Meydan Free Zone Cost: What You Pay to Set Up and to Run

You have probably read five or six pages about Meydan this week, and every one of them was a price list. From AED 12,500. From AED 14,000. From AED 18,000. Same zone, same licence, three different numbers, and not one page explaining why they disagree.

Here is the part nobody puts in writing. Almost every one of those pages was published by a company formation agent who earns a commission when you sign. That does not make them dishonest. It does mean the number you are shown is a starting point designed to get you on a call, and the full figure arrives later, in pieces.

And there is a second thing missing from all of them. The licence is not the expensive part. The expensive part starts in month thirteen, when the renewal, the accounting, the VAT returns and the Corporate Tax filing all arrive in the same quarter. By then the agent who set you up has moved on.

We do both halves. We set the company up, and then we do the accounting for as long as you are trading. That second half is the part a licence agent never sees, and it is where the real cost of a structure shows up. This page is written from that end of the story.

The Short Answer

A Meydan Free Zone licence starts somewhere in the region of AED 12,500 to AED 18,000 a year, depending on the package, the number of visa slots and who is quoting. Treat every published figure, including that range, as indicative only. Meydan's own quotation is the only number that binds, and it is worth getting one directly rather than through a comparison page.

The figure that matters more is the annual running cost: licence renewal, bookkeeping, VAT returns if you are registered, the Corporate Tax return, and an audit if you intend to claim the 0% Free Zone rate. For a small digital business that second number is frequently larger than the licence, and it is the one almost nobody budgets for.

Worth saying plainly: what you are paying for with Meydan is the Dubai address and the speed. If neither is doing real work for you, the same legal entity and the same residence visa cost roughly half in a Northern Emirates zone. We set up in RAKEZ and UAQ Free Zone as well, so ask the question before you assume Dubai is the default.

What the Quoted Package Usually Leaves Out

The headline price generally covers the trade licence, a set number of business activities, and a flexi-desk that satisfies the registered address requirement. That is a real licence and it is genuinely enough to start trading.

What sits outside it, and gets added afterwards:

• The establishment card, which you need before you can sponsor anyone.
• Each residence visa, priced per person, and including the medical test, Emirates ID and stamping.
• Additional visa slots beyond what the package includes.
• Extra activity groups if your business does more than one thing.
• Bank account opening, which is not a zone cost but is a real cost in time and sometimes in introducer fees.

None of this is hidden exactly. It is simply not in the number you were quoted first. When you compare two zones, compare the full configuration you will actually buy, not the two headline figures.

Who Meydan Actually Suits

Meydan works well for digital, e-commerce and online service businesses that want a recognisable central Dubai address without the cost of a premium zone. The licence is flexible, the activity list is broad, and the setup is fast, commonly within a week once documents are in order.

It suits a founder or a small team. The practical ceiling is the visa quota, which on a flexi-desk package is typically around three. If you are planning to put eight people on UAE visas next year, that constraint will find you before anything else does.

It is less of a fit if you need deep banking credibility with enterprise clients from day one, or a physical trading and logistics operation. Those are different conversations, and a more established zone may serve you better. (See mainland versus free zone for a UAE tech company.)

The 0% Corporate Tax Question, Answered Honestly

Every page about Meydan mentions 0% Corporate Tax. Very few explain that there are two completely different routes to a 0% outcome, and that for most small Meydan companies the one everybody talks about is the wrong one.

Route one, Small Business Relief. If your revenue is at or below AED 3 million in the tax period, you can elect to treat your taxable income as zero. It has to be actively claimed on your return, it is not applied for you, and it is available only for tax periods ending on or before 31 December 2029. For a lean digital business this is usually the simpler and cheaper route. (See UAE Small Business Relief.)

Route two, Qualifying Free Zone Person. The 0% rate on qualifying income, subject to a strict set of conditions every single year: genuine substance in the UAE, income that actually qualifies, no mainland permanent establishment, transfer pricing compliance, and audited financial statements. (See does my business qualify for 0%.)

That last condition is the one worth doing arithmetic on.

The Audit Arithmetic Nobody Shows You

An audit is a real annual cost. Before you commit to the QFZP route, work out what it is actually saving you.

Take a Meydan company with AED 2 million of revenue and AED 400,000 of taxable profit. The first AED 375,000 is taxed at 0% regardless of any relief. Only AED 25,000 is exposed to the 9% rate, which is AED 2,250 of tax.

Now put your audit quotation next to that figure. If the audit costs more than AED 2,250, then claiming the 0% rate through the QFZP route costs you money rather than saving it, and Small Business Relief gets you to the same zero without the audit fee.

This flips as you grow. At AED 2 million of profit rather than AED 400,000, the tax at stake is large and the audit is obviously worth it. The point is that it is arithmetic, not a principle, and it is worth redoing each year. (See what auditors ask a UAE tech startup for.)

One date to keep in view: Small Business Relief does not run forever. For tax periods ending after 31 December 2029, the QFZP question comes back whether you want it or not, so the audit decision is worth planning for rather than discovering.

What a Meydan Company Actually Has To Do Each Year

This is the list that does not appear in any setup quotation.

1. Renew the licence annually, around its issue date.
2. Keep proper accounting records. Corporate Tax records are kept for seven years, VAT records for five.
3. Register for Corporate Tax, without exception, even on 0%. Late registration carries an AED 10,000 penalty.
4. File a Corporate Tax return within nine months of your financial year end, even if the tax due is nil.
5. Register for VAT once taxable supplies pass AED 375,000 in any rolling twelve months, then file quarterly.
6. Get ready for e-invoicing. Businesses under AED 50 million appoint an Accredited Service Provider by 31 March 2027 and go live from 1 July 2027. (See the e-invoicing deadlines and penalties.)

For an e-commerce or online business there is a further layer that catches people out: VAT place of supply on cross-border digital sales, marketplace payouts that have to be broken back into individual sales, and payment gateway fees from foreign providers that fall under the reverse charge. Those are bookkeeping problems, and they are the reason online businesses in particular find their accounts do not reconcile.

What We Would Tell You Not To Worry About

Two things founders ask about that matter less than they expect.

The address. A Meydan flexi-desk is a compliant registered office. You do not need a physical room in the building to have a valid licence.

Choosing the "wrong" zone. Moving zones later is inconvenient and costs a fresh setup, but it is not a catastrophe, and businesses do it routinely as their needs change. The decision that is genuinely hard to unwind is mainland versus free zone, not one free zone versus another.

How Khizr UAE Helps

We handle it from the start to the end. The Meydan setup itself, and then everything that follows for as long as you are trading: cloud bookkeeping that reconciles payment gateways and marketplace payouts, VAT registration and quarterly returns, Corporate Tax registration and filing, and an honest assessment each year of whether Small Business Relief or the QFZP route leaves you better off. If the audit would cost you more than the tax it saves, we will say so.

One firm, one relationship, and the same people in month thirteen as on day one.

See our Meydan accounting and setup service for the full scope.

Costs, thresholds and deadlines change, and packages vary. Confirm current pricing with Meydan Free Zone directly and your tax position with a qualified professional before deciding.

WhatsApp: +971 50 428 3999

Email: info@khizruae.com