Insights for Fintech, Web3 and Digital Asset Companies

Explore practical guides, regulatory updates and market-entry insights on licensing, compliance, tokenization, UAE business setup, digital assets and international structuring.
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VAT Registration in the UAE: Thresholds, Timing, Documents

September 27, 2026

UAE Value Added Tax applies at the standard rate of five per cent on most taxable supplies made in the country. Registration is how a business receives a Tax Registration Number, issues compliant tax invoices, and files returns with the Federal Tax Authority.

Tatiana Pomelova
Tatiana Pomelova
Head of Accounting
Accounting
Tax

Free Zone Visa Quotas: How Many People Can You Actually Hire

September 26, 2026

A free zone visa quota is the maximum number of residence visas your company may hold under sponsorship at one time. It is not a promise that immigration will approve every application, and it is not the same as the headcount you plan to hire next year.

Nataly Medici
Nataly Medici
Managing Partner and CEO
Licensing
Business Setup

UAE Company Formation for Non-Residents: What Changes

September 25, 2026

You can incorporate a UAE company from London, Singapore, or Toronto without holding UAE residence on day one. That part is routine.

Kristian Redin
Kristian Redin
Partner and COO
No items found.

Double Tax Treaties: How to Actually Read One

September 23, 2026

You do not read a double tax treaty like a brochure. You read it like a statute that allocates taxing rights between two countries, one article at a time, on the income stream you actually have.

Tatiana Pomelova
Tatiana Pomelova
Head of Accounting
Accounting
Tax

The 183-Day Rule and Why It Isn't the Whole Story

September 23, 2026

The phrase "183-day rule" sells certainty. Founders treat it like a universal off-switch: stay under the count and no country can call you resident. That shorthand breaks the moment you open a statute.

Kirill Stepanov
Kirill Stepanov
Legal Counsel
Accounting
Tax

Losing Tax Residency: What Actually Triggers It

September 23, 2026

You can fly out, close the flat, and still remain tax resident in the country you left. Loss of tax residency is not a single event tied to your departure date. Each country applies its own tests, and when two countries both claim you, a double tax treaty may reassign residence under tie-breaker rules that ignore the headline day count.

Kristian Redin
Kristian Redin
Partner and COO
Accounting
Tax

Travel Rule Requirements for VASPs: What a Regulator Asks You to Produce

September 21, 2026

Travel Rule for VASPs in practice: thresholds by jurisdiction, unhosted wallets, non-compliant counterparties and what examiners ask to see.

Nataly Medici
Nataly Medici
Managing Partner and CEO
Compliance
Expertise
Crypto

Panama or Labuan: Where to Start Your First Investment Fund

September 21, 2026

Here is how the two most practical jurisdictions for a first private fund actually work

Ksenia Babochkina
Ksenia Babochkina
Commercial Director
Business Setup
Crypto
Tax
Licensing

How to Choose a Licensing Consultant: 9 Questions

September 20, 2026

You shortlist a licensing consultant after you know the product needs a permission, not merely a shelf company. The pitch call is where most founders confuse a trade licence SKU with a VASP route, accept a bundled quote they cannot audit, or hear a banking promise the adviser cannot deliver.

Kirill Stepanov
Kirill Stepanov
Legal Counsel
Expertise

Medici Expert Review: An Honest Look at What We Do

September 20, 2026

Search “Medici Expert review” and Google will show our homepage, a crypto directory listing, and several pages about a streaming service, a Renaissance trading game, a telehealth app, and an unrelated employer on Glassdoor. None of those is this firm.

Kristian Redin
Kristian Redin
Partner and COO
Expertise

How to Verify a Licensing Consultant Before You Pay

September 20, 2026

You already spoke with two or three firms. One sent a polished deck, a WhatsApp voice note, and a payment link before you saw a scope line. Another quoted a single “government fee” with no authority name attached. A third name-dropped a regulator you cannot find on that regulator’s public register.

