every resident |
| Residence visa issuance and stamping | Pro Person, pro Visazyk | Immigration authority | Every resident |
| Visa renewal | Recurring per person | Immigration authority | Every resident, on that person's own cycle, not the licence's |
| Medical insurance | Recurring per person | Insurer | Mandatory for residents; the scheme and minimum cover depend on the emirate |
| Refundable deposits or guarantees | One-off, refundable | Authority or bank | Some authorities, some visa categories, and some premises types |
| Share capital | One-off, paid into your own company | Nobody — it is your money, held by your entity | Where the authority sets a capital requirement or requires it evidenced |
| Attestation and legalisation of foreign documents | One-off | Notary and foreign ministry in the issuing country, then UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs | Any document issued outside the UAE; heaviest where a corporate shareholder is involved |
| Courier of original documents | Per event | Courier | Wherever originals must physically move between countries |
| Permit or final approval from another regulator | One-off, and recurring where the permit is time-limited | The competent regulator — not the licensing authority | Activity-dependent; see the section below |
| Premises inspection and clearance | Per event, sometimes recurring | Municipality, civil defence, food safety or equivalent | Physical premises, public-facing sites, food, and health activities |
| Körperschaftsteuerregistrierung | One-off | The FTA charges no registration fee; a tax agent or service centre may charge for handling it | Every taxable person |
| Corporate tax return preparation and filing | Recurring, annual | Your accountant; the FTA charges no fee to file | Every registered taxable person, profit or not |
| Umsatzsteuerregistrierung und -erklärungen | Recurring where registered | Your accountant; FTA sets the filing cycle | Where the registration threshold is met or a voluntary registration is made |
| Audited financial statements | Recurring, annual | A registered audit firm | Where the authority makes an audit a renewal condition, or tax rules require one |
| Bank account onboarding and maintenance | Recurring | The bank | Every company that opens an account |
| Mid-year amendments | Per event | Licensing authority, plus notary and translator where relevant | Change of activity, shareholder, manager, name, or address |
| Licence cancellation and liquidation | One-off, at the end | Licensing authority and immigration; a liquidator where required | Closing the company down |
| Advisory professional fee | One-off for formation; recurring where support is retained | The advisory | Where you engage one |
Why the licensing department cannot tell you your total
This is the part almost nobody writes down, and it is the reason quotes in this market are structurally incomplete rather than merely careless.
Dubai's Executive Council Resolution No. (5) of 2024, on the principles of facilitating the investor's journey, sets out a principle of separating the process of issuing licences from the processes of issuing the permits and final approvals required for conducting economic activities, by postponing the issuance of those permits and approvals. In place of the approval, the investor signs an acknowledgement and undertaking form confirming awareness of the procedures, rules, conditions and requirements attached to the activity. The same resolution requires that renewal of a licence is not tied to whether those permits or approvals have since been obtained.
The consequence is commercial, not just procedural. The licence can be issued, and the company can legally exist, before the second authority has looked at the file at all. Whatever that second authority charges is charged by that authority, on that authority's own schedule, after issuance. The licensing department never collects it and never sees it, so it cannot include it in what it quotes — and neither can anyone quoting from the licensing department's schedule.
That is not a trick. Separating the two steps takes a queue out of the licence process, which is the point of the reform. But it moves a real obligation past the moment at which most people stop counting, and an undertaking you signed is easy to forget you signed.
Resolution No. (5) of 2024 is a Dubai instrument. Other emirates and individual free zones sequence approvals in their own way, and in some cases a regulator's sign-off is still required before the licence exists rather than after. What carries across everywhere is the underlying point: a licence that authorises an activity on paper is not always the last permission you need in order to perform it.
So the question to ask before paying anything is narrow and answerable. Does my activity need a permit or final approval from an entity other than the licensing authority, and is that entity's charge inside this quote or outside it? An honest answer is often that it sits outside and the amount is not known. That answer is worth more than a total.
One-off against recurring, and why year two is a different number
The single most useful cut through the list is time. Formation is quoted competitively because it is the number that wins the enquiry; the years after it are quoted by the authority, at whatever the current schedule says, to a customer who has already moved in.
Renewal is priced separately from first issue, and there is no rule that says it must be lower. A first-year figure can also reflect a bundled workspace term or an introductory arrangement that simply does not repeat.
