Dubai Silicon Oasis Setup: Why DIEZ Does Not Make It a Designated Zone, Why Nobody Can Quote You a Price, and Why a Manufacturer There Reaches 0% When a Software Company Cannot (2026)

Dubai Silicon Oasis sits under the Dubai Integrated Economic Zones Authority, the same authority that runs Dubai Airport Free Zone and Dubai CommerCity. Both of those are on the Federal Tax Authority's list of VAT Designated Zones. Dubai Silicon Oasis is not [6]. That single fact undoes most of what is written about the zone online, because authority-wide Designated Zone status does not exist. Designation is granted zone by zone, by Cabinet Decision, and DSO has not been granted it.

The second thing nobody says is that dso.ae publishes no prices at all. Not a licence fee, not a package, not a warehouse rate, not a per-square-metre land figure. Every facility page and every land page ends at an enquiry form or a phone number. So every confident "DSO from AED 11,900" line you have read was written by a consultancy, not by the zone.

The third thing is the one that actually decides whether DSO is worth it. Unlike the technology office parks it gets compared with, DSO has genuine industrial capacity: an Industrial Licence, high-bay warehousing, light industrial units and shovel-ready plots running to 255,600 square metres. That means a real manufacturer or processor in DSO has a live route to the free zone 0% corporate tax rate, because manufacturing and processing are both on the closed Qualifying Activities list [7]. A software or SaaS tenant in the same business park has no such route at all. Since 2013, our team has set up both kinds of company across Dubai's free zones, so the split below comes from real client files, and our free zone company setup page maps how a licence, facility and visa allocation fit together before you compare zones. This is a guide, not legal or tax advice on your specific company.

If you want a DSO answer sized to your actual activity and facility rather than a blog figure, talk to a setup expert→

What is Dubai Silicon Oasis, and how big is it really?

Dubai Silicon Oasis is a mixed-use technology park established under Dubai Law No. 16 of 2005, covering about 7 square kilometres on the Dubai to Al Ain road [1]. It combines technology offices, industrial and light industrial space, warehousing and land plots with a genuine residential community and a hotel, which makes it a live-work district rather than an office park.

That mix is the whole point. Semmer Villas and Cedre Villas are real housing, not staff accommodation blocks, and there is a Radisson RED hotel on site [1]. The tenant list DSO publishes on its own site confirms that the industrial half is not marketing: Porsche, Hyundai, Mitsubishi, Henkel, Orange and Gulf Data Hub, alongside W Motors hypercar manufacturing and the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre [1]. Those are hardware, automotive and data-centre tenants, and they are the reason the tax analysis later in this guide comes out differently here than it does in a pure software district.

Real Talk: DSO's own web presence contradicts itself on scale, and you should know that before you quote a number in a board paper. The 28,000 companies and 90,000 residents and workers figures come from official government media covering the January 2026 expansion launch, dated 22 January 2026. Separately, dso.ae's own DIEZ page says "more than 5,000 registered companies from across 20 industries", but that sentence describes DIEZ as a whole and carries no date [3]. Those two figures are measuring different things and one of them is undated. We use the 28,000 figure because it is dated and specific to the launch coverage, and we flag the inconsistency rather than blending them into an average, which is what most competitor pages quietly do.

What did the DIEZ merger change, and what does it mean for a tenant today?

Dubai Law No. 16 of 2021 created the Dubai Integrated Economic Zones Authority. It was issued on 14 September 2021 and took effect on 1 January 2022. Article 31 states that DIEZ "is hereby deemed the legal successor of the Dubai International Airport Free Zone Authority and the Dubai Silicon Oasis Authority" [5]. So DSO's authority was absorbed, not abolished in substance.

Read that Article 31 wording carefully, because almost every article about DIEZ overstates it. The law names exactly two predecessor authorities being succeeded: DAFZA and DSO [5]. Dubai CommerCity is consistently described as a DIEZ zone, but it was not itself an authority being dissolved by that law. So "DAFZA plus DSO plus CommerCity under DIEZ" is a practically accurate description of the group today and a legally imprecise description of what Law No. 16 of 2021 actually did. If you are drafting anything that turns on legal succession, that distinction matters.

