Building a UAE company around UK tax advice
A UK software specialist relocating to Dubai while continuing to advise international clients. We opened his IFZA free zone company and kept the Dubai side joined up with his own UK advisers. The UK tax advice was theirs, not ours.
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Scott was moving to Dubai and would keep advising clients around the world, using the UAE as a global base. His concern wasn't only the UAE company — it was making sure it worked properly alongside his UK position rather than creating problems back home.
A lot of the people we speak to in the UK have the same worry. UK law has a test for whether a person is still UK resident, and a company formed outside the UK can still be UK resident if it is controlled from the UK: in HMRC's words, "it is the highest level of control of the business which counts". Those are questions for a UK adviser, not for us, and Scott already had his own. HMRC's guidance on the UK residence test and on where a company is resident is on gov.uk.
Why they came to us
He came through his own UK advisers, who preferred our way of working to the alternatives. We spoke to Scott many times while he was still in the UK, and worked directly with those advisers.
The introduction mattered because it came from the advisers the Dubai company had to fit in with.
What we recommended
An IFZA free zone company, with consultancy activities that accurately described what he does — advising clients on the use of his own software. IFZA is usually where we start, and we choose the zone to suit each business.
The activity wording mattered. Scott advises clients on using his own software, which makes the business a consultancy, and the licence had to say that, because a bank reads the licence against the business in front of it.
We don't give UK tax advice ourselves, and we said so; what we did was handle the UAE side and keep it joined up with his UK advisers, so the two positions lined up. In practice, joined up meant the calls with Scott before he left the UK, working directly with his advisers, and a licence that says what the business really does.
Scott took two visas; we arranged the corporate banking and an office address.
Our job at Start Business Services is to build the Dubai company around whatever the owner's home-country advisers have decided, not the other way round, because a UAE structure that quietly cuts across the UK advice causes more trouble than it saves. For an owner in the same position the order is the same: the UK advice comes first, from the owner's own UK adviser, who confirms their UK position, and we build the Dubai company around it.
The outcome
The company was established, banking and visas completed, and Scott now runs the business from Dubai as a global hub. We handle the ongoing accounting, tax filing and compliance. The tax filing we do is the UAE company's own, here in the UAE.
Excellent experience setting up a new business in Dubai last year. Gareth and the local team were very supportive throughout the process. Gareth advised on the best type of business to set up and the preferred location. The local team then helped me with business licenses, personal visas for myself and family as well as help with setting up local bank accounts. I would thoroughly recommend.
— Scott
Thinking about a move like this?
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