The cycles are also not synchronised, which is what causes the second surprise. The licence renews on its own date. The immigration establishment card renews on its own. Each person's residence visa, medical, Emirates ID and insurance run on that person's cycle, set by when they were issued, not by when the company was. A company with several residents has several independent renewal dates in a year.
- Licence renewal, with the licensing authority, on the licence's own date.
- Establishment card renewal, with immigration, on the card's own date.
- Residence visa renewal per person — permit, medical, Emirates ID, stamping and insurance again — on each person's date.
- Workspace, on the lease term, plus re-registration of the tenancy where that applies.
- Corporate tax filing every year once registered, whether or not there was a profit.
- VAT returns on the assigned cycle where the company is registered.
- Audited financial statements each year where the authority or the tax rules require them.
- Any external permit that is issued for a fixed term rather than indefinitely.
The items that only bite some businesses
Most quote surprises are not padding. They are activity-dependent items that were never in the quote because the quote was built from a standard template and your activity is not standard.
The families below commonly attract a permission from someone other than the licensing authority. Whether yours does depends on the exact activity as the authority classifies it, not on how you describe your business in conversation — which is why the activity has to be pinned down in the authority's own language before anybody prices anything.
- Financial services, payments, lending, insurance broking and investment advisory — a financial or securities regulator, or the central bank.
- Healthcare, clinics, pharmacy and medical devices — the health authority of the emirate, and facility-level licensing for both the premises and the practitioners.
- Education, training and childcare — the relevant education or knowledge authority, plus premises approval.
- Media, publishing, broadcasting and advertising — a media regulator, sometimes on a per-title or per-campaign basis.
- Food, beverage and catering — municipality and food safety approval, and premises inspection before opening.
- Transport, logistics, freight forwarding and aviation-adjacent work — a transport or civil aviation authority, and often customs registration.
- Recruitment, manpower supply and labour outsourcing — the labour ministry, with its own conditions and guarantees.
- Telecommunications and certain technology services — a telecommunications and digital government regulator.
- Real estate brokerage and property management — the emirate's land or real estate regulator, including individual broker registration.
- Audit, legal and other regulated professions — qualification verification, professional registration, and attestation of the underlying qualifications.
- Anything involving physical goods — customs registration, and duty when goods leave a free zone into the UAE market.
The items people forget
These are not exotic. They are ordinary and they are omitted from quotes constantly, usually because they are charged by somebody other than the person writing the quote.
- The immigration establishment card. A trade licence does not let a company sponsor anyone. The card is a separate registration, with a separate charge and its own renewal.
- Medical fitness testing and Emirates ID, per person, every visa cycle — not only at first issue.
- Attestation and legalisation of documents issued abroad, which runs through a notary and the foreign ministry in the issuing country and then the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Where a corporate shareholder is involved this is usually the longest and most expensive part of the preparation, and it happens before anything reaches the authority.
- Legal translation, which is charged by a licensed translator per document and is not part of any licence fee.
- Notarisation of constitutional documents and of powers of attorney, charged by the notary.
- Tenancy contract registration. Registering the lease is a separate step from signing it, charged by the emirate's registration system, and lodging it through a trustee or service centre channel rather than online carries its own charge.
- Share capital, where the authority sets a requirement. It is not a fee and it is not lost — it is your money in your company — but it still has to be available, and sometimes evidenced.
- Typing, PRO and service-centre handling charges, which attach per transaction to applications lodged through a counter rather than a portal.
- Medical insurance for every resident, which is mandatory and recurring, and which is bought from an insurer rather than from the authority.
- The cost of changing something later — activity, shareholder, manager, name or address — each of which is its own filing.
- The cost of closing, including cancelling every visa and the establishment card before the licence can be closed.
Corporate tax is a rate, not a formation line
Two different things get confused here. Registration and filing are compliance line items: registration happens once, the return is prepared and filed every year once the company is registered, whether or not it made a profit, and the preparation work is billed by whoever does the accounting.
The tax itself is not a setup charge at all. The Federal Tax Authority applies a 0% rate on taxable income up to AED 375,000 and 9% above that. A free-zone entity can access a 0% rate on qualifying income only by meeting the Qualifying Free Zone Person conditions, which is a status to be substantiated each year rather than a box ticked at formation.
Nothing on this page is tax advice. The point here is only that a rate on profit and a fee on formation are different animals, and a quote that presents tax as a setup cost has confused them.
