Consulting
UAE Company Formation for Consultants
The cleanest setup we file — one licence, one bank account, clients anywhere.
Our usual recommendation
RAKEZ free zone — from AED 9,150year 1, incl. VAT
Consulting is a pure services business with no inventory and no premises requirement, so the licence is a cost line, not a strategic choice — and RAKEZ is the cheapest serious option at from AED 9,150 zero-visa. IFZA is the upgrade when a Dubai-issued licence matters to your clients; the work itself is identical in both.
Consulting is the simplest business we incorporate, and that simplicity is worth protecting. No inventory, no premises beyond a flexi-desk, no import codes, no gateway onboarding — one professional services licence, one bank account, and invoices to clients anywhere in the world. The setups that go wrong are almost always over-built, not under-built.
The situation this page is written for: you advise clients — strategy, management, marketing, operations, IT, HR, or another professional field — your clients are mostly outside the UAE, and you want a clean entity for invoicing, a strong tax position, and possibly a residence visa. That describes a large share of everything we file, which is also why the numbers below are the ones we know best.
Our default is RAKEZ: from AED 9,150 for a zero-visa year one, from AED 15,150 with one visa allocation, both including VAT. If your clients, bank, or positioning respond to a Dubai-issued licence, IFZA does the same job from AED 16,575 — a real difference at zero visas that narrows to roughly AED 2,000 once a visa is involved.
The professional services licence
Consultancy activities are the cleanest category in every free-zone activity list: management consultancy, marketing consultancy, IT consultancy, HR consultancy, and dozens of siblings. The rule that matters is alignment — the activity on the licence should describe what your invoices say. A management consultant invoicing for software development has a mismatch that surfaces at the bank; matching them at incorporation costs nothing.
Two honest carve-outs. First, regulated advice is different: financial advisory, legal services, audit, and similar fields trigger additional approvals or regulatory regimes that a standard free-zone consultancy licence doesn't cover — if your work touches those, say so early and we'll scope the real path. Second, if your consulting comes bundled with implementation — you advise and build — add the matching activity (IT services, marketing services) so the whole revenue line is covered.
Combining a small set of related activities on one licence is routine in both RAKEZ and IFZA. IFZA is the stronger pick when your practice genuinely spans several categories and you want them consolidated under one Dubai-issued licence; for a focused practice, RAKEZ's cheaper licence covers it completely.
Structure: one company is usually enough
A consulting practice needs exactly one entity: an operating free-zone company that contracts, invoices, and banks. There is no inventory to ring-fence, usually no IP worth isolating, and no liability profile that justifies a holding structure on day one. When a proposal for a consultant involves three entities, the structure is serving the seller, not you.
The exceptions are real but later-stage. If your practice starts taking equity stakes in clients, accumulating investments, or building a product alongside the advisory work, a holding layer starts earning its place — typically a DIFC SPV (from AED 23,090, annual management from AED 10,500 per year) sitting on top of the operating company to hold the stakes. That's an apex layer added when the assets exist, not a foundation poured in advance.
Worth restating because the industry muddies it: DIFC, ADGM, and RAK ICC vehicles are passive holding structures. They don't trade, don't employ, and issue no visas. Your consulting income runs through the operating company; the holding layer, if you ever need one, just owns things.
The visa path for a relocating consultant
If you're moving to the UAE, the year-one arithmetic at RAKEZ looks like this: licence with one visa allocation from AED 15,150, a standard 2-year residence visa from AED 6,375, government pass-throughs of AED 360 (medical) plus AED 370 (Emirates ID), and the one-off establishment card at AED 3,050. All-in: from roughly AED 25,300 for the first year, everything included. At IFZA the same configuration lands around AED 2,000 higher.
The sequence: licence first (typically days), then establishment card, then the visa chain — entry permit, medical, Emirates ID biometrics, and stamping. Plan the visa portion in weeks, not days, and note you'll need to be physically in the UAE for the medical and biometrics. Your residence visa is a UAE residence visa regardless of which emirate issued it; living in Dubai on a RAKEZ visa is completely standard.
If you're not relocating, skip all of it: the zero-visa licence from AED 9,150 gives you the company, the bank account, and the invoicing base while you stay where you are. Adding a visa later is an upgrade, not a restart.
