Dubai Company Formation

Free zones 2 min read

DMCC now has foundations, and one can start with USD 100 of assets

A small wooden box on a pale stone plinth, thin lines rising from it to two paper tags and a smaller orange box

Dubai's biggest free zone has a new legal form. On 23 September 2026 DMCC formally established its Foundations Regulations, three months after it said in June that it was preparing them.

What a DMCC Foundation is

A separate legal entity from its founder, its councillors, its guardian and its beneficiaries. It holds and manages assets according to its stated objectives and governance arrangements, which makes it a tool for succession planning, long-term asset holding and keeping a family's wealth together across generations.

What the founder can decide

The founder writes the provisions on beneficiaries, on how assets are managed and distributed, and on how decisions are taken. Certain powers can be reserved to the founder or to other named people, including powers over investment decisions, appointments and beneficiaries.

The minimum

A DMCC Foundation can be established with initial assets from USD 100. That is a floor for the asset requirement, not a price list: the licence and registration fees are not in the announcement.

Who it is for

DMCC names high-net-worth individuals, family offices, entrepreneurs and international private wealth clients. It sits beside the SPV and HoldCo licences DMCC introduced in 2025, and beside its Wealth Hub and FinX.

When it opens

The guidance on setting up and running a foundation, and a digital onboarding process, are due in the coming weeks. Until then DMCC is taking registrations of interest on the Foundations page of its website.

A foundation is not a trading company, and the two answer different questions. A DMCC company with a licence is how a founder does business in Dubai; a foundation is how the shares of that company, a property or a portfolio are held and passed on. The useful sequence for a family business is the trading company first, then the holding structure above it once there is something worth holding. Until the guidance is published, the fee schedule and the annual filing obligations are the two things to ask a registered agent before committing.

Source: DMCC checked against the source

More Dubai news

Six paper columns rising in a staircase, a thin ruled line crossing above them

Free zones

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.

A teal shopping bag with a blank paper tag, a dotted arrow curving towards it on a teal ground

Tax

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.

Three blank cream paper sheets on a teal ground, two overlapping and the third set apart with a small gold dot at its top edge

Tax

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.