International Tax Advisory

The era of "set up offshore and pay zero tax" is over. Modern international structuring requires substance, treaty access, and careful coordination with home-country anti-avoidance rules — including Controlled Foreign Company (CFC), Pillar Two, and economic substance regulations. Done well, the UAE remains one of the most tax-efficient jurisdictions in the world. Done badly, it creates more problems than it solves.

Our tax advisory practice exists to design structures that work. We coordinate with your home-country counsel, model post-tax outcomes across jurisdictions, and ensure every structure we build can withstand the next decade of regulatory tightening.

What you get

Full structural review — assessment of your current entities, residency, and tax exposure
Optimization memorandum — written recommendation with projected tax savings
UAE corporate tax planning — 9% rate, Free Zone qualifying income, Pillar Two top-up
Personal residency planning — UAE tax residency, home-country exit, Tax Residency Certificate
CFC rules navigation — coordination with home-country counsel
Treaty access mapping — leveraging UAE's 140+ double-tax treaties
Substance design — board composition, decision-making, physical presence
Ongoing tax compliance — annual returns, ESR, transfer pricing, VAT

How we work

1
Discovery and current-state review
90-minute deep dive into your current entities, residency, income sources, and tax exposure. We identify the optimization opportunity and the risks.
2
Structuring memorandum
Written advisory memo with the recommended structure, jurisdictional rationale, projected tax savings, and a clear risk map. Coordinated with your home-country counsel.
3
Implementation
Entity formation, banking, residency, and substance build — executed in parallel under our fixed-fee engagement.
4
Substance and compliance
Quarterly substance reviews, ESR filings, UBO reports, and ongoing coordination with tax authorities in all relevant jurisdictions.

Talk to a senior advisor

Free 30-minute strategy call. No obligation. Fully confidential.

Book a Call

Frequently asked questions

Yes — when structured properly. The key is substance: real activity, real decision-making, real economic presence in the UAE. We design every structure to satisfy economic substance, treaty access, and CFC rules in your home jurisdiction.

The 15% OECD Pillar Two global minimum tax applies to multinationals with €750M+ global revenue. Below that threshold, UAE 0%/9% rates remain available. We model the threshold and design around it for growing groups.

Yes, with care. US citizens face additional complexity (CFC, GILTI, PFIC) but UAE structures still offer real benefits — particularly for asset protection, operational scaling, and certain treaty positions. We work alongside your US tax counsel.

Tax residency determines where you pay tax on your worldwide income. Citizenship is unrelated for most countries (except the US, which taxes citizens regardless of residency). UAE tax residency requires meeting one of three statutory tests.

Yes. UAE corporate tax returns are required for all taxable entities. We handle annual filings, ESR returns, and UBO declarations for our clients as part of ongoing compliance.

For a UK founder earning £500K from a SaaS business, moving to a properly structured UAE setup can save £150K–£250K per year. For higher earners, the absolute savings scale proportionally. We model the exact figure for your situation on the strategy call.

Tax planning never happens in isolation. Read our deep-dive on the UAE 9% corporate tax regime and our guide to economic substance for the regulatory context.