The UAE dirham is freely convertible and is linked to the US dollar. Other tax-free zones in Dubai include the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), a financial centre with nearly 1,000 international financial institutions, and Dubai Internet City, which already hosts 1,400 resident companies.
Apart from the oil industry and domestic banking, there are no income or capital taxes in Dubai, and no withholding tax.
Dubai has a number of double tax treaties with high-tax countries and is often used in international tax planning by major corporations.
Petroleum has traditionally dominated the economy of the UAE. At one time an underdeveloped area, by 1985 the region had the highest per capita income in the world. This immense wealth has been invested in capital improvements and social services in all seven of the emirates. Petroleum production is centred in Abu Dhabi and Dubai. Industrial development is essentially petroleum related but is limited by a lack of trained personnel and raw materials.
Helped along by the Jebel Ali Free Trade Zone, which is home to 5,500 companies from over 120 countries, the emirate's non-oil imports expanded by 200% between 1986 and 1994. Total non-oil trade reached a record US$297bn in 2012.
During 2002, Dubai began to develop plans for the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), intended to be a major financial entrepot; a proposed regulatory structure for the DIFC was published in June, 2003. In July of that year, the Federal Cabinet of the (UAE) approved a Federal Decree allowing the DIFC a large degree of sovereignty. The DIFC was launched in 2003 and began operations in late 2004. It had been hoped that the Centre would double - to 20% - the financial sector's contribution to the GDP of the United Arab Emirates by 2010. Although this goal was not achieved, DIFC is registering continued growth with a 7% rise in active registered companies recorded in 2012. This brings the total of active companies in the centre to 912.
Dubai belongs to the unified customs area of the Gulf Co-operation Council which came into effect on January 1, 2003 and covers Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates (including Dubai).
In 2000, the Government began to construct Dubai Investment Park, also known as Dubai Internet City (DIC), which has a highly developed technical infrastructure. The first phase of the project was completed in 2002. By early 2012, more than 1,400 companies had established themselves in the DIC, including almost all the big names in IT.
The DIC occupies 3,200 hectares in the South of Dubai, near the Jebel Ali Free Zone, offering state of the art facilities and sites for manufacturing, offices, housing, and academic, research, distributions and logistics institutions.
Within a short span of time, a dynamic international community of ICT companies established itself in Dubai Internet City. The global ICT giants are all represented: Microsoft, Oracle, HP, IBM, Compaq, Dell, Siemens, Canon, Logica, Sony Ericsson and Cisco, to name just a few. These companies represent a community of over 12,000 knowledge workers.
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COUNTRY:
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UAE
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Region:
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UAE - Middle East (EMEA)
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Currency:
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Dirham (AED) (DH)
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Languages:
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Arabic, English
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Time Zone:
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UTC +4 |
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Phone Code:
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+9714
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Communications:
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Good
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Formation Cost:
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8000 - 14000 USD$
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Formation Time:
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13 - 21 days
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Maintenance cost:
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3000 - 5000 USD$
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Suitable for:
- Wealth Management,
- Treasury Management,
- Banking, Insurance,
- Fund Management,
- Yachting,
- Trading Goods,
- Trading Financial,
- Holding Companies,
- Property Ownership
Vehicle Types:
- Limited companies,
- public limited companies,
- shareholding companies,
- general partnerships,
- limited partnerships,
- branches and sole proprietorships
Capital primary business districts:
Dubai
Good Relationships:
Chin
Bad Relationships:
Burma, Cuba, Iran, Korea (Democratic People's Republic of), Libya, Somalia
Tax Burden - Business:
Very Light
Tax Burden - Individual:
Very Light
Headline tax rates:
CIT 0%, PIT 0%, VAT 0%
Treaty Jurisdictions:
Algeria, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Czech Republic, Egypt, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Kazakhstan, Korea, Republic of, Latvia, Lebanon, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Malta, Mauritius, Mongolia, Morocco, Mozambique, Netherlands, New Zealand, Pakistan, Panama, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Seychelles, Singapore, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Switzerland, Syria, Tajikistan, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, Vietnam, Yemen
TIEA Jurisdictions:
None
