Editorial policy

Every guide on UAE Business Explained answers one question clearly and takes every UAE rule and figure from an official source. Pages are researched and drafted with AI tools and then checked, in a separate step, against those sources before they are published. Each guide shows when it was published, last updated and last reviewed.

Last updated

Our standards

  • Accurate. Every UAE rate, threshold, deadline, fee set by law and penalty is traced to an official source, with the date we checked it.
  • Independent. No setup agency, bank, adviser or other provider pays for, reviews or approves what we write.
  • Plain English. Short sentences, terms explained the first time they appear, and a glossary for the rest.
  • Answer first. Each guide opens with a direct answer that makes sense on its own.
  • Explanation, not advice. We explain how the rules work and show the working. We do not tell you what to do in your own case.
  • No hype. No "best" lists, no urgency, no testimonials and no invented examples presented as real people or companies.

Sources we use

Official and primary sources

Rules and figures come from the body that sets or applies them:

  • UAE federal laws and decisions, as published by the authorities or on the federal legislation portal;
  • the Ministry of Finance and the Federal Tax Authority for corporate tax, VAT, excise tax and e-invoicing;
  • the Ministry of Economy, emirate economic departments and free zone authorities for company formation and licences;
  • the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation and the UAE Government portal for employment rules;
  • the Federal Authority for Identity, Citizenship, Customs and Port Security and emirate customs authorities for trade and residence;
  • the Central Bank of the UAE and the Federal Competitiveness and Statistics Centre for banking rules and economic data.

Fees that each authority or provider sets for itself, such as a licence package or a bank charge, are quoted only from that body's own dated page and named in the sentence, or described without a number. We never present one provider's price as the market rate.

What we do not use as a source for facts

News articles, consultancy and law firm guides, comparison sites, forums and marketing pages can point us to a question or a source, but we never take a figure from them. If we cannot confirm a figure on an official page, it does not appear on the site.

How a guide is made, and how we use AI

  1. Research. We collect the official sources for the topic and record each figure in our facts register with its source and the date we opened it.
  2. Brief. We set the question the guide answers, its outline and the figures it needs.
  3. Draft. The guide is drafted with AI tools from the brief, taking every UAE figure from the facts register.
  4. Source check. A separate check, also carried out with AI tools, compares every number and rule in the draft with its source. Anything that cannot be confirmed is removed and kept on a list of open questions until it can be.
  5. Publication. The guide is checked for clarity, links and layout, then published.

We say this plainly because it matters to readers: the research, drafting and checking are done with AI tools working from official sources. We do not claim a review by a named expert unless that person is listed on our editorial team page.

Under the headline of each guide you will see three dates:

  • Published: when the guide first appeared.
  • Updated: the last time its content changed in a meaningful way.
  • Reviewed: the last time the whole guide was checked against its sources.

Numbers and the facts register

We keep every UAE-specific figure in one facts register. Each entry records the rule as the source states it, the figure, who it applies to, the source's title, publisher and web address, and the date we opened it. Guides show key figures in fact boxes with that source and date, so a figure is the same everywhere on the site. Our methodology explains the register in more detail.

Independence

We do not promote products or services. There is no advertising, affiliate income or sponsored content on the site, and no commercial relationship influences which topics we cover or what we say about them. Our page on how we make money explains how we would disclose any income in future.

Corrections and updates

When a law, a decision or an official page changes, we update the facts register first, then the pages that quote the figure, and review them again. If you find an error, our corrections policy explains how to report it and how we show the change.

Bylines

All guides are published under UAE Business Explained Editorial Team. A writer or expert reviewer is named on a guide only when they are a real person listed on the editorial team page. You can read more about us.