Common Mistake: Assuming that because DSO now sits under DIEZ, it inherits whatever DAFZA and CommerCity have. It does not. Group structure and tax designation are separate things. In practice, a DSO tenant in 2026 still applies to DSO, gets a DSO licence, deals with DSO's own licensing team and reads dso.ae for its rules. DIEZ is the legal umbrella and the source of the 2023 implementing regulations [2][5]. It is not a shared benefits card.

Which DSO licence and entity type do you need?

DSO publishes four routes on its own licence page: a Service Licence, a Trade Licence, an Industrial Licence, and a Business Operation Permit for companies operating in DSOA's Administrative Zone under a Dubai Economic Department licence, with no share capital required for that permit [2]. Which one you hold is not an administrative detail. It later decides your corporate tax outcome.

On entity types, DSO offers an FZCO or a Branch [2]. The important change is one that older articles have not caught up with: legacy FZEs were automatically converted to FZCOs under the 2023 regulations, and no new FZEs are issued [2]. So if a page is still offering you a "DSO FZE", it is describing a structure that no longer exists as a new formation.

That last row is worth a second read. DSO's own legislations page cites Executive Council Resolution No. 11 of 2025 as the instrument making it easier for a DSO free zone company to operate on the Dubai mainland through dual licensing [2]. For a company that needs to invoice mainland and government clients directly, that softens the old binary choice. It does not make a free zone licence equivalent to a mainland one, and if the bulk of your revenue is UAE-domestic it is still worth pricing a mainland company setup properly rather than assuming dual licensing solves it.

Pro Tip: Choose the licence against the physical reality of what you do, not against the cheapest line. A service company that quietly intends to assemble or repack goods is mis-licensed from day one, and it also throws away the only route to 0% corporate tax that DSO makes available. If you genuinely manufacture or process, the Industrial Licence is not a cost to minimise. It is the thing that makes the tax argument work.

What facilities does Dubai Silicon Oasis actually offer?

Offices, yes, but the part that separates DSO from a technology office park is the industrial estate behind it: shovel-ready land plots from 5,000 square metres to 255,600 square metres, high-bay and operational warehousing, and Light Industrial Units built for production rather than storage alone [1]. This is a zone where you can run a line, not only a laptop.

Look at the Light Industrial Unit specification, because it tells you exactly who the product is designed for. A 3,868 square foot unit that splits into 2,307 square feet of warehouse and 1,560 square feet of double-storey office is a small manufacturer's whole business in one lease: production at ground level, admin and sales above it [1]. That is a different proposition from renting a desk and calling it a technology company.

The 12 metre racking and the 172,000 square foot high-bay building point the same way, towards genuine storage and distribution volumes [1]. If you have containers, pallets, a production line or test equipment, DSO can physically house you. If you have six laptops, you are paying for infrastructure you will never touch, and our guide to Dubai Internet City setup covers the districts built for that instead.

What does Dubai Silicon Oasis cost, and why can nobody honestly quote you?

Because DSO publishes no licence fees, no package prices and no facility rates anywhere on dso.ae [1][2]. Every facility page and every land page routes to an enquiry form or a phone number. There is no published price list to check a consultancy's figure against, which is precisely why so many invented figures circulate.

We are not going to reprint those figures dressed up as DSO prices. To be explicit about what we will not publish, because you have almost certainly seen these numbers: AED 11,900 or AED 12,000 licence packages, AED 11,900 to AED 25,000 total setup, an AED 9,000 flexi-desk, an AED 3,750 visa package, or an AED 5,000 DTEC service licence. All of those are consultancy-sourced. None of them appear on dso.ae.

Quick Math: You cannot build a DSO budget from a licence figure, because at this zone the facility is the invoice and the licence is a line on it. A founder pricing "a DSO licence" has priced roughly nothing. A founder pricing 3,868 square feet of Light Industrial Unit, a headcount, a customs position and an annual audit is having the right conversation. Specify the facility and the headcount first, then request a written, itemised quotation from DSO or your agent with government fees separated from service fees. Anyone who gives you a total before knowing your square footage is guessing.

One factual error worth correcting by name. At least one widely circulated source claims that IFZA operates under Dubai Silicon Oasis Authority. That is false. IFZA is a separate authority with its own licensing regime and its own published pricing, and it has no operational relationship to DSOA or DIEZ. If a page tells you that, treat everything else on it as unverified, including its DSO price figures.

What about DTEC, GoFreelance and the freelancer question?

