Where we work

Where you are licensed changes your renewal requirements, your audit obligations and — for free zone entities — whether the 0% Corporate Tax rate is available at all. What it does not change is the federal position: VAT and Corporate Tax are identical in all seven emirates.

By emirate

• Dubai — Dubai is where most of our work sits: mainland trading companies, free zone entities across a dozen authorities, retail groups running stores in the emirate's shopping centres, and the professional services and virtual-asset businesses that cluster here.
• Abu Dhabi — Abu Dhabi's business base skews towards government-linked contracting, energy services, healthcare and professional services, alongside the financial services cluster in ADGM and a substantial retail sector across the emirate's centres.
• Sharjah — Sharjah's economy is weighted towards manufacturing, trading, logistics and a large family-owned SME base, alongside a substantial retail sector serving the emirate and the wider northern catchment.
• Ras Al Khaimah — Ras Al Khaimah combines a substantial industrial and manufacturing base with a fast-growing tourism sector and one of the region's most cost-effective free zone offerings through RAKEZ.
• Ajman — Ajman's business base is dominated by small and medium enterprises, light industry, trading and a substantial free zone population attracted by low establishment costs.
• Fujairah — Fujairah's position on the Gulf of Oman gives it the UAE's only major port outside the Arabian Gulf, making bunkering, shipping services, logistics and heavy industry central to its economy.
• Umm Al Quwain — Umm Al Quwain is the UAE's smallest emirate by population, with an economy built around small trading and service businesses, light industry, fishing and a free zone popular for low-cost establishment.

By free zone

• DMCC — The Dubai Multi Commodities Centre in Jumeirah Lakes Towers is one of the largest free zones in the world by company count, with a member base weighted towards commodities, trading, crypto and professional services.
• JAFZA — The Jebel Ali Free Zone, adjacent to Jebel Ali Port, is the UAE's established base for logistics, manufacturing, distribution and heavy trading operations.
• IFZA — The International Free Zone Authority is one of the most widely used Dubai free zones for smaller companies — consultancies, service businesses, holding entities and early-stage ventures — largely on the strength of its cost and speed of setup.
• Meydan Free Zone — Meydan Free Zone has become a common choice for e-commerce businesses, digital ventures, consultancies and small trading companies looking for a Dubai licence without a physical office commitment.
• RAKEZ — The Ras Al Khaimah Economic Zone hosts a broad base of manufacturing, industrial, trading and service businesses, and is widely used by SMEs for its cost position relative to the Dubai zones.
• DIFC — The Dubai International Financial Centre is a common-law financial free zone with its own companies regulations, its own register of approved auditors and, for regulated firms, DFSA reporting drawn directly from the accounting records.
• ADGM — Abu Dhabi Global Market is a common-law financial free zone on Al Maryah Island, with its own companies regulations, approved auditor register and FSRA reporting for regulated firms.
• DAFZA — Dubai Airport Freezone sits alongside Dubai International Airport and is oriented towards aviation services, electronics, pharmaceuticals, logistics and high-value trading where proximity to air freight matters.

By district

• Business Bay — Business Bay's dense cluster of commercial towers houses a large population of SMEs, professional services firms, agencies, brokerages and holding companies — most of them small, owner-managed and mainland-licensed.
• Deira — Deira remains Dubai's traditional trading heart — a dense concentration of established import, export, wholesale and retail businesses, many family-owned and operating for decades.
• Al Quoz — Al Quoz combines warehousing, light industrial operations, showrooms, fit-out contractors and a growing creative and studio sector — a mix of asset-heavy businesses and project-based ones.
• JLT — Jumeirah Lakes Towers is the physical home of the DMCC free zone, giving it an unusually high density of free zone companies — trading, commodities, crypto, consultancy and holding entities — in a compact area.
• Dubai Media City — Dubai Media City is where our own office sits — Loft Offices Building 1 — in the middle of the TECOM cluster of agencies, production houses, publishers, event companies, tech firms and the creator economy that has grown up around them.

Not listed? We act for clients across all seven emirates and every major free zone — including DIFC and ADGM, covered on our financial free zones page. Tell us where you are licensed.

Reviewed 18 August 2026 by Ahmed Nabil Selim. UAE tax rates, thresholds and deadlines change — confirm the position for your period before relying on it.