Desk research against primary sources. Figures are traced to the issuing UAE authority and linked on the page.
Whether the regulations bite at all turns on the activity, not the size of the company — a small headquarters or IP-holding entity is squarely in scope while a much larger trading business carrying out none of the listed relevant activities is not. The list itself is specific: banking, insurance, fund management, shipping and holding-company structures are named categories, and an activity has to fall inside one of them to trigger the substance test.
Where a relevant activity does apply, adequacy is judged on whether real UAE decision-making happens locally — staff, premises and management meetings physically present, not paperwork describing them. The annual notification obligation is separate and universal: every licensed entity files it whether or not it performs a relevant activity, and it is only the fuller substance report that becomes conditional on the activity actually being carried out.
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