Nataly Medici
Nataly Medici
Managing Partner and CEO
Expertise

What We Never Promise a Client

September 20, 2026

A serious licensing consultant controls preparation, scope, and correspondence. We do not control regulator votes, bank credit committees, or tax law that changes after your structure is filed.

Nataly Medici
Nataly Medici
Managing Partner and CEO
Expertise

Getting a UAE Tax Residency Certificate: Requirements and Timing

September 17, 2026

The Federal Tax Authority issues a Tax Residency Certificate through EmaraTax when it is satisfied you are a UAE Tax Resident for a named Tax Period or other twelve-month span. Natural persons use Cabinet Decision No. 85 of 2022: 183 days of presence, a narrower 90-day path, or usual residence plus the centre of financial and personal interests.

Tatiana Pomelova
Tatiana Pomelova
Head of Accounting
Tax
Accounting

Tax Residency: How Countries Decide Where You Belong

September 17, 2026

Tax residency is the domestic and treaty answer to a blunt question: which country treats you as its tax resident for a given year, and therefore which country can tax you on worldwide income or claim you for treaty purposes.

Nataly Medici
Nataly Medici
Managing Partner and CEO
Accounting
Tax

Digital Commodity or Security: How the CLARITY Act Actually Sorts Tokens

September 16, 2026

Under the CLARITY Act, a token is a digital commodity, a security, or in transit between them. The three tests, the hard exclusions, and four worked examples.

Nataly Medici
Nataly Medici
Managing Partner and CEO
Token
Compliance
Expertise

MiCA After the Deadline: Where CASP Licences Are Actually Being Granted

September 16, 2026

The MiCA transition ended on 1 July 2026. What the register shows now, why the passport is not holding, and how CASP timelines differ across the 27 states.

Nataly Medici
Nataly Medici
Managing Partner and CEO
MiCA
Licensing
Crypto Licensing
Compliance
Crypto

Lithuania, Poland and the Baltic Fintech Corridor

September 15, 2026

Founders who say “Baltic fintech corridor” mean three files that sit close enough to share talent, English-speaking supervisors and SEPA logic, yet differ enough that the wrong first filing costs a year. Lithuania, Poland and Estonia each offer a company register path and an e-money or payment-institution path. No single file fits every product.

Nataly Medici
Nataly Medici
Managing Partner and CEO
Licensing

Panama: Corporations, Foundations and the Maritime Angle

September 15, 2026

Panama still sells three products that founders confuse: a sociedad anónima under Law 32 of 1927, a private interest foundation under Law 25 of 1995, and a vessel on the open ship registry run by the Panama Maritime Authority. Each has a different job.

Nataly Medici
Nataly Medici
Managing Partner and CEO
Licensing
Offshore

What Offshore Company Formation Costs: The Honest Breakdown

September 15, 2026

An advertised "offshore company from $499" is a commercial package headline. The government lines underneath it are fixed by each register's schedule: BVI Schedule 1 fees of US$550 or US$1,350, Seychelles FSA registry fees of US$130 at registration and US$140 annually on the Authority's published table, Cayman General Registry bands from CI$700 at formation and CI$925 annually in the lowest capital tier, Belize BCCAR fees of US$150 / US$250 in the standard capital band, and Panama's DGI tasa única of B/.300.

Nataly Medici
Nataly Medici
Managing Partner and CEO
Offshore
Licensing

The Bank Onboarding Document Pack: A Checklist

September 14, 2026

A bank onboarding pack is the set of papers that lets a licensed financial institution identify the company, name the natural persons who own or control it, match licensed activity to the money that will move, and record why the relationship exists.

Nataly Medici
Nataly Medici
Managing Partner and CEO
Banking

High-Risk Onboarding: What Compliance Teams Look For

September 14, 2026

High-risk onboarding is the name a bank or PSP desk gives a file that cannot close on standard customer due diligence. The analyst has to produce an enhanced record: extra identity, a source-of-funds trail, a source-of-wealth story that matches the balances, senior-management approval, and an expected-activity profile monitoring can test.

