Experience With a DMCC Company
Dear Offshore Corp Talkers,
I setup a DMCC company, and here is my report.
Introduction
I moved a company to DMCC, which had previously been based in some odd country in The Americas. Armed with my $500 corporate shield in a country I had never been to, I took the next natural step - I opened an account with Peter Schiff's Euro Pacific Bank, then in St. Vincent.
I had no idea that there might be issues with this down the line. The company is legit, and
even well known and respected! But I wanted to play
digital nomad and pay
no tax, with no idea the banking cartel was coming for me.
Last year I came very close to loosing the lion's share of my life's earnings when Peter Schiff kicked me out and I had no other home. I only got the money out in the nick of time before Peter liquidated me. I've only I'd been privy to
@Martin Everson 's posts.
My fair fiat saved, I did meagre research and quickly began the process of setting up a DMCC company.
DMCC is based in
Jumeirah Lake Towers (JLT), which is adjacent Marina, and like a cheaper, quieter version of it. It's a nice area, but if you buy an apartment there, the interiors aren't that good.
It is the location of the Uptown development, which is part of JLT. I think they are having another crack at the world's tallest building there.
Opening Remotely
Reading that getting a bank account in UAE has become more difficult (due to the banking cartel), I decided to incorporate in Dubai, and the DMCC (
Dubai Multi Commodities Centre), which is said to be the most prestigious and best. I was also told this was the only free zone, which can be opened remotely, since I was not a UAE resident.
I opened with
Local Consultants DMCC (
Business Setup in Dubai | Company Formation in Dubai, UAE | Emirabiz), who have transparent pricing. They were good overall and were always quick to reply to emails, but I didn't feel they wrapped it up too well. I have a flexi-desk (an alleged share in an office I have never been to), but they never told me anything about that. When I asked about opening a bank account, they didn't seem to want to help, just gave me a link to a bank and I think they might have not given me all the required documents as they should have.
You can try and incorporate and get you visa yourself, but I would recommend going with them or another agent. I spoke to a guy who used the
DLS consultancy that advertises on this this and from what he said they were better. I don't think it would be difficult to do yourself, but you will be left doing a lot of research and faffing about.
Opening remotely required I make one or two calls with a DMCC rep., sign a few forms, and hand over a few details. I was surprised there was no deeper querying. No query was made as to why I had been "based" in a backwater country known for corruption. This stage took about a week. After that I would have been ready to proceed with a visa.
I think the agent's fee for incorporation was about $3,000.
Arriving in UAE + Incorporating
I arrived in UAE during the plandemic. I was taken by the agent for my medical test and then to have my hand-prints and photo taken. I was surprised that no one ever asked me what I am doing, if I have a criminal record. Nothing. After about ten days I had the visa and the incorporating process was continued.
The first thing you will want to do is get a UAE SIM, which you can getat the airport. I think the cheapest is a
Virgin one. I got one that has 6GB / month for about $135 / year. I don't believe you will be able to proceed without a UAE SIM.
It seems all UAE employees or resident need health insurance. I just got a cheap one (care up to $50K) from
Noor Takful for about $300 / year. But going forward I may switch to
Marsh, who have some good options. This was another aspect the agent failed on. They told me to get insurance from one of two sites, but neither had the option to do so for new residents. After spending a few hours going round in circles, the agent told me to email the insurer and it was soon complete.
Soon the company was registered and I received the incorporating documents. These were copies. When applying for a bank account you may need to get stamped and certified copies.
The DMCC has a portal, which makes it easy to manage most aspects of the business. If you need to renew or order something, you can initiate it on there; and within 1-2 working days you will get the result. You will likely need to order a company stamp from here.
I found The DMCC and other government entities to be very streamlined and easy to deal with.
You might also need a PO box, as I have seen required fields with a PO box field. I just bought a personal one for about $100 / year. Order one from the
Emirates Post site and then pick up the key from your selected post office.
Opening Bank Accounts
DMCC companies require bank accounts. You are meant to have opened one within 90 days of registration, which I doubt many people will be able to fulfil. There was a request to submit a confirmation of account opening or bank statement with the minimum capital in, but I didn't submit it for about four months. After I submitted it I never heard anything about it again.
