Business Setup Guides

How these guides fit together

Company formation in the Gulf involves four decisions taken in a fixed order, and each guide covers one of them. The first is the jurisdiction: which of the six states, and within it, mainland or free zone. The GCC business setup overview compares the six on ownership, cost, timeline and market access, and it is the right starting point because every later decision depends on it. The second is the structure: who may own the company and in what proportion, which the foreign ownership guide covers state by state, including the exceptions that survived the reforms of 2019 to 2023.

The third is the running cost, of which corporate tax is now the largest variable. The corporate tax guide sets out the rate, the threshold and the filing obligation in each state, including the UAE's conditional 0 per cent free zone rate and the ownership-based split that Saudi Arabia and Qatar still apply. The fourth is people: how many residence visas the licence allows, what each costs and how long it takes, which the visa sponsorship guide covers alongside the nationalisation quotas that condition new visas in Saudi Arabia.

The two guides everyone needs afterwards

Two more guides address what happens once the licence is issued. Opening a corporate bank account is the step most likely to delay trading: it takes two weeks to three months, banks apply their own risk assessment on top of the licence, and a file can be declined without a reason being given. The guide sets out what banks actually ask for and why applications fail, which is the difference between two weeks and two months.

The other is PRO services, the local term for handling government paperwork. Most Gulf formalities require in-person submission and Arabic documentation, and the choice between employing someone and outsourcing turns on transaction volume. The guide gives the arithmetic: below roughly ten transactions a year, a retainer costs less than a salary.

Reading a Gulf figure correctly

Three habits prevent most of the mistakes. First, separate the licence fee from the first-year cost: the licence is usually the smallest line, and office space, visa allocations, health insurance and a bank minimum balance together cost several times more. Second, distinguish the first year from the second: formation charges do not recur, so a comparison between jurisdictions made on first-year cost alone flatters the ones with high set-up and low renewal. Third, treat a range as information rather than vagueness. Where a guide gives AED 5 750 to AED 50 000 for a free zone licence, the spread is real and its drivers, zone, activity, visa count and office type, are named.

A fourth habit applies to timelines. The licence is rarely the constraint: a UAE free zone company can be licensed in a week and unable to invoice for two months because the bank account is still in review. Any plan built on the licensing timeline alone will slip, and the bank application should start in parallel rather than after.

What these guides are not

They describe how published rules generally apply. They do not take account of your shareholding structure, your sector's licensing requirements or any ruling issued to you, and they are not a substitute for a licensed adviser in the jurisdiction concerned. Where a decision turns on a threshold, the guide names the authority that publishes it so the current figure can be checked directly. Gulf rules change by ministerial decision rather than on an annual calendar, so the review date on each page matters as much as the figure it carries.