A small body of long-form work on the questions families, founders, and businesses establishing themselves in Dubai actually face. Published when there is something worth saying — never to a schedule.
The non-dom regime that defined British residence for two centuries is gone. A new four-year window is open for those willing to read the small print. For everyone else, the cost of staying in the UK has risen by considerably more than the cost of leaving.
Maria Condliffe · Published 14 May 2026
Read the full articleWhat actually moves when a UK or US operating company "relocates" to Dubai? Customer contracts, IP, employment, intra-group financing, exit-tax treatment for the founder. A practitioner's note on the parts of the migration that catch out the founder who treats it as a licence swap.
Forthcoming · June 2026
For two decades the offshore trust was the dominant succession vehicle for internationally-mobile principals. Since 2018 the DIFC and ADGM Foundation regimes have replaced it for most clients we see — for both personal wealth and operating-company shareholding. The reasons are not what most people think.
Forthcoming · June 2026
The Golden Visa is presented as a single product. It is not. It is five distinct routes — Property, Salary, Investor, Specialist, Pensioner — each with materially different mechanics. The route you choose determines what your next ten years look like.
Forthcoming · June 2026
DMCC, Meydan, IFZA, DIFC, RAK ICC — the Dubai free-zone landscape is presented as a price comparison. The decisions that actually matter are about banking acceptance, visa quota, exit mechanics, and recognition by international counterparties. A reference for the structural conversation.
Forthcoming · July 2026
The 9% UAE corporate tax regime preserves a 0% rate for qualifying free-zone persons on qualifying income. The election is straightforward in principle and deceptively narrow in practice. Most clients who believe they qualify do not — and the cost of getting it wrong is permanent.
Forthcoming · July 2026
Most UAE-incorporated companies are run with neither. The result, when something happens to the principal shareholder, is a multi-month operational paralysis that customers, suppliers, and the bank all notice. Two documents, drafted on day one, prevent it.
Forthcoming · August 2026
The mechanics of leaving are different from each country — and they differ again for an individual versus a business. Country guides are practitioner-length pieces covering the home-country exit position (personal and corporate), the UAE arrival sequence, and the specific issues each jurisdiction's residents and businesses most often encounter. More guides are added through the year.
Post-April-2025 non-dom abolition, Statutory Residence Test, P85 filing, capital-gains exit position, Property Golden Visa, UK Ltd redomiciliation, and the operational landing for both family and business.
Citizenship-based taxation does not switch off on relocation. A practitioner's guide to the FEIE and foreign-tax-credit positions, FBAR and FATCA obligations, GILTI and Subpart F implications for the US-owned UAE company, and the corporate structures that work for Americans abroad.
Lump-sum taxation, cantonal exit considerations, the realignment of holding structures, and why Dubai is increasingly the considered alternative for internationally-mobile Swiss-resident families and the operating businesses they hold.
NRI status, RBI compliance on outward remittances, the LRS limits, ODI for outbound corporate investment, Indian succession-law interaction with UAE assets, and the practical reality of running an India-Dubai life across two regulatory perimeters.
Wegzugsbesteuerung (exit tax) on substantial shareholdings, the realignment of GmbH ownership for a UAE-resident shareholder, the practical mechanics of moving a Mittelstand business or holding structure to the UAE, and the German treaty framework's interaction with the UAE position.
For families and founders already familiar with low-tax jurisdictions, the considered question is rarely tax — it is governance, succession, regional positioning, and the right operating jurisdiction for an MENA-facing business. A guide to choosing Dubai when the alternative is also a credible answer.
When a piece is published we send a short note to a small list of readers. No marketing material; no calls to action; no third-party sharing. Three to four letters a year.
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