Banking: the cleanest profile we file
Consulting is the easiest activity to bank in the UAE, and it's worth understanding why so you can preserve the advantage. Compliance teams approve what they understand: named clients, signed engagement letters or contracts, invoices that match the licence activity, and fees arriving by bank transfer from identifiable companies. A consultant with three B2B clients and a services agreement for each is the file that clears fastest.
What erodes the advantage: vague activity descriptions ('general business services'), revenue stories that mix consulting with trading or crypto, and large unexplained personal transfers through the business account. Keep the company's money business-shaped — clients in, salary and expenses out — and the relationship stays boring, which is exactly what you want from a bank.
Substance helps at the margin: a residence visa and a flexi-desk make approvals smoother than a fully remote zero-visa setup, though we open accounts for both regularly. The bank introduction is part of our setup work, and the assurance behind the numbers is the same everywhere on this site: the price we quote is the price you pay — government costs pass through at cost.
Tax for consultants
The structure of UAE corporate tax suits consulting well: 0% on the first AED 375,000 of profit and 9% above. A solo or boutique practice keeps the first AED 375,000 of profit untaxed under the standard regime alone — before any free-zone analysis. Above that, the free-zone 0% Qualifying Free Zone Person lane can apply to consulting income from foreign clients, but it's conditional: adequate substance in the zone, audited accounts, and a qualifying income mix. We model it against your real numbers rather than promising the headline.
VAT is 5%, with mandatory registration at AED 375,000 of taxable supplies in 12 months and voluntary registration from AED 187,500, as of 2026. Consulting delivered to clients outside the UAE is generally treated favorably for VAT, but crossing the threshold still triggers the registration question — assessed, not assumed. There is no personal income tax in the UAE.
The compliance budget, honestly: corporate tax registration AED 1,575 (mandatory regardless of profit), CT filing AED 2,625 per year, VAT registration AED 2,100 if needed, VAT filing AED 3,675 per year, and bookkeeping from AED 6,300 per year on our Light plan — which fits most consulting practices, because the transaction volume is low.
Fixed-quote assurance
The price we quote is the price you pay. No hidden fees — government costs pass through at cost. How it works →
Consulting — FAQ
RAKEZ or IFZA for a consulting company?
RAKEZ if cost decides it: from AED 9,150 zero-visa versus from AED 16,575 at IFZA, a gap of roughly AED 7,400 for identical work. IFZA if you want a Dubai-issued licence on your documents or your practice spans many activity categories — with one visa allocation the gap narrows to about AED 2,000 a year, which is a reasonable price for the Dubai address if your clients respond to it.
Can I consult for clients inside the UAE with a free-zone licence?
A free-zone company serves international clients and other free-zone companies; UAE mainland clients are a different lane. Occasional mainland work has structuring options, but if UAE-based companies are your core market, mainland is the honest answer — from AED 20,200 for a Dubai mainland year one — and that mainland income sits outside the free-zone 0% tax lane either way.
Do I need an office for a UAE consulting company?
No. A flexi-desk — bundled in the entry packages of both RAKEZ and IFZA — satisfies licensing, and most consultants never lease more. Real substance (a visa, a desk, activity in the UAE) does help with banking and is part of the conditions if you're pursuing the free-zone 0% qualifying tax lane.
What does year one really cost for a relocating consultant?
At RAKEZ: licence with one visa allocation from AED 15,150, a 2-year residence visa from AED 6,375, government pass-throughs at cost (medical AED 360 + Emirates ID AED 370), and the establishment card at AED 3,050 — from roughly AED 25,300 all-in. Staying abroad instead? The zero-visa licence from AED 9,150 is the whole year-one bill.
How much tax will I pay on consulting income in the UAE?
Corporate tax is 0% on the first AED 375,000 of profit and 9% above; there's no personal income tax. Above the threshold, the free-zone 0% lane can apply to foreign-client consulting income if you meet the substance, audit, and qualifying-income conditions — that's a fact-check we run on your numbers, not a default you should assume.
Five minutes to a concrete answer.
Run the diagnostic and we’ll confirm the route, the visa path, and the fixed cost for your exact situation.