RAK ICC for UK founders: holding companies and offshore structures

Most UK founders need one free zone company and nothing more. RAK ICC comes in when you want a company that owns rather than trades: a holding company over your operating companies, a vehicle for property or investments, or a group with several shareholders. Dubai Transition Consultants is a RAK ICC agent, so we form these companies for clients. The facts below come from RAK ICC's own website, read in October 2026 and linked at the bottom. For the free zones themselves, see the free zone hub.

What RAK ICC is

RAK ICC is a company registry in Ras Al Khaimah, with an office in Dubai. RAK ICC says it was set up under Decree No. 12 of 2015, amended by Decree No. 4 of 2016, by merging two older registries: RAK International Companies, once part of the Ras Al Khaimah Free Trade Zone, and RAK Offshore. It describes itself as an international corporate registry for private wealth and cross-border structuring, and registers holding companies, companies limited by shares and foundations. The RAK ICC Business Companies Regulations 2018 govern its companies, and RAK ICC says those regulations follow common law, with access to the DIFC and ADGM courts.

RAK ICC also offers a Global Product, which it describes as a free zone company with its own licence and visa eligibility. This page covers the standard RAK ICC company used for holding. A free zone such as RAKEZ, IFZA or Meydan licenses a company to operate. It leases you a desk or office, sponsors visas and lets you invoice clients. RAK ICC registers a company that sits in a structure and owns things.

What a RAK ICC company is for

RAK ICC lists these uses for a company limited by shares, the type UK founders usually take:

• Holding company: owning the shares in your operating companies, in the UAE or elsewhere.
• Asset holding: property, intellectual property or investments, kept apart from trading risk. RAK ICC promotes its holding company for real estate, with the shares transferable when you sell.
• Joint venture: several shareholders, with their rights set out in the articles or a shareholders' agreement.
• Project company: one project in its own company, so its liabilities stay there.

RAK ICC also registers foundations, which families use for succession planning. If that is your question, read family offices in Dubai.

• Company types: company limited by shares, company limited by guarantee, restricted purposes company, segregated portfolio company and unlimited company, plus RAK ICC foundations.
• Shareholders: one to 50. A company limited by shares needs at least one shareholder and one director, and RAK ICC permits a corporate director.
• Activities: at least one business activity on the company.
• Registered agent: required. RAK ICC incorporates companies only through registered agents, and the company's registered office is its agent's office.
• Timeline: incorporation within two working days of the agent submitting the documents. RAK ICC does not require foreign corporate documents to be legalised.
• Term and renewal: registration and renewal for up to three years at a time, with a 30-day grace period after expiry. Changes to the ultimate beneficial owner have to be reported within two weeks.
• Bank account: opened directly with a bank, as a separate process. RAK ICC supplies the incorporation documents for the application.

What a RAK ICC company cannot do

Two limits decide how you use a RAK ICC company.

It does not trade in the UAE on its own. RAK ICC's regulations bar its companies from doing business with people in the RAK ICC zone unless RAK ICC authorises it, and from providing financial services as a business anywhere in the world. RAK ICC's answer for UAE activity is its Premium Product, which it says lets RAK ICC holding companies carry out their activities within the UAE by setting up a subsidiary at RAKEZ.

It does not sponsor your visa on its own. RAK ICC presents residence visas as a benefit of the Premium Product structure, and its FAQ says the person who wants an investor visa has to be added as a shareholder of the RAKEZ subsidiary. The visa comes from the operating company.

The same regulations list what does not count as doing business, and they include holding meetings, keeping books and a bank account for routine operations, and owning shares in a company that does trade. That last point is the basis for the two-tier structure.

How it sits above a free zone company

The usual shape for a UK founder has two tiers:

1. Top: a RAK ICC holding company. You and any co-founders own it. It owns the operating company and, if you want, property or other investments.
2. Below: a free zone operating company. It holds the trade licence, invoices clients, leases the desk or office and sponsors the visas.

RAK ICC packages this with RAKEZ as the Premium Product: you register the RAK ICC company first, then set up the RAKEZ company as its subsidiary. RAK ICC says the holding company's owners can be directors or senior managers of the RAKEZ company, and the RAKEZ company can take commercial or service licences and flexi, standard or executive offices. If another free zone suits your operating company better, we check that the zone accepts a RAK ICC company as its shareholder before you commit.

One of our case studies used this structure: the founders of a UK technology business with several shareholders, a RAK ICC holding company owned by the shareholders above a free zone operating company, with the team's visas under the operating company. They had also asked about a financial-centre company and chose RAK ICC instead.

Not sure whether you need two tiers or one? The structure finder gives you a starting point in four questions.

The UK side

A RAK ICC company does nothing for your UK tax while you are still UK resident, and it can create UK tax if you set it up in the wrong order. Check three things.

Where the company is run from

A company formed outside the UK becomes UK tax resident if its central management and control is in the UK: if the directors make the real decisions from the UK, HMRC can treat the RAK ICC company as a UK company and charge corporation tax on its profits. Hold board meetings and make decisions outside the UK, and keep minutes that show it. Read can a Dubai company be UK tax resident.

Controlled foreign companies

If a UK company owns the RAK ICC company, directly or through other companies, the UK controlled foreign company rules come in. HMRC's manual says a CFC charge falls on each UK "chargeable company" holding a relevant interest, so the UK company can face UK tax on profits the UAE companies earn. This matters most if you keep your UK limited company and put the UAE structure under it.

Your own residence

For you as an individual, the UK transfer of assets abroad rules let HMRC tax a UK resident on income that an overseas structure receives. So sort your own residence first and the structure second. Our Statutory Residence Test calculator shows where you stand, and UAE holding companies for UK founders explains when a holding company earns its place.

Who RAK ICC suits

• Founders with more than one business, or planning a second, who want one owner above them.
• Several shareholders who want their holdings in a separate company from the operating business.
• Founders holding UAE or overseas property, intellectual property or investments that should sit apart from trading risk.
• Founders who have left the UK and want their group owned from the UAE.

It suits you less if you have one business and one visa: a single free zone company does that job with one set of renewals. And if you are still UK resident, start with your own residence, not the holding company.

How we set up a RAK ICC structure from the UK

As a RAK ICC agent, we form the RAK ICC company for you. We start with what the structure has to hold, who the shareholders are and who needs a visa, then design the two tiers and choose the free zone for the operating company. We prepare the documents against RAK ICC's checklist and file the application, then form the operating company beneath it and run the visas and bank accounts through it. We also check the UK side with you: where the board will meet, whether a UK company sits in the group, and your own residence. You get one all-in price for the whole structure. See our company formation service.