The UAE, for people who have to get it right
Free zones, corporate tax, Designated Zones, residence routes and the legislation that keeps changing underneath all of it. Built from primary sources, with the gaps marked as gaps rather than filled with plausible numbers.
Every UAE free zone, and which are Designated Zones
A free zone and a VAT Designated Zone are not the same thing, and conflating them is the most expensive mistake in this area. Designation is conferred by Cabinet Decision 59 of 2017 as amended, it applies to goods and never to services, and being on the list is necessary but not sufficient: the area must also be fenced, customs controlled and FTA compliant.
| Free zone | Emirate | Est. | Authority | Designated Zone |
|---|
Three things this table is telling you
Most free zones are not Designated Zones. DMCC, DIFC, ADGM, Dubai Internet City, Meydan, Shams, SPC, Masdar, twofour54, Dubai Silicon Oasis and RAKEZ itself are all outside the list. Where a free zone is not a Designated Zone, the FTA treats it like any other part of the UAE.
Three areas have been removed. Dubai Textile City lost designation on 4 April 2021, the Al Quoz free zone area on 1 July 2021, and RAK Airport Free Zone on 4 July 2019. Guides still listing them are describing a position that ended years ago.
Two entries are only partly designated. RAKEZ is not designated as an entity, but Al Hamra, Al Ghail, Al Hulaila and RAK Port are, individually. KEZAD runs both free zones and mainland economic zones across more than 550 square kilometres, so a tenant's status depends on the specific zone and plot. In both cases the honest answer to "is it a Designated Zone" is "which part".
A note on cost. Only DMCC, Meydan, Masdar, RAKEZ and SPC publish any pricing on their own sites. Every figure circulating for Jafza, DAFZA, DSO, Dubai Internet City, IFZA, Shams, Ajman Free Zone, KEZAD and twofour54 comes from company formation agents, so none is reproduced here. Note also that IFZA is a licensing operator inside Dubai Silicon Oasis under an agreement dated 21 October 2020, not a free zone authority in its own right.
Are you still a Qualifying Free Zone Person?
Being in a free zone does not give you the 0% rate. Qualifying Free Zone Person status is a separate test with eight conditions and a de minimis limit, and failing any one of them costs the 0% rate for that tax period and the four that follow. Answer honestly; nothing is sent anywhere.
Answer the questions above
The result appears here as you go.
Based on Cabinet Decision 100 of 2023, Ministerial Decision 229 of 2025, Ministerial Decision 84 of 2025 and the FTA's Free Zone Persons corporate tax guide. This is a structured reading of published conditions, not advice on your position.
Which UAE residence route applies to you?
Pick what describes you. Each route shows the actual published threshold and where it comes from, including the ones commercial guides get wrong.
Two things the guides keep getting wrong
A freelance permit is not residence. It is a work authorisation. You still need a separate residence visa, and the route to it is the Green visa self-employment category, for which the MoHRE freelance permit is the prerequisite. Dubai's GoFreelance package is AED 7,500 a year and its own FAQ states plainly that this does not include the visa.
The Green investor visa has no published minimum. Neither GDRFA nor ICP publishes a figure. The AED 500,000 that appears across consultant sites is not traceable to any official source, so it does not appear here.
Corporate tax, in the shape it actually takes
Current as at September 2026, from the Federal Tax Authority, the Ministry of Finance and the legislation itself.
The rates
- 0%
- Taxable income up to AED 375,000
- 9%
- The excess above AED 375,000
- 0%
- Qualifying Income of a Qualifying Free Zone Person
- 15%
- Minimum effective rate for in-scope multinationals
The AED 375,000 band is a slice, not a cliff. A company earning AED 400,000 pays 9% on AED 25,000, not on the whole amount.
Small Business Relief runs to 2029
Relief where revenue is AED 3,000,000 or less in the current and every previous period. It must be elected for each period, and it forfeits loss carry-forwards.
Ministerial Decision 131 of 2026, issued on 29 July 2026, extended the relief from tax periods ending on or before 31 December 2026 to 31 December 2029. A great deal of published commentary, some of it dated this year, still says it expires in 2026.
The 15% top-up tax
Cabinet Decision 142 of 2024. Applies to multinational groups with consolidated revenue of EUR 750 million or more in at least two of the four preceding years, for fiscal years starting on or after 1 January 2025.
The UAE obtained OECD Transitional Qualified Status in August 2025, which means no foreign top-up tax applies to UAE profits.
Registration closes 30 November 2026 for entities with fiscal years ending before 30 April 2026.
E-invoicing
Businesses with revenue of AED 50 million or more must appoint an accredited service provider by 30 October 2026 and go live on 1 January 2027.
The appointment deadline moved from 31 July 2026. The go-live date did not. Content written before May 2026 has the first date wrong; content assuming the extension moved both has the second wrong.
Below AED 50 million: appoint by 31 March 2027, live 1 July 2027.
The deadlines that recur
- Corporate tax return and payment: 9 months after the period ends
- Transfer pricing disclosure: with the return
- VAT return and payment: 28 days after the period ends
- Excise return: by the 15th of the following month
- QFZP distribution audit report: 30 days after the return deadline
- Country by country notification: last day of the reporting year
- Country by country report: 12 months after year end
Economic Substance was narrowed, not repealed
Cabinet Decision 98 of 2024 cancelled notification and reporting for financial years ending after 31 December 2022. It did not repeal the regime.
Historic filings stay open to FTA query, historic penalties survive, and information requests can still come. Substance itself did not disappear either: it moved into the corporate tax law as the QFZP adequate substance condition, where failing it is far more expensive than an ESR penalty ever was.
What changed, when, and what it replaced
Every Cabinet and Ministerial Decision on UAE corporate tax and free zones, in order, with the repeals marked. Reconstructing this by hand is a job most people do badly, and citing a repealed instrument is the commonest error in UAE tax writing.
DIFC and ADGM are not ordinary free zones
Both are financial free zones under Federal Law 8 of 2004, which exempts them from all federal civil and commercial law. Federal criminal law and anti money laundering obligations still apply to both.
DIFC
- Established
- 2004
- Regulator
- Dubai Financial Services Authority
- Constitution
- Dubai Law 5 of 2021
- Courts
- DIFC Courts, Court of First Instance and Court of Appeal
- Designated Zone
- No
DIFC enacts its own free-standing civil and commercial statutes, drafted on common law principles, rather than importing another country's law wholesale.
ADGM
- Established
- 2013
- Regulator
- Financial Services Regulatory Authority
- Basis
- Federal Decree 15 of 2013, Abu Dhabi Law 4 of 2013
- Courts
- ADGM Courts, with commercial, real property, employment and small claims divisions
- Designated Zone
- No
ADGM applies English common law and equity directly under the Application of English Law Regulations 2015, together with a schedule of specified English statutes. It was the first jurisdiction in the region to take the Singapore and Hong Kong approach.
Why the difference matters
ADGM imports English law by direct application, so it tracks developments in English law automatically. DIFC codifies its own statutes, so it does not.
That changes how precedent works, how gaps are filled, and how quickly each responds when English law moves. For a choice of forum clause it is a real distinction, not a formality.
Legal Desire publishes this as a reference for professionals. It is general information about published rules, current as at 3 September 2026, and it is not legal or tax advice on any particular position. Rules in this area change often and several instruments here have already been amended or repealed once. Where a figure could not be traced to an official source it has been left out rather than estimated, and where sources conflict that is said in the text. Corrections to office@legaldesire.com.