The real cost of a company in Dubai: licence and visas

Offers of “a company in Dubai from X” usually refer only to the initial cost. To budget properly, the useful question is not how much it costs to open the company, but how much it costs to maintain it: the licence renewed every year, the visa renewed every two, the accounting of every month, the tax filed every financial year and the VAT that arrives once the business is running. This guide gathers every line item, with official 2026 rates and indicative ranges for a small services company.

The first-year entry costs — zone by zone — are broken down in the guide to setting up a company in Dubai; here we focus on what comes afterwards: the real cost of maintaining it.

The starting point: the licence and its renewal

The licence is the anchor line item, and the chosen zone defines its size. In IFZA, government fees start at AED 12,900 for the first year with no visas — AED 18,000 with one founder visa — and the annual renewal also starts at AED 12,900. In DMCC, the premium jurisdiction, the first year starts at AED 50,985 and the renewal is a flat fee of AED 38,910, on top of which comes the mandatory annual audit. The same company, two very different bills: the choice of zone is the first cost decision, not the last.

The visas and the annual trip

The investor visa adds around AED 5,100 in government procedures on top of the licence in IFZA in the first year, and is renewed every two years — at its first renewal in IFZA only the medical exam and the Emirates ID are paid (around AED 900). To the administrative line it is worth adding the annual trip to Dubai. With an investor visa, the prudent approach is to set foot in the emirate at least once a year — it keeps the residency alive, resolves banking and in-person procedures, and gives the structure substance —, so the flight and a few hotel nights should appear in the budget as one more fixed line.

The accounting and the taxes of the year

These are the recurring line items of the year:

• Monthly accounting: for a small company, between AED 1,000 and 2,000 per month — the bookkeeping, the closings and the support that sustain everything else.
• Corporate Tax: the annual corporate tax filing costs around AED 1,500 in management fees. The tax itself is 9% only on profits above AED 375,000 — below that, 0%.
• VAT registration: once, when taxable turnover exceeds the mandatory threshold of AED 375,000 per year; managing the registration costs around AED 2,500.
• VAT filings: from registration onwards, the company files VAT every quarter, with a management cost of around AED 1,200 per filing — in the region of AED 4,800 per year.

The full bill: a small services company in IFZA

Let us add up a typical year, once up and running: licence renewal from AED 12,900, accounting between AED 12,000 and 24,000 per year and the Corporate Tax filing for around AED 1,500 — between AED 26,000 and 40,000 per year before VAT and travel. If the company already files VAT quarterly, the bill rises by around AED 4,800 per year; and in the year the visa comes up for renewal, by the corresponding few hundred. In DMCC, replace the first line with AED 38,910 and add the audit. That is the complete schedule of costs of maintaining a company in Dubai.

Three line items are left out, because they are variable, and are best budgeted separately: the space if your operations require more than a flexi desk, the health insurance tied to each residence visa and your provider’s professional fees — which in any serious proposal are always itemised separately from the official fees.

Conclusion

The real cost of a company in Dubai is better understood as a calendar than as a single figure: a renewal every year, a visa every two, the accounting every month, the Corporate Tax filing every financial year and the VAT every quarter when applicable, plus the annual trip. Budgeted from the start, the whole is predictable and competitive for what it offers: no personal income tax, 9% only on profits above AED 375,000 and a stable structure. With these line items on the table, the decision can be made with complete numbers.