What an all-inclusive package structurally is
A package is a bundle of the items one authority controls, sold as a single product. That is the honest structural description, and it explains both what packages are good at and what they can never contain.
Because a package is assembled by the licensing authority or by an agent working from its schedule, it can bundle the things that authority charges for. It cannot bundle the things charged by immigration per person, by a notary, by a translator, by a landlord outside the zone, by an insurer, by an auditor, by a bank, or by another regulator, because the packager does not collect that money.
Zones do differ on what they choose to bundle — on whether workspace, the immigration establishment card and an initial visa allocation sit inside the licence product or beside it, and on whether audited accounts are a renewal condition. That is a difference in packaging and in obligations, not a statement about quality, and it is why two packages are not comparable until both have been unbundled into the same list.
What a package usually does and does not reach
The most common misreading is the visa line. A package that says it includes a number of visas often means eligibility for that number, not the processing cost of that number. The two are unrelated amounts and the difference is per person, every cycle. Ask which is meant, in writing.
The structural shape of a bundled offer: what sits inside the packager's control, and what is charged elsewhere regardless of how the offer is described.
Trade name reservation and initial approval
- Usually outside it
- Attestation and legalisation done abroad, before anything is filed
Licence issuance and the registration certificate
- Usually outside it
- Notarisation and legal translation charged per document
A stated workspace product within the zone
- Usually outside it
- Premises outside the zone, and registration of the tenancy
An allocation or quota of visa eligibility
- Usually outside it
- The per-person cost of actually processing each of those visas
The zone's own portal and administrative handling
- Usually outside it
- Medical testing, Emirates ID, and insurance for every resident
Sometimes the immigration establishment card, where the zone is the channel
- Usually outside it
- Permits and final approvals from any regulator that is not the licensing authority
First-year charges as advertised
- Usually outside it
- Renewal in every year after the first, quoted separately by the authority
—
- Usually outside it
- Accounting, audit, tax registration and annual filing
—
- Usually outside it
- Bank onboarding, and the bank's own decision, which nobody controls
| Usually inside the bundle | Usually outside it |
|---|---|
| Trade name reservation and initial approval | Attestation and legalisation done abroad, before anything is filed |
| Licence issuance and the registration certificate | Notarisation and legal translation charged per document |
| A stated workspace product within the zone | Premises outside the zone, and registration of the tenancy |
| An allocation or quota of visa eligibility | The per-person cost of actually processing each of those visas |
| The zone's own portal and administrative handling | Medical testing, Emirates ID, and insurance for every resident |
| Sometimes the immigration establishment card, where the zone is the channel | Permits and final approvals from any regulator that is not the licensing authority |
| First-year charges as advertised | Renewal in every year after the first, quoted separately by the authority |
| — | Accounting, audit, tax registration and annual filing |
| — | Bank onboarding, and the bank's own decision, which nobody controls |
How to audit the quote in front of you
This is the page's actual purpose. Take the quote you have been given and put these questions to it. You are not testing whether the number is high; you are testing whether the list is complete.
- For every line, ask who receives the money — licensing authority, immigration, a third party, or the adviser. A line that cannot be attributed is a line that has not been thought about.
- Ask for the split between professional fees and amounts paid on your behalf, and for a copy of the authority's own charge when it is paid.
- Ask for the year-two figure in writing alongside the year-one figure. A provider who can only give you the first has told you something about how the second will go.
- List every person who will need residence, and count the per-person items once per person, per cycle: entry permit, status change where relevant, medical, Emirates ID, stamping, insurance.
- Confirm the immigration establishment card is in the quote, or confirm explicitly that it is not.
- Ask, in these words: does my activity require a permit or final approval from any entity other than the licensing authority, and is that entity's charge inside or outside this quote?
- Ask whether you will be asked to sign an undertaking about approvals you have not yet obtained, and what those approvals are.
- Check the premises line against the full lease term, and check whether registering the tenancy is included or separate.
- Ask whether audited financial statements are a condition of renewal at this authority.
- Ask what documents must be attested abroad, in which country, and who pays for that — it is usually the largest omitted item for a corporate shareholder.
- Ask what an amendment costs during the year, and what closing the company costs at the end.
- Treat any line reading 'government fees may apply' as an unanswered question, not a disclaimer. Ask which fees, charged by whom.
