RAKEZ Licence Cost: Company Setup in Ras Al Khaimah

RAKEZ stands apart from most UAE free zones because it publishes its own package prices. We verified the figures on this page against rakez.com on 21 October 2026. The entry point is a business licence package from AED 5,499, which bundles the licence with coworking access, and RAKEZ publishes that price as guaranteed for three years. Above it sits an all-inclusive business set-up package at AED 14,000 per year, which includes one UAE residence visa.

Treat both figures honestly. They are RAKEZ's own published promotional packages, they remain subject to change, and they describe defined packages rather than every possible RAKEZ company. Your activity, your facility needs and your visa count can move you onto a different structure entirely. The written quote RAKEZ or its channel partner issues for your exact scope governs what you actually pay.

A published package price only helps when you know its boundary. The starter package covers the business licence itself and coworking access, which suits a founder who works flexibly and needs a legal base more than a physical office. The all-inclusive package widens the boundary to carry one UAE residence visa inside the annual price, which removes the largest single extra most solo founders face.

Both packages still exclude real costs. Extra visas beyond any included allocation, facility upgrades beyond coworking, and later amendments sit outside the headline. Government processing for each visa, including the entry permit, medical test and Emirates ID steps, also needs confirming line by line in your quote. Price the full first year, including those exclusions, before the published starting price persuades you.

RAKEZ formed when Ras Al Khaimah merged its RAK Free Trade Zone and RAK Investment Authority into a single economic zone authority. That merger left RAKEZ running service, media, academic and industrial zones under one roof, plus warehousing and land for companies that build physical operations. Few UAE zones cover that range inside one authority, and the range changes how you should read every RAKEZ price.

A consultant, a training institute and a manufacturer can all hold RAKEZ licences, yet they buy completely different things. The first two buy packages. The third buys facilities, utilities and land. So the RAKEZ cost question splits in two: package pricing for licence-led businesses, and facility pricing for operations-led businesses. Decide which side of that split your business sits on before you compare any figure.

RAKEZ operates designated-zone facilities for trading, warehousing and logistics, and that status changes how VAT treats your goods. Inside a designated zone, supplies of goods can sit outside the usual VAT flow while the goods stay within the zone and meet the customs conditions. Services never receive that treatment, and goods that leave the zone into the UAE mainland enter the normal VAT system.

That difference belongs in the setup decision, not in a later accounting fix. A trader who routes goods through designated-zone warehousing structures cash flow and record keeping differently from a consultant who only invoices services. Tell your adviser exactly how goods will move before you choose facilities, because retrofitting VAT treatment onto the wrong facility choice costs far more than choosing correctly at setup.

Package pricing ends where industrial ambition begins. A manufacturer or a serious logistics operator does not buy a licence with coworking access. That business leases warehousing or land, fits out a facility, connects utilities and staffs a physical operation inside RAKEZ's industrial zones. RAKEZ prices that world around the facility itself: its size, its location, its power and its lease term.

Founders on this side of RAKEZ should build the budget from the operation backwards. Model the lease, the fit-out, the equipment approvals and the workforce first, then treat the licence as one line inside a capital plan. Comparing an industrial build against a published starter package misleads the whole decision, because the package was never designed to describe an industrial company's real cost base.

RAKEZ publishes its starter package price as guaranteed for three years, and that guarantee shapes your renewal economics more than any negotiation. A founder inside the guarantee renews on known terms while founders in most other zones renegotiate against whatever the market then charges. Confirm in your written quote exactly which package the guarantee covers and what price applies once the guaranteed period ends.

Beyond the package, renewals and visa renewals recur annually. Your licence renews each year, each residence visa renews on its own cycle, and any facility lease renews on its contracted term. Build those three clocks into one renewal calendar at setup, because a missed visa or licence renewal disrupts banking, contracts and staff status far faster than the renewal fee itself ever would.

A RAKEZ company registers for corporate tax with the Federal Tax Authority through EmaraTax, and registration is free. The 0% rate on qualifying income requires the Qualifying Free Zone Person conditions, including adequate substance, qualifying activities and audited financial statements where required. Income that falls outside the conditions faces the standard structure of 0% up to AED 375,000 of taxable income and 9% above that level, and designated-zone status for goods does not remove corporate tax duties.

VAT registration is free too. It becomes mandatory once taxable supplies pass AED 375,000 and opens voluntarily from AED 187,500, and designated-zone goods movements need careful VAT records from the first shipment. Running compliance then carries professional cost. Our bookkeeping starts from AED 499/month, corporate tax filing starts from AED 299/year, and VAT return filing starts from AED 599/quarter. Those are starting prices, they exclude VAT, and they never include government fees.

Next step: RAKEZ Licence Cost: Company Setup in Ras Al Khaimah. Send your trade licence and your last return, and we will confirm the fixed fee on the call. Book a free 15-minute fit check