What You Actually Get

What's included in a Dubai company setup with Route Business Hub.

One engagement covering both sides of the move: the UAE company, licence, visas and banking, and the UK corporation tax, VAT and payroll work that a formation agent leaves you to sort out yourself. We quote per client rather than selling fixed packages, and this page explains exactly what that covers and what it does not.

Get a Scoped Quote

Both sides

UAE formation and the UK exit, run as one engagement

Company formed remotely

One short UAE trip only if you take a residency visa

Fees passed through

Government and free zone fees at cost, never marked up

Scoped per client

No fixed tiers; quoted against what you actually need

What the engagement covers

Most providers do the left-hand column. The right-hand column is the part that causes problems a year later if nobody owns it.

The UAE side

Structure and jurisdiction selection: free zone, mainland or holding, chosen against your activity and where your customers actually are.
Activity code selection and trade name reservation, including resubmission if a name is rejected.
Licence application prepared and submitted, and the authority's review coordinated through to issuance.
Residency visa and Emirates ID applications for you and any dependants you are sponsoring.
Corporate bank account application prepared and submitted, including the business plan UAE banks ask for.
UAE corporate tax registration, and the renewal calendar set up from day one.

The UK side

Your final UK corporation tax period handled properly, rather than left for an accountant who was not told about the move.
VAT deregistration, or continued compliance where the UK company stays registered.
Payroll and PAYE wound down cleanly, including final submissions.
Director's loan account position reviewed before it becomes a taxable problem.
A documented view on UK tax residence and where the business is centrally managed from, which is what HMRC actually looks at.
Companies House filings kept current if the UK entity is staying open alongside the UAE one.

What is not included

Anyone quoting a single all-inclusive number is either absorbing these or hiding them. Here is where the line sits for us.

Government and free zone fees

Set and collected directly by the relevant UAE authority. We pass them through at cost and show them as a separate line from our advisory fee, so a change in published rates changes your quote by exactly that amount.

Ongoing UAE accounting and audit

Quoted separately once the company is trading, because the right level depends on your activity and whether you are maintaining Qualifying Free Zone Person status.

Third-party legal and translation

Document attestation, legal translation and any specialist legal opinion are billed at cost where your application needs them.

Office space beyond the licence package

Most licences include a flexi-desk arrangement that satisfies the requirement. Dedicated premises are a separate commercial decision and a separate cost.

Why there is no price list

A fixed tier has to assume something. Usually it assumes you need one visa, that your UK company is being closed rather than kept, and that nobody needs to look at your director's loan account. When those assumptions are wrong, the tier either bills you for work you do not need or quietly leaves out the work that mattered.

Three things move a quote more than anything else: how many residence visas you need, whether your UK company is closing or staying open, and whether your business activity needs a mainland licence rather than a free zone one. We establish those at consultation, then quote once, with our fee and the authority fees shown separately.

As a broad guide, licences generally start around £3,000–£3,500 a year and a realistic first-year total lands between £8,000 and £15,000. For the full breakdown of what falls into year one versus what gets added later, see our full Dubai company setup cost guide.

Who this fits

Small UK service businesses

Consultancies and agencies of roughly one to five people, where the director is relocating and the work follows them rather than staying tied to a UK office.

Professional services firms

Advisory, finance and technical practices whose clients care that the licence and the tax position both stand up to scrutiny.

E-commerce founders

Online sellers who need a broad activity list and light premises requirements, and whose UK VAT position needs handling properly on the way out.

Who it does not fit

Directors who want a UAE entity while continuing to live and work in the UK. That is the structure HMRC challenges most often, and we will say so at consultation rather than after you have paid.

Can this be done remotely from the UK?

The company, yes. Licence application, trade name, activity selection and bank account preparation are handled without you leaving the UK. The residency visa is the exception: the medical test and biometrics must be completed in person, so each visa applicant makes one short UAE trip. Anyone describing the visa itself as fully remote is talking about the licence.

Free

Initial Strategy Review

£0

Upfront Costs

HMRC

Compliant & Documented

Direct

Access to Your Named Advisor

Sufyan Ali, Finance Director, ACCA · Muhammad Usman Rafiq, Senior Accountant, ACCA

Every engagement is personally overseen by a senior member of our Dubai-based team.

Meet the full team →

Frequently Asked Questions

No, and deliberately so. What a UK director actually needs varies enough that a fixed tier would either overcharge you for work you do not need or quietly exclude the part that matters most, usually the UK side. We scope each engagement against your business activity, how many residence visas you need, and how your UK company is being wound down or kept running, then quote once against that.

Our advisory fee covers the work we do. It does not swallow the government and free zone fees, because those are set and collected by the UAE authorities, not by us, and we pass them through at cost rather than marking them up. You see the two figures separately before you commit, which is the honest version of "all-inclusive" and the reason our headline number sometimes looks higher than an agent quoting a bundled price with the authority fee buried inside it.

The company itself, yes. Licence application, trade name, activity selection and the corporate bank account preparation are all handled without you leaving the UK. The residency visa is the exception: the medical test and biometrics have to be done in person, which means one short UAE trip per visa applicant. Anyone telling you the visa is fully remote is describing the licence, not the visa.

No. Authority fees are passed through at cost and shown as a separate line from our advisory fee, so you can see exactly what goes to the UAE government and what goes to us. This also means that when a free zone changes its published rates, your quote changes by exactly that amount and nothing else.

Licences generally start around £3,000 to £3,500 a year, with a realistic first-year total, including visa, banking and a properly handled UK exit, usually £8,000 to £15,000. The single biggest variable is visas: a sole director with no dependants sits near the bottom of that range, a director sponsoring a spouse and staff sits near the top. Our full cost guide breaks down what falls into year one versus what gets added later.

A formation agent sets up the UAE company and stops there. That is a legitimate service, and if the UAE entity is genuinely all you need, an agent will usually be cheaper. The gap shows up on the UK side: your final corporation tax period, VAT deregistration, payroll wind-down and the HMRC position on where the business is actually managed from. Those are the items that create problems a year later, and they are the reason we run both sides as one engagement rather than handing you a UAE licence and wishing you luck.

It fits small UK service businesses, professional services firms and e-commerce founders best, typically a UK limited company with one to five people where the director is genuinely relocating rather than looking for a paper address. It fits least well if you want a UAE entity while continuing to live and work in the UK, because that is the structure HMRC is most likely to challenge, and we will tell you so at consultation rather than after you have paid.

The licence and any visas renew annually, and UAE corporate tax registration and filing obligations continue regardless of whether you owe anything. Ongoing UAE accounting is quoted separately rather than bundled into the setup, and UK entity management is available if your UK company stays open. We diarise renewal dates rather than leaving them to a reminder email, because a lapsed licence puts the residency visa issued under it at risk.

Get a quote scoped to your business, not a tier.

A free consultation covering structure, visas, cost and your UK exit, with our fee and the authority fees shown separately before you commit to anything.

Book Your Free Consultation