DMCC companies are required to keep a minimum balance in their bank. This varies, but is usually 50,000 AED, which is about $13,500.
Opening an account in UAE is difficult. Many small companies had their account terminated in recent years, because the cartel has made the cost of compliance too high. There are only 3-4 banks that are specifically tailored for small business. Seach for - UAE SME bank.
The best to apply with is
Mashreq NeoBiz. This is a "branchless" version of Mashreq (one of the largest banks). However, I did go to a Mashreq branch to get a bank statement and it was provided. This bank account was opened very quickly after I got all my documents. No
KYC. I think it was opened with about a week. The downside of Mashreq and NeoBiz is that they require you either have a personal address in UAE or a real office (not a shared/flexi-desk). I had neither, and had to sign a letter saying I would have one within 90 days, and if I didn't by then they would close the account. I think you might be able to get away with having an internet bill you pay in a friend's house or a long-stay contract with a hotel that you could maybe get out of. NeoBiz is like a normal bank. I have seen it incorrectly refereed to as an
EMI. NeoBiz has accounts in AED and major currencies. I have had no issues using it. Though I have ported all the money in via domestic bank transfers from
Payoneer and Wise; and also some payments that were received locally in AED. No KYC requests.
I also signed up for
RAK Bank account. This was the mother of all KYC mountains. I also have a personal account with them, which was the most cumbersome of my personal accounts. I think this took two visits to their office, and XX emails fishing out all manner of documents with explanations. A lot of this was due to me moving in some large sums from the old company. At no point did they query why I was based in a backwater or if it was an
offshore company etc. They just wanted to see the money flows. Thankfully I stripped every report I could out of Peter Schiff's shaky Caribbean bank, because by the time I was setting up this account Peter had locked me out. They obviously went through these very thoroughly as I was queried on a few things that were difficult to understand. They also made me crack out the brokerage reports that were attached to the account, and didn't query why this Caribbean piece of paper company with a bank account in Puerto Rico had made 400% on Canopy Growth Corp (TSE:WEED)! I thought the KYC would not end. They sent me a request for more details, which I did not understand. I said I don't understand. The next email I got was to tell me my account was open. I've not had any issues or KYC requests, with large sums being dripped in over a few months from Wise and
Payoneer.
Both these accounts come with a cheque book, card, online and mobile banking. The NeoBiz website is a bit of a slop shop, while the RAK
Bank one is quite nice but slow.
N.B. Wise does not work in UAE and you can only use Payoneer if you have a UAE business bank account. If you incorporate in a free zone that does require an account, you can try
Bankera (EUR only) and Curencie (whatever it's called in
Hong Kong) and Airwallex. You should be good for all of those.
I also opened a shed load of financial accounts for myself and the company in this period. Multiple
crypto exchange accounts for the company. This was all heavy work and I spent five months working all day every day non-stop. Setting up in UAE should probably be a permanent decision. It's not going to be quick.
Renewal
The agent contacted me asking if I wanted them to renew the company for me. I did it myself and it was easy enough. Every year you will need to keep your lease up to date. You can do this in the portal and I was surprised to find my lease is only $300 / year. Usually they are 10X that. You also need a new establishment card, which costs about $500; update your business details; update your insurance (from $300+) and renew your licence. The licence is generally something like 25,000 AED (about $7,000), but if you pay it forward five years then it's 20% off. DMCC companies also require an annual audit, the price of which will vary. You will need to keep your visa up to date too. I think that's about $1,000-1,500 every three years.
Costs
It cost about $17,000 to setup, but then it only costs about $7,000 / year to maintain (if you renew the licence for 5 years) + inclusive of health insurance, PO box, phone.
Verdict
DMCC is a good business hub. I haven't endeavoured to and am not staying in UAE, but you could likely find some good contacts here. I have been on some of their webinars. One of which was quite interesting as the head of The DMCC said:
"Cryptо is here to stay... Some parts of the world don't want to have anything to do with it. And other parts of the world cannot survive without it... What is most attractive to me is it is a better alternative (in my opinion) to the
IMF and
World Bank... There is a lot of convicted felons, convicted banks involved in that industry [legacy banking], while
crypto is just pure..."
Subversive stuff. I feel at home.