Nataly Medici
Nataly Medici
Managing Partner and CEO
Compliance

Customer Due Diligence vs Enhanced Due Diligence

September 14, 2026

Customer due diligence is the baseline file an onboarding team must finish before a relationship, an account or an occasional transaction proceeds. Enhanced due diligence is the same file with extra identity, purpose, source of funds and source of wealth, tighter monitoring and, where the statute requires it, senior-management approval.

Nataly Medici
Nataly Medici
Managing Partner and CEO
Compliance
Banking

AML Compliance in the UAE: What the Regulator Expects

September 10, 2026

A UAE supervisor asks whether Federal Decree by Law No. (10) of 2025 and Cabinet Resolution No. (134) of 2025 can be shown to run in your products, through a named officer who can decide a suspicious-transaction file without a sales veto. The Decree-Law has been in force since 14 October 2025.

Kristian Redin
Kristian Redin
Partner and COO
Compliance
UAE Free Zones

The 0% Free Zone Rate: Who Qualifies and Who Only Thinks They Do

September 10, 2026

A UAE free zone licence puts the company inside Federal Decree-Law No. 47 of 2022 as a Free Zone Person and a Taxable Person. The 0 percent rate in Article 3(2)(a) attaches to Qualifying Income of a Qualifying Free Zone Person (QFZP). Everything else on that schedule is 9 percent from the first dirham.

Tatiana Pomelova
Tatiana Pomelova
Head of Accounting
UAE Free Zones
Tax

Corporate Tax Registration in the UAE: Deadlines and Penalties

September 10, 2026

Corporate Tax registration in the UAE is a dated EmaraTax filing, not a single national calendar day. Federal Decree-Law No. 47 of 2022 requires a Taxable Person to register with the Federal Tax Authority (FTA) and obtain a Corporate Tax Registration Number. FTA Decision No. 3 of 2024, effective 1 March 2024, sets the clocks by person type.

Tatiana Pomelova
Tatiana Pomelova
Head of Accounting
Tax
Accounting

Trade Licence in Dubai: Types, Activities and What They Allow

September 9, 2026

A Dubai trade licence is permission to practise the economic activities printed on it, from a named address, for a named legal form. The Department of Economy and Tourism (DET, the former DED) issues that permission on the mainland. A free zone registrar issues it inside the zone.

Kristian Redin
Kristian Redin
Partner and COO
Licensing

Setting Up a Business in Dubai: What the Process Actually Looks Like

September 9, 2026

Business setup in Dubai is a sequence, not a single portal click. You choose a licensing room (mainland DET, an ordinary free zone, or DIFC/ADGM), lock the activity you will invoice, reserve a compliant name, clear any external approvals, take the licence, open an establishment card, run visas, then file a bank application that can survive CDD.

Kristian Redin
Kristian Redin
Partner and COO
UAE Free Zones
Licensing

Fujairah Creative City: Who It Actually Suits

September 9, 2026

Fujairah Creative City is the emirate’s media free zone, licensed since 2007 from the Twin Towers on Sheikh Hamad Bin Abdullah Al Sharqi Street. You take it when the activity list, flexi-desk address, and named visa packages match a creative, media, consulting, or light online profile.

Kristian Redin
Kristian Redin
Partner and COO
UAE Free Zones
Compliance

Fujairah Free Zone: The Complete 2026 Guide

September 8, 2026

Fujairah Free Zone Authority is the east-coast industrial and trading free zone that sits beside the Port of Fujairah. In 2026 the authority still sells space with published rents and issues trade licences on a quotation, after security clearance and first-year payments.

Nataly Medici
Nataly Medici
Managing Partner and CEO
UAE Free Zones
Compliance

ADGM vs DIFC vs VARA: Three Regimes in One Country

September 8, 2026

Three regulators operate in parallel inside the UAE, and each draws its own fence. The Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority covers virtual-asset activity in and from Dubai, including all Dubai free zones, with the DIFC carved out. The Dubai Financial Services Authority licenses financial services inside the DIFC under its own statute. The Financial Services Regulatory Authority licenses financial services in Abu Dhabi Global Market under a third statute.

