Regional alternatives to UAE since CIT 9%

[Checkmelater]

Hello!
In this thread we will talk about new destinations since UAE introduce 9% CIT or new setups
Thanks for sharing and your informations !

 

[JustAnotherNomad]

With UAE now charging 9% CIT, what are some alternatives for personal tax residency? What about KSA, Bahrain, Qatar?
Or is the UAE still a good option if you use some nominee director for your company? If so, where would you find that nominee?

 

[JohnLocke]

Personal tax residency, as far as I understand, you still don't pay any personal tax in Dubai ?

 

[Checkmelater]

Personal tax residency, as far as I understand, you still don't pay any personal tax in Dubai ?

0 income tax actually, but company benefits over 375K AED / year taxed 9%
I read on gulf news you can apply for ‘small business status’ If you make less than 3M AED Revenu / year
With small business status you pay 0% for 3 years
If I understand well: 800k profits but 2M AED revenu no tax for 3 years ?

Personally I’m looking for Qatar or KSA, real estate is really cheaper than Dubai, I’m Muslim so KSA is good option for me, Qatar also of course, Qatar seems to be more modern, this winter I will go KSA and Qatar InchAllah to make my opinion, I’ll share with you guys!

 

[JohnLocke]

9% corporate tax and 0% personal income tax should not stop you for your plans to relocate to the UAE in my opinion, but maybe someone else has downs for the UAE, don't know.

 

[JustAnotherNomad]

Personal tax residency, as far as I understand, you still don't pay any personal tax in Dubai ?

Passive income and salaries only. There is a major risk of any sort of gainful activity being subject to corporate income tax.
For example, a transparent US LLC would be subject to CIT if is deemed to have a PE in the UAE.

The same would apply if you receive a salary from some other foreign company.
Unless you have purely passive income, there's no way to escape the corporate tax.

Yes, there is no corporate tax up to 375k Dh, and there is small business relief for a couple of years, but I wouldn't want to even get involved with the authorities in the UAE.
There is no rule of law - who knows, maybe they will change their mind and remove the small business relief after a year instead of three.
Oh, you didn't know you have to file this form? 25k USD fine for you. It really doesn't make sense.

If you have to pay tax anyway, it's better to go for Malta or some other country with well-established rules and a decent court system.

If you want to go with the UAE (because it arguably has the highes quality of life of the GCC states), then the only viable option I see is using an offshore entity with some sort of nominee director. That should probably hold up at least for the next couple of years since they will be busy with brick&mortar companies serving local clients.
But it's still a risk, so I'm not sure if that actually makes sense.

 

[kekmaw]

Moldova could be a viable option with their special economic zones..

I just started reading about it so would be interesting to hear if anyone has any experience or intel about Moldova as an option.

I read this

Highlights

• 12% corporate tax rate
  • Can be reduced to 6% depending on the nature of the business and even to 0% for up to 5 years if you invest money into the country)
• Potentially no VAT

These two points alone would make it more beneficial than a UAE company alone for most people here.
I can't say for sure yet, but chances are that it's also cheaper to run one of these companies compared to a UAE company (as we all know are expensive, which was justified before with 0% tax but maybe not so much anymore).

Anyway, I don't know much about it yet but if anyone knows more, I'd like to hear it.

 

[Asmodeus]

Guys it's just 9% ON PROFIT and you don't have any income tax.
If you don't want to pay any taxes at all just get yourself a director from some third world country like india send him to the seychelles and co and pay him 500 Dollar a month.
Or just go with nominees. UAE is still wild west. Almost no one really knows what are the exact laws of the country. For the most questions not even a lawyer is helpful here especially if the question is related to business activities.