The Dubai Technology Entrepreneur Campus sits physically inside Dubai Silicon Oasis, which is why so many pages describe a "DSO freelance permit". The honest position is more awkward: dso.ae itself makes no mention of DTEC, of GoFreelance, or of a freelancer permit anywhere [1][2]. So we will not tell you DSO has its own freelance product.

What complicates it further is that DTEC's freelance offering is widely tied to GoFreelance, which is a TECOM and Dubai Development Authority product, not a DSOA or DIEZ one. So the campus sits inside DSO's geography while the permit behind it appears to belong to a different authority's regime. That distinction matters, because the issuing authority determines who your regulator is, whose renewal calendar you are on and whose rules change under you.

Real Talk: If you are a solo freelancer, this ambiguity is a reason to slow down, not a reason to panic. Ask one direct question of whoever is selling you the permit: which authority issues it, and can I see that in writing on that authority's own site? If the answer is TECOM or the Dubai Development Authority, you are buying a perfectly legitimate product, just not a Dubai Silicon Oasis one, and you should compare it against the TECOM districts on their own merits rather than because the desk happens to sit in Silicon Oasis.

How does the DSO visa quota work, and why will we not publish a ratio?

Because there is no published DSO ratio to quote. Neither dso.ae nor the DIEZ implementing regulations publish a visa-quota formula [1][2]. The widely repeated "1 visa per 9 square metres, strictly enforced from 2026" claim traces back to blog content rather than to DSO, and we should be honest that some of that blog content has been our own site's in the past.

That correction matters more than it sounds. A ratio applied to a floor plan produces a headcount plan, and a headcount plan produces a lease commitment. Get the divisor wrong by a third and you either pay for space you did not need or find in month nine that your hiring plan does not fit the floor you signed for.

Common Mistake: Signing a lease on a ratio you read in an article. The correct move at DSO is to get your quota confirmed in writing, in your offer letter or lease documentation, before you commit to the space, stated as a number of visas rather than as a formula. A written quota is enforceable against your landlord and licensor. A ratio from a blog is not, and that includes this one. Then remember that a quota is only the right to apply. Every applicant still goes through standard UAE immigration processing, and refusals happen for reasons unconnected to your floor area.

Is Dubai Silicon Oasis a VAT Designated Zone?

No. Dubai Silicon Oasis does not appear on the Federal Tax Authority's list of Designated Zones [6]. We checked this directly against the FTA's published list rather than against secondary sources, because this is the single most-repeated error in DSO content online.

Here is the Dubai section of that list in full, so you can see exactly what is there and what is not.

Now look at the shape of that table. Dubai Airport Free Zone is on it. Dubai CommerCity is on it. Both sit under DIEZ. Dubai Silicon Oasis, which sits under the same authority, is not on it [3][5][6]. That is the clearest possible demonstration that Designated Zone status is not conferred by authority. It is granted zone by zone, by Cabinet Decision, and a sister zone's status transfers to you exactly not at all.

So a DSO company sits inside UAE VAT territory, charges and pays standard 5% VAT, and registers on the ordinary thresholds [6]. We are deliberately not publishing a total count of Designated Zones, because the list is amended by Cabinet Decision and any count in an article goes stale the moment a zone is added or removed. Check the current list rather than trusting a number. Our guide to Designated Zones and VAT explains which goods movements the treatment actually covers, and our Dubai CommerCity ecommerce free zone guide covers the sister DIEZ zone that does hold the status. The ongoing registration, returns and record-keeping load that follows is exactly the work our post-setup services team carries.

Can a Dubai Silicon Oasis company reach the 0% corporate tax rate?

Some can, and this is where DSO genuinely differs from a software-only district. DSO's own site states that Dubai Silicon Oasis "is considered a qualified free zone for the purposes of the UAE Corporate Tax Law" [4]. Be precise about what that sentence means: the zone is eligible. Your company is not automatically anything. Sitting in a qualified free zone is necessary and nowhere near sufficient.

What decides the outcome is the activity, and the activity list is closed. Ministerial Decision No. 229 of 2025, issued on 28 August 2025, effective retroactively from 1 June 2023 and repealing Ministerial Decision No. 265 of 2023, sets out the Qualifying Activities exhaustively, with no catch-all line [7].

Two rows carry the whole argument. The distribution line is closed at DSO, because that activity explicitly requires a Designated Zone and DSO is not one [6][7]. But the manufacturing and processing lines carry no Designated Zone requirement at all. They are available to any Qualifying Free Zone Person in any qualified free zone, and DSO is one [4][7]. That is the opening a software district cannot offer, because it has no industrial capacity to support the activity in the first place.

