About us
Who writes this site, and how
A specialist DIFC service by HenryClub Advisory. One jurisdiction, one author, and a rule that nothing gets published unless it can be tied to a primary source.
Who we are
Part of HenryClub Advisory
This site is the specialist DIFC service of HenryClub Advisory, a UAE business setup and advisory firm. HenryClub covers the whole UAE — mainland, free zones, visas, structuring. This site goes deep on one jurisdiction: every structure, licence, cost, court, statute and step in the Dubai International Financial Centre.
The reason for a separate site is simple. The DIFC is not a free zone you can explain in a page. It has its own legislature, its own courts, its own regulator and its own private wealth framework. Treating it as one line item in a list of forty free zones is how most of the market gets it wrong, and it is why the answers you find elsewhere are usually thin.
We have guided founders, investors and families from more than forty countries through UAE structuring. Here, that experience is pointed at one place.
DIFC specialists, not generalists
We do one jurisdiction. Not fifty free zones with a page each. Depth in one place beats breadth across many, and the DIFC is deep enough to justify a site of its own.
Advisers, not order-takers
We have guided founders and investors from more than forty countries through UAE structuring. That means we know which structures cause problems in year three, not just which ones are quick to register.
We will tell you not to use DIFC
Several pages on this site exist specifically to talk the wrong client out of the wrong jurisdiction. If your business belongs in DMCC, on the mainland, or somewhere else entirely, we would rather say so than take the fee.
Every figure is sourced or absent
If we cannot tie a number to a primary authority, we do not publish it. That is why some of our pages tell you to go and check rather than quoting a figure a competitor invented.
Editorial standards
How we decide what to publish
Company formation content is a category where being wrong has consequences. Someone reads a confident figure, budgets around it, signs a lease and finds out later that the number came from nowhere. We built this site with a governance rule to prevent that: if a claim cannot be tied to a primary authority, it does not get published as fact.
That rule is enforced in the code, not just in principle. Every citation on this site resolves to an entry in a registry of 62 named authorities — DIFC, the DIFC Registrar, the DFSA, the DIFC Courts, the Ministry of Finance, the Federal Tax Authority, the ICP, the UAE government portal and a handful of others. If a source is not in that registry, there is no way to cite it.
Primary sources only
DIFC and its Registrar for the Centre. The DFSA for financial regulation. The DIFC Courts for dispute resolution and wills. The Ministry of Finance and Federal Tax Authority for tax. The ICP and the UAE government portal for visas and free zone rules. We never cite a competitor's blog as authority.
Quotation over paraphrase
Where an authority's exact wording matters — a legal duty, a statutory definition, a published threshold — we quote it, mark it as a quotation and link the source. Everywhere else we write in our own words.
Point-in-time data is stamped
Statistics change. Any figure drawn from a periodic release carries the reporting period, the publication date and a link to the release, so you can see immediately whether it is current.
We publish the gaps
Where a cost or a threshold is not published by an authority, we say so rather than filling the space. An honest 'check this with the DFSA' is worth more than a confident invented number.
Corrections are made, not buried
When we find that something we published was wrong — and we have — we correct it and update the verification date. Building this site turned up several errors in widely repeated claims about the DIFC, and we fixed our own where we had repeated them.
One author, one reviewer
Every guide here is written by one named person and reviewed by one named team. No ghostwritten filler under invented bylines.
What you will not find here
These are all common in this market. None of them appear on this site, and where we point out that a claim is wrong, we link the source that shows it.
- Invented fee figures presented as official
- Tax claims that ignore the federal corporate tax regime
- Claims that DIFC gives a better tax outcome than other free zones — it does not
- “100% ownership” sold as a DIFC-specific advantage when every free zone has it
- Guaranteed bank accounts, guaranteed approvals or guaranteed timelines
- Compliance obligations that were cancelled years ago, still quoted as annual services
- Made-up authors, made-up reviewers, or made-up client stories
How we work
What working with us looks like
First, a conversation about fit. Not a package. We ask what the business does, who the customers are, whether anyone will diligence the structure, and whether there is a succession or family dimension. Those four questions usually settle the jurisdiction before anyone talks about price.
Then the smallest structure that does the job. A great deal of the market sells complexity because complexity is billable. If a Prescribed Company does what you need, we will not propose an operating licence. If a contract clause opting into the DIFC Courts solves your actual problem, we will tell you that rather than sell you an entity.
Then an itemised quote. From a licensed provider, with official fees separated from their professional fee and the recurring annual costs shown next to the one-off ones. Second-year cost is where most setups go wrong, so we put it in front of you at the start.
And an honest answer on timing. A straightforward non-regulated entity is weeks. A DFSA-authorised firm is months, and anyone promising otherwise has not done one.
Where to start
Author & review
One author. One reviewer.
Every guide on this site is written by Mirza Seraj Baig and reviewed before publishing by a named specialist: Midhun Mohandas Nair (Accounting, tax & business setup consultant), or CA Akbar Ali (Financial & regulatory specialist). Which one depends on the subject. There is no pool of anonymous contributors and no invented bylines, which is deliberate: if you can see who wrote and checked something, you can judge whether to trust it.
Guides carry a published date and a verification date. The verification date moves when the underlying facts are re-checked against their sources — not when a word is changed for style.
Common questions
Who is behind difccompanyformation.com?
HenryClub Advisory — a UAE business setup and advisory firm. This site is its specialist DIFC service. Every guide is written by Mirza Seraj Baig, the firm's founder, and reviewed before publishing by Midhun Mohandas Nair (Accounting, tax & business setup consultant) or CA Akbar Ali (Financial & regulatory specialist), depending on the subject.
Is this the same company as HenryClub Advisory?
Yes. HenryClub Advisory operates both henryclub.ae and this site. HenryClub covers UAE business setup broadly; this site covers the DIFC in depth. Same firm, same standards, different scope.
How do you verify what you publish?
Against primary authorities only — DIFC, the DIFC Registrar of Companies, the DFSA, the DIFC Courts, the UAE Ministry of Finance, the Federal Tax Authority, the ICP and the official UAE government portal. Each guide lists the sources it relies on, with links and a verification date.
Do you publish prices?
We publish official fees where an authority publishes them, and we say clearly that they are indicative and subject to change. We do not publish invented all-in figures. Real cost depends on the structure, premises, service providers and whether the entity is regulated, and any single number that ignores those is a marketing device.
Will you tell me if DIFC is the wrong choice?
Yes, and we do it regularly. Our comparison pages each contain a section on when to choose the alternative, and our pros and cons page lists the drawbacks in as much detail as the advantages.
Is this legal or tax advice?
No. Everything here is general information written to help you ask better questions and understand the framework. Legal, tax and regulatory decisions need advice from a qualified professional on your specific facts.
Tell us what you're building
Three sentences is enough. We'll tell you whether DIFC fits — and where to go instead if it doesn't.