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Insights

Working notes from the people who file the applications — what the rules actually say, what they cost, and where founders lose time. Written against the authorities, not against a brochure.

The archive

Briefings on Costs & capital

8 pieces Clear filter
  1. Costs & capital Woman in a hijab reads a sheet at a desk lined with three building models and a gavel

    Choosing where to incorporate in Dubai is choosing a registrar, and the registrar settles more than the price

    The mainland, free zone and offshore choice every setup guide opens with is a map of ownership and market access. 12 min read
  2. Costs & capital Woman in an abaya reaches over a glowing gold UAE map with routes running to a bank, ship and aircraft

    ‘Full repatriation of profits’ is true, and it is not what decides whether your money moves

    The UAE charges nothing on a dividend leaving the country and applies no exchange controls. Both true, and neither is the constraint. 20 min read
  3. Costs & capital A woman weighs a domed building model banked with cash against an office block marked with a question

    The share capital figure is a promise, not a payment

    There is no UAE-wide minimum capital for a free zone company. 13 min read
  4. Costs & capital Woman with a tablet studies a row of brass gates, each marked with a different trade icon

    A sector is not a prospect. It is a set of gates, and the one that binds first decides what your first year costs.

    Sector articles rank industries by how well they pay, which no UAE authority publishes and no firm selling licences can source. 13 min read
  5. Costs & capital Man in a kandura reads a document behind thick stacks of paper flagged with sticky tabs

    Investors rarely stall on your numbers. They stall on the documents a UAE company has to go and ask somebody else for.

    Three facts are public — that the entity exists, who licensed it, and what it is licensed to do — and the rest is a pile of documents the company itself has to hold or has to go and obtain. 16 min read
  6. Costs & capital A woman in a hijab lays a checklist sheet onto one of several document stacks linked by lit arrows

    Most of a company formation is work you could do yourself. The fee buys the order it happens in.

    The word "everything" is doing a lot of work in that sentence. You have been quoted a fee to handle everything. 13 min read
  7. Costs & capital Adviser with a ticked checklist stands over a client reading a document beside icon-tagged file stacks

    You can file most of a Dubai formation yourself. What a fee buys is attendance and a calendar, not permission.

    The question is not whether a consultant helps. It is which of these counters requires one. 12 min read
  8. Costs & capital Woman pointing her pen at the middle of three lit building models as a man beside her considers them

    The cheapest company setup is a bet that nothing changes for three years

    Every quotation for a low-cost UAE company prices the least representative of the three years it will live. 14 min read

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