Why does a manufacturer's answer differ from a software company's?

Because the tax rate follows the activity, not the address, and DSO houses two populations with opposite answers. Manufacturing and processing are on the closed Qualifying Activities list. Software, SaaS, IT services and general consultancy are not [7]. Same zone, same landlord, same authority, completely different corporate tax position.

MD 229/2025 defines the two qualifying terms in a way that rewards real operations. Manufacturing covers production, improvement or assembly from raw materials or components. Processing covers preparation, treatment, transformation or conversion of goods or materials into another form for commercial or industrial use [7]. Both descriptions assume a facility, an input and an output, which is exactly what DSO's Industrial Licence, Light Industrial Units, warehousing and industrial land exist to support [1][2].

The software tenant has no equivalent line to fall into. There is no "technology", "digital" or "professional services" residual category in MD 229/2025 [7]. So that company is an ordinary taxable person: 0% on taxable income up to AED 375,000, then 9% above it, with Small Business Relief available under Ministerial Decision No. 73 of 2023, as amended by Ministerial Decision 131 of 2026 where revenue is at or below AED 3,000,000, for tax periods ending on or before 31 December 2029 [8].

Quick Math: The manufacturer and the IT services firm can sit in adjacent units on the same street in Silicon Oasis and file completely different returns. The manufacturer that holds QFZP status pays AED 0 on AED 6,000,000 of qualifying income. The same manufacturer that breaches de minimis pays AED 540,000 on the same income, because a QFZP that fails its conditions gets neither the nil-rate band nor Small Business Relief. That AED 540,000 swing is what the compliance conditions in the next section are actually protecting, and it is why manufacturing tenants should treat substance and audit as operating costs, not as paperwork.

The tenants who get this right decide the tax structure at the licence stage, not at the first filing. A manufacturer that took an Industrial Licence, leased a real production facility in the zone and kept its non-qualifying revenue small has a defensible 0% position. A manufacturer that took a Service Licence because it was simpler, then subcontracted production elsewhere, has an expensive argument on its hands. Our guide to the qualifying free zone person and the 0% rate works through the full conditions, and our manufacturing company setup guide covers the licensing and facility side in detail.

What else does Qualifying Free Zone Person status require?

Having a Qualifying Activity is the entry ticket, not the whole test. A DSO manufacturer still has to satisfy every other condition, and failing any one of them costs the status for that tax period and the following four [7]. That five-year consequence is the part most articles skip.

The de minimis rule is the one that catches growing manufacturers. Read the threshold carefully: it is 5% of total revenue or AED 5,000,000, whichever is lower, so a large manufacturer is capped in absolute terms rather than proportionally [7]. A production business that starts taking on consultancy work, design services or maintenance contracts on the side can drift over that line without noticing, and the penalty is not a proportionate adjustment. It is loss of the whole status for five years.

Substance is the second trap. A manufacturer whose production actually happens outside the zone, with DSO holding only the licence and an office, is exposed on the core income-generating activity test [7]. This is precisely why DSO's physical capacity matters to the tax argument: the Light Industrial Units, warehousing and land are what make substance real rather than theoretical, and the same plan cannot be copied into a district with no industrial space. Our JAFZA free zone setup guide covers the other Dubai zone built around genuine industrial occupancy.

Who is Dubai Silicon Oasis right for, and who is mismatched?

DSO is genuinely right for a specific profile and a poor use of money for another, and being direct about both saves more money than any negotiation. The dividing line is whether you need the industrial half of the zone.

The right-hand column is arithmetic rather than snobbery. A three-person SaaS company in DSO gets no facility benefit it will use, no route to the 0% rate because its activity is not on the list [7], no Designated Zone VAT treatment [6], and office-size conventions that are less startup-friendly than a purpose-built office park. Its tax outcome, Small Business Relief while you are under the threshold and then 9% above AED 375,000, is identical to what a far cheaper licence elsewhere would give it [8]. If that is you, the TECOM technology districts or a value zone will serve you better, and the honest comparison is on our free zone company setup page.

Pro Tip: Ask one question before you commit to DSO: does your business need a floor, a door and a loading bay? If yes, DSO's industrial capacity is a genuine advantage and may also be your route to 0%. If no, you are buying an industrial estate to hold a laptop, and every benefit on the brochure is one you will not use. There is no shame in being the second business. There is real cost in pretending to be the first.