Kristian Redin
Kristian Redin
Partner and COO
VARA
UAE Free Zones
Licensing

The Full Cost of a VARA Licence: Every Fee, Not Just the Government Ones

September 8, 2026

A VARA licence carries six distinct cost categories, and the VARA government fees in Schedule 2 are only the start. The application fee ranges from AED 40,000 to AED 100,000 per activity (approximately USD 10,900 to USD 27,200 at the dirham peg). Add paid-up capital per activity, three types of mandatory insurance, private office substance, a banking structure that satisfies VARA's capital-holding rules, and an annual supervision fee for every activity on the licence.

Kristian Redin
Kristian Redin
Partner and COO
VARA

SAFT vs SAFE vs Token Warrant: Choosing the Instrument

September 6, 2026

Three instruments appear in almost every Web3 fundraising conversation: the SAFT, the SAFE, and the Token Warrant. Founders treat them as interchangeable variations of the same thing. They are not. A SAFE converts into equity. A SAFT converts into tokens.

Nataly Medici
Nataly Medici
Managing Partner and CEO
Token
Compliance

SAFT Agreements: Structure, Risks, and When Not to Use One

September 6, 2026

A Simple Agreement for Future Tokens is a forward contract: an investor pays now, receives tokens when the network launches. The promise looks clean. The legal reality has shifted considerably since the instrument was first proposed in 2017, and two federal enforcement actions in 2020, followed by an SEC interpretive release in March 2026, have redrawn the risk map.

Nataly Medici
Nataly Medici
Managing Partner and CEO
Token
Compliance

Why Banks Reject Crypto Companies and How to Get Approved

September 6, 2026

A bank's compliance desk does not read a crypto company application the way a founder reads their own pitch deck. The analyst runs a risk-based decision tree from the first document in the stack, and most files stall at the same four or five junctions.

Nataly Medici
Nataly Medici
Managing Partner and CEO
Crypto Licensing
Banking

Offshore Structures from India: Seychelles, BVI, Panama

September 1, 2026

An Indian resident, or an Indian company, can own a Seychelles international business company, a British Virgin Islands business company, or a Panama sociedad anonima. The certificate does not hide you from Indian tax, from the Common Reporting Standard, or from the Authorised Dealer that sent the wire.

Nataly Medici
Nataly Medici
Managing Partner and CEO
Offshore
Business Setup

Business Setup in Dubai for Indian Entrepreneurs

September 1, 2026

Business setup in Dubai for an Indian entrepreneur in 2026 is five files in one order: a legal entity (mainland LLC, a popular free zone, or DIFC/ADGM), an India capital path (Liberalised Remittance Scheme for you, Overseas Direct Investment if your Indian company invests), attested documents the UAE will accept, residence visas after the e-licence, and a bank that can read the Indian trail.

Kristian Redin
Kristian Redin
Partner and COO
Licensing
Banking
Tax

UAE Golden Visa for Indian Founders

September 1, 2026

A UAE Golden Visa is a five-year or ten-year self-sponsored residence permit. Cabinet Resolution 65 of 2022 tests an investor’s capital or federal tax, or an entrepreneur’s nomination and revenue. The India overlay is how rupees leave the country, who owns the UAE shares, and whether you become a UAE tax resident for the India-UAE treaty. Formation is step one. The stamp waits on that file.

Kristian Redin
Kristian Redin
Partner and COO
UAE Free Zones
Compliance

Getting a Crypto Licence in the UAE: The Realistic Timeline

September 1, 2026

The UAE does not issue one crypto licence. You file one of four permission files: a VARA VASP licence for virtual-asset activity in and from Dubai, including Dubai free zones and excluding the DIFC; a DFSA authorisation in the DIFC (Crypto Token activity, with Investment Token as a separate file); an FSRA Financial Services Permission in ADGM (Virtual Assets, with Digital Securities as a separate file); or an onshore capital-markets permission at the Capital Market Authority for security tokens.

