Setting up a UAE company from Norway
Corporate tax 22%; wealth tax combining to roughly 1.0-1.1% above the threshold.
The real risk, not the pitch
This is the hardest market we cover. The NOKUS rules apply to individuals and tax your share as it arises, distributed or not. The UAE sits on Norway's binding low-tax list with no exception, and the list was amended with effect from January 2024 — after UAE corporate tax took effect — and the UAE was left on it. Because there is no treaty, the passive-income limitation is unavailable and the substance defence is EEA-only, so an active Dubai trading company is caught as surely as a passive holding company. A de facto management test can also make the company Norwegian outright. Leaving is adopted law rather than theory: share gains above NOK 3,000,000 are taxed as if realised the day before residence ceases, with payment immediate, in twelve interest-free instalments or deferred twelve years with interest, security required for a non-EEA destination, and no reduction if the value later falls. A resident of ten years or more needs three consecutive years at 61 days or fewer before residence ends.
Tax treaty
Treaty with the UAE: not confirmed
There is no Norway-UAE double taxation treaty. The only bilateral instrument is a tax information exchange agreement in force since February 2017. That absence is decisive, not incidental: the limitation that would otherwise confine the Norwegian CFC charge to passive income is available only where a treaty exists.
Treaty status changes, and signature is not entry into force. Have this verified by counsel before relying on it.
Practicalities
- Flight to Dubai
- ~6.5h
- Currency
- NOK
- Security screening
- Standard
Common questions
Does opening a company in Dubai mean I stop paying tax at home?
No. This is the single most expensive misunderstanding in this industry. Incorporating a company in the UAE changes where that company is registered — it does not change your personal tax residence, and it does not by itself move your company's tax residence either. If you continue living in France, Belgium, the UK or South Africa and manage the business from there, your home tax authority will generally treat the company as tax resident at home under place-of-effective-management rules, and will tax you personally as a resident. To change your tax position you have to change where you actually live and where the business is genuinely run. The company is one step in that, not a substitute for it.
Do I need to live in the UAE to keep a free zone company?
No — you can own and renew a UAE free zone company while living anywhere, and many people do. But owning a company and being UAE tax resident are different things. A residence visa alone does not make you tax resident either. The UAE issues tax residency certificates against defined physical-presence and housing criteria, and your home country applies its own separate test. Plenty of people hold a UAE company and a UAE visa while remaining fully taxable at home, because they never changed where they actually live.
Is a UAE free zone company really taxed at 0%?
Sometimes, and conditionally. The UAE introduced corporate tax in 2023. Mainland companies pay 0% on profits up to AED 375,000 and 9% above that. Free zone companies can access a 0% rate, but only on income that meets the 'qualifying income' definition and only if the company meets adequate substance requirements in the UAE — real people, real premises, real activity. A free zone company whose income falls outside that definition pays 9%. Registration for corporate tax is mandatory for every company regardless of expected rate, and the filing obligation applies even when the result is zero. Anyone describing UAE free zones as simply 'tax-free' in 2026 is working from pre-2023 information.
How long does it actually take?
The licence is the fast part: one to five working days in most free zones, and under an hour in a few. The honest timeline is driven by everything after it. The residence visa chain — entry permit, medical, Emirates ID, stamping — typically runs two to six weeks. The bank account is the real variable and routinely takes four to twelve weeks, sometimes longer, and no provider can guarantee it. Certain nationalities face extended security screening that adds weeks. Plan for six to twelve weeks end to end, and treat anyone promising 'your company and bank account in 48 hours' as selling you the first step and staying quiet about the rest.
Your quotation, within 24 hours
Four details is all we need. We come back with a firm quotation, the recommended free zone and the reasons for it.