What is being built at Dubai Silicon Oasis in 2026?

A great deal, and the headline number is large. On 22 January 2026 an AED 12.8 billion expansion of Dubai Silicon Oasis was launched, comprising two components: District IO and Block 14. The stated ambition runs to 2036, and the targets attached to it are the clearest signal yet of what DSO intends to become.

Note a second figure before you cite any of this. dso.ae separately references an AED 3.5 billion masterplan expansion, which is a different number from the AED 12.8 billion launched in January 2026 [1]. The likeliest explanation is that the AED 3.5 billion figure describes an earlier or partial phase, but we are not going to assume they are the same programme and reconcile them for you. If the expansion matters to your decision, ask DSO which programme a given building sits within and when it delivers.

For a tenant deciding now, District IO's commercial space is phased from 2026 onwards, so new supply is coming but is not all available today, and Block 14 changes the neighbourhood rather than your office options. None of it changes the two structural facts in this guide: DSO still publishes no prices [1][2], and it is still not a Designated Zone [6].

Real Client Stories

These are real examples from businesses we have helped, with names and details changed for privacy.

The electronics manufacturer for whom DSO was exactly right. A European maker of industrial sensor modules wanted regional assembly rather than a sales office. We took an Industrial Licence at DSO and leased Light Industrial Units, so production, testing and the small admin team sat in one facility with the double-storey office above the warehouse floor [1][2]. Because manufacturing is on the closed Qualifying Activities list with no Designated Zone requirement attached, and because the production genuinely happens inside the zone, the substance argument for Qualifying Free Zone Person status was real rather than constructed [7]. We set the de minimis discipline at the start, capping the maintenance and consultancy work they were tempted to take on. Their managing director: "We chose the unit because we needed the loading bay. Nobody told us it was also the reason the tax answer worked."

The SaaS founder for whom it did not. A four-person analytics product company had been quoted a DSO setup on the strength of a package figure found online and an agent's promise of 0% corporate tax. Neither survived checking. DSO publishes no package price at all, so the figure was somebody's estimate [1][2], and software is nowhere on the Qualifying Activities list, so the 0% was never available [7]. At roughly AED 2.2 million of revenue they were inside Small Business Relief anyway, paying nothing under MD 73/2023 [8]. They were about to lease industrial-adjacent space they would never use. Their founder: "I was buying a factory district to run a web app, and paying extra for a tax rate I could not have had."

The distributor who had the right idea in the wrong zone. A regional distributor of medical consumables came to us specifically to use the "distribution of goods in or from a Designated Zone" Qualifying Activity, having read that DSO sat under the same authority as Dubai Airport Free Zone and Dubai CommerCity. It does, and that changes nothing: DSO is not on the FTA's list, so the route is closed there while the two sister zones hold the status [6]. We re-ran the comparison against zones that are on the list and moved the plan. Their operations director: "One row on a government list decided where our warehouse went."

Set up in Dubai Silicon Oasis with the right expectations

Dubai Silicon Oasis is one of the few Dubai free zones that can genuinely house a factory, a warehouse and a head office in the same district, with 7 square kilometres of mixed-use land, industrial plots up to 255,600 square metres, and tenants including Porsche, Hyundai, Mitsubishi, Henkel and W Motors to prove the industrial half is real [1]. If your business has an input, an output and a loading bay, that capacity is worth paying for, and the AED 12.8 billion expansion launched in January 2026 says the operator intends to keep building.

What DSO is not is a Designated Zone or a published price list. It sits under DIEZ alongside two zones that do hold Designated Zone status, and that changes nothing for you, because designation is granted zone by zone [6]. It publishes no licence, package or facility rate at all, so every figure you have read is an estimate [1][2]. And the 0% corporate tax route it can offer is available to a genuine manufacturer or processor and closed to a software company, because MD 229/2025 says so [7]. Plan for all three and DSO can be an excellent decision. Plan for a AED 12,000 package and an automatic 0% and you will be wrong twice.

