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I’ve tried reading through the thread to figure out what the actual solution to your question is. You live in Dubai, have a US LLC, and therefore pay the lowest possible tax namely, only income tax, which is 0% in Dubai as it stands now.

Isn’t that the solution?
Yes. But what about me? I do not live in Dubai and have active income. That's why we are still discussing. Some people care more about me than others ;)

Also, I guess most people do not like to live in Dubai for more than 4 months of the year.
 
It works for him because he said he has an IP holding and investing company so it's 100% passive income.

The lawyer said it has to be linked to an asset outside of Malta. So even if it's passive income, I would expect that it somehow has to be located outside of Malta. Not sure how you would do this.
Maybe you have a SaaS and it's hosted outside of Malta and you sell the license to use the software. I guess something like that can work.
But if you provide services (or resell services provided by people outside of Malta), the income would be considered as arising in Malta.
 
Yes. But what about me? I do not live in Dubai and have active income. That's why we are still discussing. Some people care more about me than others ;)

As mentioned before, the UAE would likely subject the US LLC income as UAE-sourced and subject to corporate income tax.
Even influencers (acting under their own name) have to pay corporate income tax. So even if it was indeed treated as personal income, this doesn't mean it wouldn't be subject to corporate tax.
And the UAE has made it very clear that entities that are managed from the UAE are subject to corporate tax.
This just isn't enforced at the moment, they are going after the big companies with actual offices etc. first.
But maybe this will change in 10 years and they will then demand that you pay up for the previous 10 years. Or maybe nothing will happen, who knows.
But it's a big risk, and if SHTF, they can place you under a travel ban or put you in jail. This isn't Thailand. Everything is still new, there is no case law for this.

However, the risk would be drastically lowered if you could point to a manager in another country - which is what I was asking about originally.

Also, I guess most people do not like to live in Dubai for more than 4 months of the year.

That would be plenty enough to be considered tax resident.
 
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I’ve tried reading through the thread to figure out what the actual solution to your question is. You live in Dubai, have a US LLC, and therefore pay the lowest possible tax namely, only income tax, which is 0% in Dubai as it stands now.

Isn’t that the solution?

No, that is not correct, as explained once again above.
Personal income tax is only paid on salaries in the UAE. If you manage an offshore company from Dubai, it becomes subject to UAE corporate tax.
"But how can a person pay corporate tax?"
Don't ask me, those are the rules!

https://kwsme.com/blog/corporate-tax-for-uae-freelancers/
https://www.freelanceinformer.com/news/new-uae-corporate-tax-to-impact-freelancers/
https://gulfnews.com/business/corpo...n-businesses-must-prepare-for-1.1703480392292
 
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Switzerland neither.

But there are PE rules, maybe not that enforced but there are.

I really struggle to understand the difference between those two...

When you say "there are PE rules" what consequences do you have in mind if those are triggered? Would it be local CIT applied to offshore entity? If yes then how is that different to CFC ? Or are those consequences something else?
 
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I really struggle to understand the difference between those two...

When you say "there are PE rules" what consequences do you have in mind if those are triggered? Would it be local CIT applied to offshore entity? If yes then how is that different to CFC ? Or are those consequences something else?
PE rules apply to permanent establishments. CFC applies on the owners.

If you trigger a PE, your company is being taxes like a local one.
 
I really struggle to understand the difference between those two...

Permanent establishment is about where work is done.

If you register your company in the Bahamas, but you really live in Spain and the company has no other employees than you and you basically do everything from your apartment in Spain, then the company is taxed like a local Spanish company. It would be very easy to prove that the company "is just you" and that you are in Spain, so the company should be taxed in Spain.

But imagine a company that doesn't do much. For example, a company that owns your company logo/trademark. Imagine this company is registered in the Bahamas and you have a desk in a co-working space in the Bahamas and a part-time employee who checks the mail twice per week. You go there 2-3 times per year to have a board meeting. The company otherwise doesn't do much, it just owns the trademark. Now your Spanish company pays 1M per year to the Bahamas company for being allowed to use the logo/trademark.
The logo/trademark company has no PE in Spain - after all, it doesn't do much. What would the activity in Spain be? No works is done, it just passively owns the trademark, that can be done by your part-time employee in the Bahamas.
So it would be very difficult for Spain to tax this company.

This is why CFC rules were introduced: They basically say "Ok, even if no work is done in our country, if the owner of the company is in Spain and the company is in a tax haven, then we still will tax this company like a Spanish company." (a bit simplified, but this is the idea)
Usually there are additional rules like "Only if >50% of the company's income is passive" etc. - they usually wouldn't count it as a CFC if you had a hotel in the Bahamas, for example. CFC rules are mostly about destroying setups like the above where someone wants to use a shell company to hold trademarks etc. and thus shift profits to a tax haven.

If you have an operative business, CFC rules usually don't matter, because they can just check where the work/management is performed, and then tax the company based on that.
 
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If you trigger a PE, your company is being taxes like a local one.

There's a minor distinction here:
Most high-tax countries tax the worldwide income of tax-resident companies and they have both PoEM rules (place of effective management) and PE (permanent establishment) rules.
If a company has its effective place of management in their country, the company is considered tax resident and has to pay tax in that country on its worldwide income.
if a company only has a PE in that country (but not its PoEM), it only pays tax on the income that can be linked to the PE.
But for a one-man company, there is no difference, obviously.
 
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