I'm an individual licensed in a free zone — do I get the free zone's 0% rate?

The law's definition is explicit: a "Free Zone Person" must be a juridical person — a company or entity incorporated or officially registered in the free zone. A natural person, or even an unincorporated partnership, cannot be a "Free Zone Person" at all, regardless of their licence. That means the Qualifying Free Zone Person regime and its 0% rate on qualifying income simply isn't available to an individual, even one licensed out of the very same free zone where companies are enjoying that rate.

Instead, an individual holding a sole establishment or freelance licence is taxed under the general rule for natural persons: Corporate Tax applies once total turnover from business or professional activity during the year exceeds AED 1,000,000 — regardless of whether that activity sits in a free zone or on the mainland. Location itself changes nothing here. And purely personal income (salary, personal investment, unlicensed real estate rental) still sits outside the calculation, exactly as it would for anyone else. RASEEKH checks the actual licence structure — individual or company — before assuming a free zone address alone buys an exemption.