Since 2013, BusinessDubai.ae has completed 700+ company registrations across the UAE, including industrial and technology companies in Dubai's free zones, and we will tell you when a zone is the wrong spend rather than sell you the most impressive address. We will match the licence category to what you physically do, get your visa quota confirmed in writing before you sign a lease, obtain an itemised written quotation with government fees separated from service fees, check your activity against the Qualifying Activities list before you commit, set the VAT position correctly, and carry the filings and renewals afterwards through our post-setup services team. If a mainland company setup suits your client base better, or a cheaper free zone gives you an identical tax outcome, we will say so. Talk to a setup expert→

Related guides:

• Qualifying Free Zone Person and the 0% rate
• Designated Zones and VAT in the UAE
• Dubai CommerCity ecommerce free zone
• JAFZA free zone setup
• Dubai Internet City setup
• Manufacturing company setup in Dubai

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Dubai Silicon Oasis a VAT Designated Zone?

No. DSO does not appear on the Federal Tax Authority's list of Designated Zones [6]. Dubai Airport Free Zone and Dubai CommerCity are on that list and sit under the same authority, which shows that designation is granted zone by zone rather than authority-wide.

If DSO is under DIEZ, does it inherit Designated Zone status?

No. Designated Zone status is granted by Cabinet Decision to a named zone, not to an authority [6]. DIEZ operating two Designated Zones confers nothing on Dubai Silicon Oasis, which remains inside UAE VAT territory on ordinary rules.

Does a DSO company charge VAT?

Yes, standard 5% UAE VAT on goods and services, with no zone-specific carve-out [6]. Registration is mandatory once taxable supplies pass AED 375,000, with voluntary registration available from AED 187,500, exactly as for any other UAE business.

How much does a Dubai Silicon Oasis licence cost?

Nobody outside DSO can tell you honestly, because dso.ae publishes no licence fee, package price or facility rate anywhere [1][2]. Every figure circulating online is a consultancy estimate. Ask for a written, itemised quotation against your specified facility and headcount.

Is the AED 11,900 DSO package real?

It is not a DSO-published price. Neither that figure nor the AED 12,000 package, the AED 11,900 to AED 25,000 setup range, the AED 9,000 flexi-desk, the AED 3,750 visa package nor the AED 5,000 DTEC service licence appears on dso.ae [1][2].

Why does DSO not publish prices?

Because it leases specified facilities rather than shelf packages. Rent depends on the space, the licence follows the facility, and every facility and land page on dso.ae routes to an enquiry form or a phone number instead of a rate card [1][2].

What is Dubai Silicon Oasis?

A mixed-use technology park of about 7 square kilometres, established under Dubai Law No. 16 of 2005, combining technology offices, industrial and light industrial space, warehousing and land plots with a residential community and a Radisson RED hotel [1].

How many companies are in Dubai Silicon Oasis?

Official government media covering the January 2026 expansion launch cite 28,000 registered companies and 90,000 residents and workers, dated 22 January 2026. Note that dso.ae's DIEZ page separately quotes "more than 5,000 registered companies" for DIEZ as a whole, undated [3].

Which companies are based in Dubai Silicon Oasis?

DSO's own site names Porsche, Hyundai, Mitsubishi, Henkel, Orange and Gulf Data Hub, alongside W Motors hypercar manufacturing and the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre [1]. That tenant mix confirms genuine hardware and industrial occupancy rather than office-only tenancy.

What is DIEZ and when was it created?

The Dubai Integrated Economic Zones Authority, established by Dubai Law No. 16 of 2021, issued on 14 September 2021 and effective from 1 January 2022 [5]. Article 31 deems DIEZ the legal successor of the Dubai International Airport Free Zone Authority and Dubai Silicon Oasis Authority.

Is Dubai CommerCity part of DIEZ?

It is consistently described as a DIEZ zone, but Law No. 16 of 2021 names only DAFZA and DSO as the predecessor authorities being succeeded [5]. So the grouping is practically accurate and legally precise only for those two authorities.

Do I deal with DSO or DIEZ when setting up?

DSO, in practice. The zone still licenses and operates under its own brand at dso.ae, you receive a DSO trade licence and you deal with DSO's own team [1][2]. DIEZ is the authority of record as legal successor [5], and the group-wide implementing regulations were approved by Administrative Resolution No. ADM LEGAL 001 2023, dated 27 January 2023 [2].

What licence types does Dubai Silicon Oasis offer?

Four: a Service Licence, a Trade Licence, an Industrial Licence, and a Business Operation Permit for companies operating in DSOA's Administrative Zone under a Dubai Economic Department licence, with no share capital required for that permit [2].