Nataly Medici
Nataly Medici
Managing Partner and CEO
UAE Free Zones
VARA
Crypto Licensing

VARA Licence Categories: Which One You Actually Need

September 1, 2026

You pick a VARA overlay by matching Schedule 1 of the Virtual Assets and Related Activities Regulations 2023 to the work the desk will do in or from Dubai, excluding DIFC. As of 18 August 2026 that Schedule names eight VA Activities. The test is what you recommend, arrange, hold, match, lend, manage, move, or issue.

Kristian Redin
Kristian Redin
Partner and COO
VARA
Licensing
Crypto Licensing

The SPV Behind a Tokenized Asset

August 31, 2026

A tokenized asset sits inside a special-purpose vehicle because a token is a record of a claim, not a legal person. The company, partnership or fund holds the title or the receivable, signs the custody contract, grants the security, and stands in court. Bankruptcy remoteness, investor ranking, and servicing all attach to that person.

Ksenia Babochkina
Ksenia Babochkina
Commercial Director
Compliance
Token

Real Estate Tokenization: Structure, Custody, Redemption

August 31, 2026

A real-estate token in 2026 is a claim you can transfer on a ledger. The land or building still sits in a government property register. In Dubai, that register is the Dubai Land Department Property Register. Law No. (7) of 2006 gives it absolute evidentiary value, and a title deed issued from it has the same force.

Ksenia Babochkina
Ksenia Babochkina
Commercial Director
Token
Compliance
Expertise

Securities Tokenization: The Legal Architecture

August 31, 2026

Securities tokenization in 2026 is the legal architecture that makes a distributed-ledger record correspond to a share, a note, a fund unit, or an Investment Token. The token is the record. The security is the relationship: who issued it, which register is conclusive, who holds title, how a transfer completes, which offering document was used, and who the investor sues if the chain and the books disagree. Statute wins that fight.

Ksenia Babochkina
Ksenia Babochkina
Commercial Director
Token
Compliance

Token Legal Opinions: What Exchanges Actually Want to See

August 31, 2026

A token legal opinion is a reasoned memorandum on a stated fact set and a stated body of law, signed and dated, limited to named jurisdictions. Listing, launchpad, market-maker, and bank desks sample that memorandum as one exhibit. They do not treat the conclusion page as a licence, a listing, or a certificate you can screenshot after tokenomics change.

Nataly Medici
Nataly Medici
Managing Partner and CEO
Token
Compliance
Crypto

Token Classification: Utility, Payment, Governance, Security

August 31, 2026

You classify a token by the rights the holder can enforce: demand a good or a service, transfer or lock the unit, redeem it for fiat or an asset, vote on a protocol or a company, and claim a share of profit, capital or liquidation. Marketing copy on the whitepaper does not run that test. As of 18 August 2026 the four natures founders still use (utility, payment, governance, security) sit on top of statutes that use different headings. A token can carry more than one nature. The stricter perimeter wins.

Ksenia Babochkina
Ksenia Babochkina
Commercial Director
Token
Compliance

Crypto-Friendly Banks: An Honest Assessment

August 30, 2026

A “crypto-friendly bank” in August 2026 is a licensed financial institution that will underwrite virtual-asset activity: a VASP, CASP or equivalent licence (or a written exemption), a source-of-funds file that reconstructs fiat and chain, and a Travel Rule record a reviewer can sample. Retail listicles score banks on whether a debit card still funds a licensed exchange. That is a consumer rail. The corporate underwrite is the file.

Nataly Medici
Nataly Medici
Managing Partner and CEO
Crypto
Banking
UAE Free Zones

Opening a Corporate Bank Account in the UAE: The Real Process

August 30, 2026

A UAE corporate account is a relationship with a bank licensed by the Central Bank of the UAE, opened in the name of a company that holds a UAE trade licence. The bank identifies the legal person, names the people who own or control it, matches the licensed activity to the money that will move, and screens those names before the first credit. Cabinet Resolution 134/2025 Article 6 requires that verification before or during opening. Article 14 closes the gate if customer due diligence cannot be applied.

