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RAK Offshore Experience?

enceladus

enceladus

BANNED MEMBER
Feb 23, 2018
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#1
Would anyone share their experience setting up a RAK offshore company (not a FZ), ease of bank account opening, etc?

Is the company subject to audits or must have a local accountant?

I'm thinking of an online consultancy business. Since RAK offshore companies are not allowed to conduct business in the UAE, do I have to put a disclaimer in my website stating that I can't sell my services if the client has permanent residency in the UAE?
 
#2
If you talking about RAK ICC you can open bank account with RAKBANK but they require a minimum account balance of 50.000$ for this type of company. I only know one guy that was able to get bank account for ICC with Emirates NBD. Don't know about the minimum account balance but generally it's around 25.000$ with Emirates NBD no matter if ICC, FZ or FZE.

I heard from one guy of this forum that had successful opened account with BankOne Mauritius for RAK ICC but got problems few weeks after account opening.

All in all the banking options for ICC are very rare and limited but still better then for a Belize or Seychelles IBC. I had a RAK ICC with Paysera account working very well but this times are gone and so I switched over to FZ.
 
#3
The relationship balance is not a problem. The setup and maintenance of a ICC is much lower than a FZ thus it doesn't make sense if you're not doing business in the UAE nor using office space.

I heard ADCB is friendly but I needed to confirm with someone who tried then.

I'm more worried about audits and/or the risk of servicing UAE residents inadvertently.
 
#4
Dont you customers have to give you their billing address when they sign up on your website? You could easily add a filter so that they can't sign up when choosing UAE.
 
#5
Technically yes but nothing prevents them from putting another address, either because they have more than one (most UAE residents are expatriates) or because they might want to use my service regardless.

I want assurance that something like the above would be enough to avoid problems and if there's any chance of auditing from the RAK ICC authorities.
 
#6
enceladus said:
The relationship balance is not a problem. The setup and maintenance of a ICC is much lower than a FZ thus it doesn't make sense if you're not doing business in the UAE nor using office space.

I heard ADCB is friendly but I needed to confirm with someone who tried then.

I'm more worried about audits and/or the risk of servicing UAE residents inadvertently.
Click to expand...

ADCB definitely not I helped to setup a new Abu Dhabi FZE because they have actually -65% license discount this could be interesting for you to. Before we thought about setting up a ICC but ADCB rejected. RAKBANK need relationship balance of 50.000$ and this balance is blocked and can't be used for anything at all. FZE is just a bit more expensive then in a ICC in the first year but you can get a bank account in nearly every UAE bank + outside of UAE no problem too. Plus you are able to get a visa and residence.

You have lack of information you are talking about FZ-LLC that is allowed to do business in UAE. FZ means you have minimum of 2 shareholders and FZE you have only one shareholder. FZ and FZE are both not allowed to do business within the UAE but this means no local business like car rent, yacht chartering and so on.

I think it makes much more sense at all to setup a FZE because RAK ICC definitely have no good reputation in UAE and worldwide for example RAK ICC is blacklisted with Mashreq Bank.
 
#12
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