Can I still register a DSO FZE?

No. FZEs are no longer issued, and legacy FZEs were automatically converted to FZCOs under the 2023 regulations [2]. The available entity routes are an FZCO or a branch of an existing company. Any page still offering a DSO FZE is out of date.

Can a DSO company operate on the Dubai mainland?

DSO's own legislations page cites Executive Council Resolution No. 11 of 2025 as enabling DSO free zone companies to operate on the Dubai mainland more easily via dual licensing [2]. If most of your revenue is UAE-domestic, still price a mainland licence properly before deciding.

What size industrial land plots does DSO offer?

Shovel-ready plots from 5,000 square metres to 255,600 square metres [1]. That range is what separates DSO from the technology office parks it is often compared with, and it is why a manufacturing tax argument is possible here.

What warehousing does Dubai Silicon Oasis have?

A high-bay warehouse of 172,000 square feet with 35,400 square feet of office floors, plus operational warehouse units of roughly 3,228 to 5,380 square feet with 12 metre racking [1]. Those are genuine distribution volumes, not storerooms.

What is a Light Industrial Unit at DSO?

A 3,868 square foot unit comprising 2,307 square feet of warehouse and 1,560 square feet of double-storey office [1]. It is designed to hold a small manufacturer's production and administration in a single lease, which supports both operations and the corporate tax substance test.

How many visas can a DSO company get?

There is no published DSO ratio. Neither dso.ae nor the DIEZ regulations publish a visa-quota formula [1][2]. Get your quota confirmed in writing as a number of visas in your offer letter or lease before you commit to space.

Is the "1 visa per 9 square metres" rule real at DSO?

Not as a DSO-published rule. That ratio, including the "strictly enforced from 2026" version of it, traces to blog content rather than to DSO or DIEZ [1][2]. Roughly 9 square metres per visa is a general Dubai convention across several zones, not a DSO rule.

Is there a minimum office size at DSO?

The commonly quoted 13.5 square metre minimum is consultancy-sourced and we could not verify it against dso.ae [1][2]. The same applies to the claims that flexi-desks are not permitted in the core zone and that a standard licence includes two visas.

Does Dubai Silicon Oasis offer a freelance permit?

Not on its own site. dso.ae makes no mention of DTEC, GoFreelance or a freelancer permit anywhere [1][2]. DTEC sits physically inside DSO, but its freelance offering is widely tied to GoFreelance, a TECOM and Dubai Development Authority product.

Does IFZA operate under Dubai Silicon Oasis Authority?

No, and that claim circulates widely enough to be worth correcting. IFZA is a separate authority with its own licensing regime and its own published pricing. It has no operational relationship to DSOA or DIEZ.

Can a Dubai Silicon Oasis company get 0% corporate tax?

A manufacturer or processor genuinely can. DSO states it is a qualified free zone for corporate tax purposes [4], which makes the zone eligible, and manufacturing and processing are both on the closed Qualifying Activities list in MD 229/2025 with no Designated Zone requirement attached [7].

Can a software company in DSO reach 0%?

No. Software development, SaaS, IT services and general consultancy appear nowhere on the closed Qualifying Activities list in Ministerial Decision No. 229 of 2025, and there is no technology or professional services catch-all [7]. That tenant is an ordinary taxable person instead.

What does MD 229/2025 count as manufacturing and processing?

Manufacturing includes production, improvement or assembly from raw materials or components. Processing includes preparation, treatment, transformation or conversion of goods or materials into another form for commercial or industrial use [7]. Both assume a real facility, a real input and a real output.

Can a DSO company use the Designated Zone distribution activity?

No. Distribution of goods or materials in or from a Designated Zone is a Qualifying Activity, but it requires a Designated Zone and DSO is not one [6][7]. That route is closed at DSO while remaining open in the sister DIEZ zones that hold the status.

What is the de minimis rule for a Qualifying Free Zone Person?

Non-qualifying revenue must not exceed 5% of total revenue or AED 5,000,000, whichever is lower [7]. Breaching it costs Qualifying Free Zone Person status for that tax period and the following four, so one bad year carries a five-year consequence.

What corporate tax does a DSO software company actually pay?

As an ordinary taxable person, 0% on taxable income up to AED 375,000 and 9% above it. Small Business Relief under Ministerial Decision No. 73 of 2023, as amended by Ministerial Decision 131 of 2026 gives a nil outcome where revenue is at or below AED 3,000,000, for tax periods ending on or before 31 December 2029 [8].