Nataly Medici
Nataly Medici
Managing Partner and CEO
Banking
Compliance

Hong Kong Company Registration: The Complete 2026 Guide

August 30, 2026

A Hong Kong private company limited by shares is a local company under the Companies Ordinance (Cap. 622). You file Form NNC1 with the Companies Registry, pay the Inland Revenue Department’s business registration fee and levy at the same time, and keep officers, a registered office, and a Significant Controllers Register in Hong Kong.

Kirill Stepanov
Kirill Stepanov
Legal Counsel
Licensing

Offshore Company with a Bank Account: What's Realistic

August 30, 2026

A mill invoice that reads “offshore company with bank account” sells two products under one SKU. The registrar issues a legal person. The bank, a payment institution, or an exchange runs customer due diligence under its own licence and refuses the file when that work cannot finish.

Tatiana Pomelova
Tatiana Pomelova
Head of Accounting
Banking
Offshore
Business Setup

BVI Company Formation: Still Worth It in 2026?

August 30, 2026

A BVI Business Company remains a useful holdco and deal SPV in 2026 if you will file beneficial ownership, economic substance, and an annual financial return, and if a bank will look at that register. Formation through a licensed registered agent can still land within one working day for an ordinary share company with clean papers.

Nataly Medici
Nataly Medici
Managing Partner and CEO
Licensing
Compliance
Business Setup

Choosing an Offshore Jurisdiction: A Comparison Matrix

August 29, 2026

There is no “best offshore jurisdiction” for 2026. There is a company that matches the activity you will book, the register you can live with, the substance test that activity triggers, and a bank that will open after it reads those facts.

Kirill Stepanov
Kirill Stepanov
Legal Counsel
Offshore
Tax

Offshore Company Formation: What It Is, What It Isn't

August 29, 2026

An offshore company is a legal person formed under the company law of a jurisdiction where you do not live and, in the usual case, where the company does not run a local shop. Formation is the act of putting that person on a register through a licensed registered agent. Founders still do this in 2026 to hold shares, ring-fence a project, or contract across borders. The certificate does not move your tax residence, open a bank account, or hide you from the Common Reporting Standard. Economic substance, beneficial ownership files, and home-country tax sit on the same file as the memorandum.

Nataly Medici
Nataly Medici
Managing Partner and CEO
Offshore
Licensing
Tax
Business Setup

The MLRO Role: Duties, Liability, Outsourcing

August 29, 2026

The UAE names the person who owns AML/CFT/CPF controls. Federal Decree by Law No. 10 of 2025 Article 19 requires financial institutions, designated non-financial businesses and professions, and virtual asset service providers to keep senior-management-approved internal policies.

Nataly Medici
Nataly Medici
Managing Partner and CEO
Compliance

KYT and Wallet Screening for Digital Asset Businesses

August 28, 2026

Know-Your-Transaction is the operating process that scores a virtual-asset transfer before you credit it, before you pay it out, and while it sits on your book. Wallet screening is the address-level cut of that process: you look at the deposit address, the withdrawal address, the hops between them, and the clusters those hops touch. A numeric score from a blockchain-analytics vendor is an input. The legal decision is whether you credit, hold, return, freeze, escalate, or file.

Deniss Kudrjašov
Deniss Kudrjašov
Compliance Officer
Compliance
Crypto

Sanctions Screening: Building a Process That Holds Up

August 28, 2026

A sanctions screening process that a bank, PSP, VARA, DFSA, FSRA or CBUAE desk will accept is a documented loop: lists you subscribe to, names you search, moments you search them, a human disposition of each hit, a freeze without delay on a confirmed match, a goAML filing inside the live notice clock, a ban on tipping off, and records that reconstruct the decision. The reviewer samples the loop.

Nataly Medici
Nataly Medici
Managing Partner and CEO
Compliance

KYB Verification: Why Corporate Onboarding Breaks

August 27, 2026

Know Your Business verification is the corporate half of customer due diligence. The bank or PSP confirms the legal person exists, names the natural people who own or control it, matches the licence and the website to the money that will move, and screens those names before the first account opens. In the UAE that work sits under Federal Decree-Law No. 10 of 2025, Cabinet Resolution 134/2025, and the Central Bank’s 6 November 2025 CDD guidance.

