Dubai Company Formation News
What's changing in Dubai company formation
Regulatory changes and updates that affect setting up or running a Dubai company, kept apart from the reference pages themselves.
Tourist VAT refunds in a day
The Federal Tax Authority and Planet launched an AI-powered refund platform on 20 October 2026: tourists leaving through Dubai International, Zayed International or Sharjah now get their VAT back in one business day instead of about nine. What that means for a Dubai shop on the scheme.
DMCC Foundations are here
DMCC formally established its Foundations Regulations on 23 September 2026: a Dubai free-zone foundation is a legal entity separate from its founder, built for succession, long-term asset holding and family governance, and it can be set up with initial assets from USD 100. Onboarding opens in the coming weeks.
E-invoicing rules eased
Ministerial Decision 197 of 2026 trims the UAE e-invoicing regime a Dubai company must build for: transactions inside a tax group stay out of it for 24 months, invoices no longer have to be stored in the country, and the system-failure notification duty is gone.
Provider accreditation rewritten
Ministerial Decision 168 of 2026 replaces the two earlier decisions on accrediting e-invoicing service providers for Dubai and the rest of the UAE. The pre-approval stage is gone, providers may use third-party Peppol products, and firms with preliminary approval had 30 days from 1 October to meet the new requirements.
Federal budget 2027: Dh90.1bn
The Cabinet approved a Dh292.5 billion federal budget plan for 2027–2029, the frame every Dubai company trades inside. The 2027 year is Dh90.1 billion: social development and pensions take Dh34.6 billion, government affairs Dh29.1 billion, and infrastructure and economic resources Dh3 billion.
IMF and World Bank in Abu Dhabi, 2029
The UAE signed the agreement in Bangkok on 18 October: the 2029 Annual Meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank Group come to Abu Dhabi, 26 years after Dubai hosted them in 2003. For a UAE company the meetings are a week when the world's finance ministers are in town.
Top-up tax: who registers
The Federal Tax Authority's guide on scope and registration for the domestic minimum top-up tax draws the line a Dubai or other UAE company needs: multinational groups with EUR 750 million of revenue in two of the four preceding years are in, groups that exist only in the UAE are out, and the first financial years started on 1 January 2025.
Exempt, and still filing
The FTA's September reminder covers a group of Dubai companies that assumes it is out of scope: registered exempt persons owe an annual declaration on the same nine-month clock.
A second report for the 0% rate
FTA Decision No. 6 of 2026 adds an ISRS 4400 agreed-upon procedures report on top of audited accounts for free zone companies distributing goods from a Designated Zone, Dubai's among them. Nothing is filed until 2027, but the transactions being tested are happening now.
A side door in the global minimum tax
The OECD’s Side-by-Side package adds four safe harbours and extends a fifth, and the largest of them turns on where a group's ultimate parent sits rather than on where its Dubai entities do: it exempts groups headquartered in qualified jurisdictions from the income inclusion and undertaxed profits rules for financial years beginning 1 January 2026.
Small Business Relief still files
The FTA has reminded Dubai companies under the Dh3 million threshold that electing Small Business Relief means a simplified return, not no return. The deadline is 30 September.
E-invoicing deadline moves to October
Dubai companies above Dh50 million now have until 30 October to appoint an accredited service provider. Phase 1 still goes live on 1 January 2027.
134 days of notice
Announced 20 April, effective 1 September. The gap is the part a Dubai company of any size can copy, and almost none do.
DIFC passes 10,000 companies for the first time
2,318 new firms joined in the first half of 2026, taking Dubai's financial centre to an active register of 10,018 — 30% growth in twelve months. Regulated financial firms reached 1,134.
Free zones get mainland access
Dubai's Executive Council Resolution No. (11) of 2025 lets free zone companies trade in mainland Dubai on a DET branch licence or a temporary activity permit, instead of setting up a separate mainland company.