Commercial License Cost in Dubai

Overview

In UAE, there are several categories for trade licenses namely Commercial licenses, Professional licenses, Industrial licenses and Tour Licenses. A commercial license usually includes activities like Trading, Construction, Contracting, etc. A Commercial license can be formed on Mainland and as well as in Free zones but the commercial license cost will be different in Dubai. Business setup in Dubai with commercial license on mainland has to be a Limited Liability Company (LLC) where the UAE National will be the 51% shareholder. In free zones the commercial license can be formed as LLC, having a suffix of FZ LLC which gives the owner a facility to keep the company’s liability limited only where he will be the 100% shareholder. Obviously, selecting the type of jurisdiction, namely Mainland or Free zone, will depend on the business plan of the investor. The Department of Economic Development in Dubai (DED) is responsible for issuance of commercial licenses in Dubai mainland. In this article, however, let’s discuss the commercial license cost in Dubai.

Dubai LLC licence fees

Particulars	Amount (AED)	Mode of Payment
Tasheel fee for Initial Approval	116	One Time
Initial Approval	135	One Time
Trade Name fee	620	One Time
Court Notarization (If Civil - AED 3000)	1,700	One Time
Tasheel fee for final submission	116	One Time
Other Dubai DED Fees	1,720	Yearly
Owner Accommodations Allowance (per partner)	1,000	Yearly
Employees Accommodations Allowance (Depends on No of Employees) (Initially one Manager)	500	Yearly
Public Waste-related services fees	1,000	Yearly
Service Improvement Fees / Professional	240	Yearly
Local - Fees - Professional License	150	Yearly
Market Fees	2.5% of Annual Rent of office / shop	Yearly
Smart Social Responsibility Platform Fee	1,500	yearly
Foreign Trade Name (Not Applicable if Arabic trade name)	2,000	Yearly
Total	AED 8,960	$ 2,442

While the above is an approximate commercial license fee in dubai for Dubai DED, it is always advisable to keep the below things in mind:

• The commercial license fee in dubai also depends on the business activity. Hence if the activities includes any external approval from some different authority then the charge will increase the for the trade license cost. Example: For an Inbound Tour Operator, the activity needs an external approval from DTCM (Dubai Tour) which cost AED 500/- and so the total commercial license cost in Dubai will increases by AED 500/-.
• It is mandatory to provide the EJARI of the office/shop to get the commercial license in Dubai and as the number of employees depends on the area of the shop/office.
• In some activities the Dubai DED allows to take an instant trade license where there is no need of any physical address and hence Market Fees becomes AED 3,000/- but as there is no need to take any physical place on rent hence the budget comes low.
• If there is more than one partner then the owner accommodation increases by AED 1,000/- for each partner.

Free Zone LLC license fees

The free zone commercial license comes with packages. As there are different free zones in UAE, they have their own packages according to visa application facilities, offices, number of shareholders, number of activities under one license etc. Comparatively the license cost in some northern emirates (Ajman, Umm-Al-Quwain, Fujairah) are relatively low cost. Every investor need to know the commercial license costing in Dubai that would be required to setup business in Dubai. The costing always depends on the business idea of the investor and many other factors like the business activity, the number of employees required, etc. To understand the costing part of any mainland or free zone license in UAE, just reach to us and go through the step-by-step and costing would be simple to understand! This blog post is written by Ms. Ananya Busienss Advisor at Flyingcolour Business Setup, Accounting and VAT Services in Dubai & UAE. Feel free to call today for a more detail on your business setup inquiry. Please send inquiry to info[at]flyingcolour[dot]com or call +971 4 4542366.