Nataly Medici
Nataly Medici
Managing Partner and CEO
Compliance
Banking

What an AML/CFT Policy Must Contain (and What Templates Miss)

August 27, 2026

A UAE AML/CFT policy that a bank, PSP, VARA, DFSA, FSRA or CBUAE desk will accept is a pack mapped to your products, clients, geographies and payment rails. Cabinet Resolution No. 134 of 2025 Article 21 lists the minimum contents. A downloaded PDF copies those headings and leaves the risk assessment, CDD stop, sanctions logic, STR path, compliance-officer duties, record clocks and independent test unconnected to the business. A recycled file of that kind fails a compliance committee in a minute.

Kristian Redin
Kristian Redin
Partner and COO
Compliance
Expertise
Licensing

Accounting Services in Dubai: What to Ask Before You Sign

August 27, 2026

A Dubai accounting proposal looks like one monthly number. The legal file is three contracts: a bookkeeper who posts the ledger, a Corporate Tax and VAT filing process on EmaraTax, and, where the law requires it, an auditor who is allowed to sign. Ask the ten questions below before you sign the engagement letter. Apply them to every shortlisted firm, including a practice such as Medici Expert.

Tatiana Pomelova
Tatiana Pomelova
Head of Accounting
Accounting
UAE Free Zones

UAE Corporate Tax: What Actually Applies to Your Company

August 27, 2026

Federal Decree-Law No. 47 of 2022 taxes this company as a Taxable Person from the first tax period that starts on or after 1 June 2023. Cabinet Decision No. 116 of 2022 sets the ordinary rates: 0 percent on taxable income up to AED 375,000 and 9 percent on the excess. A Qualifying Free Zone Person (QFZP) pays 0 percent on Qualifying Income and 9 percent on taxable income that is not qualifying, with no AED 375,000 band on that second slice. Small Business Relief can treat an eligible resident person as having no taxable income for tax periods ending on or before 31 December 2029. A licence brochure that still prints “tax free zone” describes a federal regime that closed for those periods.

Tatiana Pomelova
Tatiana Pomelova
Head of Accounting
Accounting
Tax
UAE Free Zones

UAE Golden Visa Through Your Company: The Realistic Route

August 27, 2026

A UAE trade licence lets the company exist. A Golden Visa lets a named person reside for five or ten years without an employer sponsor, after ICP or GDRFA accepts a category file. The realistic company route is a partner or owner whose share of assets, or whose federal tax contribution, meets Cabinet Resolution 65 of 2022, then a nomination and a residence permit. Forming the company is step one. The stamp waits on the category file.

Kristian Redin
Kristian Redin
Partner and COO
Compliance
Banking

How to Pick a Business Setup Consultant in Dubai: 9 Questions

August 27, 2026

A business setup consultant in Dubai sells access to a government process you can start yourself on Invest in Dubai or a free-zone portal. The firm earns its fee if it chooses the right activity and jurisdiction, itemises government charges, keeps your power of attorney narrow, and treats the licence, the visa and the bank as three files. Ask the nine questions below before you pay. Apply them to every shortlisted firm, including a practice such as Medici Expert.

Nataly Medici
Nataly Medici
Managing Partner and CEO
Business Setup

What a Dubai Company Setup Really Costs in 2026

August 27, 2026

A Dubai company setup in August 2026 is not one invoice. Invest in Dubai refuses a single number: cost tracks the zone or DET path, the licence type, the activity list, and the office. Published authority headlines run from Meydan’s digital licence with flexi-desk from AED 12,500 to DMCC’s Jump Start flexi-desk at AED 43,780 (packages page, 11 February 2026 blog). DET prints an estimator, not a flat mainland fee.

