UAE Company - DMCC?

[marct]

I’m looking at registering a “side project” in DMCC, it is a software as a service company.

Few questions here…
- what’s the accounting requirements?
- would this activity be qualifying income for 0% tax?
- is there any reliable banking options? Ideally I need integration to Stripe to accept payments.
- is there another region with good banking I should be considering?

My primary client base will be US + EU. I’ve considered Estonia but I’m not sure if it’ll be the best option as the tax on distributions — but may be a perfect holding company spot.

 

[Fred]

Hi @marct,

DMCC is rather on the higher price end when it comes to Dubai Freezones and you need to ask yourself if the higher pricing make sense in terms of do you require the reputation and location DMCC offers you being based in Jumeirah Lake Towers (JLT) and setting up a Physical Office Space within the DMCC.

They just opened a new Tower you have Office Space and Residential Units in the same Building - it's called DMCC Uptown - definitely worth a look.

If you don't require a Physical Office Space within the Freezone and don't really have any walk-in clients a cheaper Freezone in Dubai like IFZA and Meydan does the job - personally I would prefer IFZA over Meydan even when Meydan is a bit cheaper.

Your mentioned Business Activity would NOT qualify for 0% Tax and is taxable at 9%.

For Banking I recommend you WIO Business if you Setup by yourself and if you use an Agent he should be at least able to open you a proper Branch Bank beside of WIO like Mashreq Bank or ENBD.

If you require Payment Processing then UAE/Dubai is a good fit as Stripe is available however if your Business can run on Wire Transfers and USDT only I would rather look into a 0% Tax Offshore Company like we offer it.

Next to UAE/Dubai you have couple of low tax jurisdictions in EU as well as Labuan at 3% Tax and Hong Kong at 8-15% Tax - however Labuan is 10,000-15,000 USD to run and both Labuan and Hong Kong are required to have Accounting and Audits - Hong Kong has the better Payment Gateways for sure.