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UAE Mainland or FreeZone?

Yakooza

Yakooza

New member
Jan 17, 2019
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#1
Hi All,

Since Freezones and the mainland seem to be the same when I am talking to the different agents. All of them suggest opening a company on the mainland. Well, most of our company cash goes to expenses. So we may still can keep it under 375K AED per year What is your suggestion?
Is it still worth opening in Freezone? and if so which Freezone is better?
Since @Fred is out of business. Which agent do you recommend?
Someone said software/IT companies are not covered by tax-free anyway? Doesn't look valid to me.
Easy to get business PayPal in UAE? Do we have to do a tax report on PP as well?

Our biggest concern is to avoid/paying less tax.
We are an IT company providing digital services.

Thanks
 
#2
Hello,

Any specific reason you need a UAE company and not something cheaper to maintain such as a US LLC?

Right now I don't see any advantage in using a FZ over a mainland company.
 
#3
Well I think people opt for UAE as you get their ID and open bank accounts with their ID.. so no need to worry about tax problems with your home country.. with USA LLC you are betting on IRS not sharing info to your home country..
 
#4
ivan1911 said:
Well I think people opt for UAE as you get their ID and open bank accounts with their ID.. so no need to worry about tax problems with your home country.. with USA LLC you are betting on IRS not sharing info to your home country..
Click to expand...
So you choose UAE because you think it will help you better to commit tax fraud?

If that’s the case each time it will be more difficult.

The IRS doesn’t share corporate bank account data only personal.
 
#5
What IRS does or doesn't share we can only guess.. I red through a bunch of threads here and some very prominent members claim fairly different things. So all in all I think that what UAE has over USA LLC is that everything is opened by the UAE resident using UAE ID..
 
#6
Jbb1 said:
Hello,

Any specific reason you need a UAE company and not something cheaper to maintain such as a US LLC?

Right now I don't see any advantage in using a FZ over a mainland company.
Click to expand...
Because of my situation, US is not an option at the moment.

So if anyone has any experience with these two questions?

Is it still worth opening in Freezone? and if so which Freezone is better?
Since @Fred is out of business. Which agent do you recommend?
 
#7
ivan1911 said:
Well I think people opt for UAE as you get their ID and open bank accounts with their ID.. so no need to worry about tax problems with your home country.. with USA LLC you are betting on IRS not sharing info to your home country..
Click to expand...
I want to start a UK LLP and live in Thailand, as you mentioned about tax reports to my home country.

Do you think it is better for me to start a business in Dubai first just to get the EID so I can open bank accounts with tax ID in Dubai? and stay less than 3 months in Dubai so I don't pay CIP in Dubai?
 
#8
AtMo said:
I want to start a UK LLP and live in Thailand, as you mentioned about tax reports to my home country.

Do you think it is better for me to start a business in Dubai first just to get the EID so I can open bank accounts with tax ID in Dubai? and stay less than 3 months in Dubai so I don't pay CIP in Dubai?
Click to expand...
I think you will need to pay corporate tax anyways.
 
#10
AtMo said:
Can you explain why you think so please? I will stay in Thai for less than 6 months, dubai for 2 months, and other time in other parts of Asian, so I'm not a tax resident in any of the countries.

I will only need the EID because I don't have tax ID in Thai.
Click to expand...
why wont you get such an id? if thats really the only thing. Its also chaper than the eid ;)
 
#12
In your case I would suggest a free zone, just make sure it’s in Dubai and not in the other emirates (easier banking). We mostly use IFZA because it’s the fastest and most cost efficient.

Mainland I only recommend if you have some physical goods to sell and need a shop or for any activity which is not allowed in free zones.
 
#13
Ancova said:
In your case I would suggest a free zone, just make sure it’s in Dubai and not in the other emirates (easier banking). We mostly use IFZA because it’s the fastest and most cost efficient.

Mainland I only recommend if you have some physical goods to sell and need a shop or for any activity which is not allowed in free zones.
Click to expand...
So still you suggesting the Freezone and IFZA is the best I guess?
Is it okay to open bank accounts etc? At least we can have Neo banks. Right?
 
#18
Banking in the UAE has become quite difficult, especially for free zones. Reason being is you have the FATF grey list and the most incompetent bankers ever earning $600 on average monthly and they are so scared of being fired, that they just deny/delay each application. These bankers usually tend to belong to the same South east asian country as well...

It really depends on the license activity, and virtual office space is no longer a go - you need a real physical office and the bank will come to inspect the office (or at the very least ask for photo/video proof).

WIO is great, but it's just a digital bank from FAB. As they are quite new, they are focusing on SMEs and have little KYC and you can open an account pretty fast.

I personally do use WIO and am very happy with it. But I do feel they are just being nice to SMEs now as they want to enlist as many clients as they can. I am sure later they will ramp up the KYC and it will be harder to be onboarded and send/receive wires without too many questions..


Mainland is usually still the easiest to get banking with. Freezones you can be waiting for up to a year... or more.
 
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#19
Henn and Rich said:
Banking in the UAE has become quite difficult, especially for free zones. Reason being is you have the FATF grey list and the most incompetent bankers ever earning $600 on average monthly and they are so scared of being fired, that they just deny/delay each application. These bankers usually tend to belong to the same South east asian country as well...

It really depends on the license activity, and virtual office space is no longer a go - you need a real physical office and the bank will come to inspect the office (or at the very least ask for photo/video proof).

WIO is great, but it's just a digital bank from FAB. As they are quite new, they are focusing on SMEs and have little KYC and you can open an account pretty fast.

I personally do use WIO and am very happy with it. But I do feel they are just being nice to SMEs now as they want to enlist as many clients as they can. I am sure later they will ramp up the KYC and it will be harder to be onboarded and send/receive wires without too many questions..


Mainland is usually still the easiest to get banking with. Freezones you can be waiting for up to a year... or more.
Click to expand...
If you have a mainland company you can actually open accounts with EU based EMI-s.
They will require from the director of UAE company to have residence, visa or some tie with EU to do it.
One good option to get it is establishing a branch office in Estonia for the UAE company. The branch office can be opened online and the CIT is 0% until distribution.
Branch manager can also get visa and residence permit in EU.
 
#20
Don said:
If you have a mainland company you can actually open accounts with EU based EMI-s.
They will require from the director of UAE company to have residence, visa or some tie with EU to do it.
One good option to get it is establishing a branch office in Estonia for the UAE company. The branch office can be opened online and the CIT is 0% until distribution.
Branch manager can also get visa and residence permit in EU.
Click to expand...

So does it means you can get an Estonian company without having any transaction there? I mean I don't want to do accounting and taxing in Estonia.
I know Wise is not supporting UAE. But with an FZ company can you get an account with Payset and Currenxie?
 
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