Kristian Redin
Kristian Redin
Partner and COO
VARA
Business Setup
Licensing

DMCC vs IFZA vs Meydan: Which Costs Less Over Three Years

August 27, 2026

IFZA and Meydan sit in one published-tariff band for a lean consultancy and trading company on a flexi desk with two visas. DMCC is a different product: a Government of Dubai schedule, a JLT address, and a Jump Start year that bundles the desk, then a separate flexi-desk lease of AED 16,000–19,000 on top of a licence renewal of AED 20,265. Pay that stack if counterparties need that district name. Pick IFZA or Meydan if the work fits a digital free-zone licence and the bank file will stand without a commodities-hub letterhead.

Kirill Stepanov
Kirill Stepanov
Legal Counsel
UAE Free Zones
Compliance

The Real Cost of a UAE Free Zone Licence: All 11 Line Items

August 27, 2026

A Dubai free zone licence advertised from AED 12,500 is the licence line. First-year cash for a one-visa services company runs from about AED 20,000 to AED 55,000 (about USD 5,450 to USD 15,000) once you add the establishment card, visas, medical and Emirates ID, a desk, deposits, tax compliance, and the first PRO and banking round. Northern-emirate starter packages print lower licence numbers. Federal immigration and tax items attach on the same legal basis.

Nataly Medici
Nataly Medici
Managing Partner and CEO
UAE Free Zones
Banking
Business Setup

How to Choose a UAE Free Zone: A Decision Framework for 2026

August 27, 2026

There is no single best free zone in the UAE in 2026. You choose a licensing authority whose activity list, visa mechanics, office rules, mainland path, banking treatment, and Qualifying Free Zone Person profile match the company you will run. This framework walks those filters in order, then names who each zone type does not fit. DMCC, IFZA, and Meydan appear as examples inside that order.

Kristian Redin
Kristian Redin
Partner and COO
UAE Free Zones
Business Setup

From Chaos to Architecture: How the U.S. Is Finally Building Real Rules for Crypto

August 24, 2026

The CLARITY Act could mark the end of U.S. crypto regulation by enforcement by creating clearer categories, responsibilities, and protections for digital assets, exchanges, developers, and users. If passed, it would position the U.S. as a second major regulatory model alongside Europe’s MiCA — more fragmented, but potentially more flexible and innovation-friendly.

Nataly Medici
Nataly Medici
Managing Partner and CEO
Crypto
Licensing
Compliance

Crypto Compliance in 2026: The Firms That Win Are the Ones Who Can Defend Their AI

August 20, 2026

AI-driven AML monitoring is no longer judged by whether it screens wallets, but by whether it can detect suspicious behavioural patterns and defend every decision with evidence. In 2026, regulators expect VASPs to prove that their models are validated, explainable, continuously monitored, auditable, and subject to real human oversight — with named individuals accountable when the system fails.

Nataly Medici
Nataly Medici
Managing Partner and CEO
Crypto
Compliance

The Rose-Colored Glasses of Tokenization Break Inward

June 9, 2026

The legal risks of asset tokenization, and what a token holder can actually put on the table.

Nataly Medici
Nataly Medici
Managing Partner and CEO
Token
Expertise
Compliance

The End of the Regulatory Patchwork: What MiCA Means for Every Company Eyeing the European Market

April 21, 2026

MiCA applies based on access to the EU market, not where a crypto company is incorporated, meaning any business serving or targeting EU users must either obtain a CASP license or block European users entirely. The regulation turns EU market entry into a substance-driven licensing process, requiring real governance, capital, compliance, operational infrastructure, and local presence — not just formal registration.

Nataly Medici
Nataly Medici
Managing Partner and CEO
Crypto Licensing
MiCA

Medici Expert Named a Breakthrough Performer at the 2026 CryptoDaily Awards

CryptoDaily's editorial team has named Medici Expert a Breakthrough Performer in Market Intelligence & Advisory at the 2026 CryptoDaily Awards. It is the only legal and regulatory firm in the category, alongside Kaiko, Token Metrics and Santiment.

Ksenia Babochkina
Ksenia Babochkina
Commercial Director
Expertise
Crypto

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