What is being built at Dubai Silicon Oasis in 2026?

An AED 12.8 billion expansion launched on 22 January 2026: District IO at AED 11 billion, with 25 energy-efficient buildings phased from 2026, and Block 14 at AED 1.8 billion for its first phase, targeted for 2029 near the Metro Blue Line extension.

References

[1] Dubai Silicon Oasis. About: establishment under Dubai Law No. 16 of 2005, the approximately 7 square kilometre mixed-use park, named tenants including Porsche, Hyundai, Mitsubishi, Henkel, Orange and Gulf Data Hub, W Motors hypercar manufacturing and the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre, the Semmer and Cedre Villas residential communities and the Radisson RED hotel, the industrial land plots of 5,000 to 255,600 square metres, the 172,000 square foot high-bay warehouse with 35,400 square feet of office floors, operational warehouse units of about 3,228 to 5,380 square feet with 12 metre racking, Light Industrial Units of 3,868 square feet, and the separately referenced AED 3.5 billion masterplan expansion. No prices are published on any facility or land page. Dubai Silicon Oasis, about

[2] Dubai Silicon Oasis. Licence types and legislations: the Service Licence, Trade Licence, Industrial Licence and the Business Operation Permit for companies in DSOA's Administrative Zone under a DED licence with no share capital requirement, the FZCO and branch entity routes, the automatic conversion of legacy FZEs to FZCOs with no new FZEs issued, Administrative Resolution No. ADM LEGAL 001 2023 dated 27 January 2023, and Executive Council Resolution No. 11 of 2025 on dual licensing for mainland operation. No licence fee or package price is published. Dubai Silicon Oasis, licence types

[3] Dubai Silicon Oasis. Dubai Integrated Economic Zones: the DIEZ grouping of Dubai Silicon Oasis, Dubai Airport Free Zone and Dubai CommerCity, and the undated "more than 5,000 registered companies from across 20 industries" figure describing DIEZ as a whole rather than DSO alone. Dubai Silicon Oasis, DIEZ

[4] Dubai Silicon Oasis. Statement that Dubai Silicon Oasis is considered a qualified free zone in relation to the UAE Corporate Tax Law, which establishes the eligibility of the zone rather than the qualifying status of any company within it. Dubai Silicon Oasis, qualified free zone statement

[5] Government of Dubai, Dubai Legislation portal. Law No. 16 of 2021 establishing the Dubai Integrated Economic Zones Authority, issued 14 September 2021 and effective 1 January 2022, including Article 31 deeming DIEZ the legal successor of the Dubai International Airport Free Zone Authority and the Dubai Silicon Oasis Authority. Dubai Law No. 16 of 2021

[6] Federal Tax Authority. List of Designated Zones: the Dubai entries being Jebel Ali Free Zone (North-South), Dubai Cars and Automotive Zone, Dubai Textile City removed 4 April 2021, the Free Zone Area in Al Quoz removed 1 July 2021, DAFZA Industrial Park Free Zone Al Qusais, Dubai Aviation City, Dubai Airport Free Zone, International Humanitarian City Jebel Ali from 18 June 2018 and Dubai CommerCity from 1 January 2021. Dubai Silicon Oasis does not appear on the list. FTA List of Designated Zones

[7] Ministry of Finance. Ministerial Decision No. 229 of 2025 regarding Qualifying Activities and Excluded Activities, issued 28 August 2025, effective retroactively from 1 June 2023 and repealing Ministerial Decision No. 265 of 2023: the closed Qualifying Activities list including manufacturing and processing of goods or materials with no Designated Zone requirement, the Designated Zone requirement attached to distribution, the definitions of manufacturing and processing, the substance, audit, standard-rate election and transfer pricing conditions, and the de minimis threshold of 5% of total revenue or AED 5,000,000 whichever is lower with loss of status for the period and the following four. Ministerial Decision No. 229 of 2025

[8] Ministry of Finance. Ministerial Decision No. 73 of 2023, as amended by Ministerial Decision 131 of 2026 on Small Business Relief: the AED 3,000,000 revenue threshold, availability for tax periods ending on or before 31 December 2029, the election mechanism and the exclusion of Qualifying Free Zone Persons. Ministerial Decision No. 73 of 2023, as amended by Ministerial Decision 131 of 2026