Welcome to Taxbytes for Expats, the top tax tips

you want to know as an expat. The podcast is here to help

answer the common queries and concerns expats have when moving

to or from Ireland. Complex taxes explained

simply. We'll focus on the Irish and international

tax issues to be aware of to ensure you save time,

money, and stress. Hi,

everyone. Thanks for joining us today. The topic today

is about the tax issues that people think about or

consider when they're moving to Dubai. And we

are very happy to be joined today by Shiraz

Waheed, who's an ex Deloitte qualified accountant and who over the

past 5 years has consulted with entrepreneurs and businesses

from around the world and help them to relocate to Dubai. The aim

really of their moves is to eliminate the tax burden. Shiraz

focuses on his proprietary Dubai zero tax

blueprint process, which has been responsible for helping 100 of

entrepreneurs achieve the financial freedom they want and to

live a somewhat location independent lifestyle. Shiraz, thank you very

much for joining us. I hope that intro did you justice. It sounds like

you've been busy over the last 5 years. Hi, Steph. Yeah. Thank

you for the kind introduction, and thank you for inviting me, to your

show. Indeed, you have understood correct. Things happen

busy, especially, we have seen an upward trend

after COVID in 2019, 2020 when people were

stuck with local restrictions of COVID, and they

tried to figure out, okay, what are the alternates? Where can we live? And

then, Dubai suddenly picked up. It it was already

the zero tax solution was already working quite well. But from

a living perspective, when people try to figure out what are the

alternates, you know, that's where, Dubai came in.

That gives you the residency freedom. So, like, you can live wherever you want,

including Dubai, or you want to travel around while your company and your

personal tax residency are stationed in Dubai and optimized

in a way that is minimal tax or almost zero tax.

Wow. Okay. Very interesting. Before we jump into that, tell

us a little bit about yourself, Shiraz. What led you to a career

in tax? And where did you train? Obviously, with Deloitte. Tell us a little

bit about yourself and what kind of led you to this this this career path.

Yeah. So I was always interested in business and finance, and I am

a member of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants in UK.

So that was kind of the foundation of my professional background.

And then, obviously, I started with a smaller firm in Dubai, worked

there for 2 2 or 3 years, and then started in Deloitte, my

practice. And then in Deloitte, interesting thing is that my

job in Deloitte was to help international companies move their

regional headquarters in Dubai and Saudi Arabia. So

I've worked firsthand with half a $2,000,000,000

companies moving their regional headquarters to Dubai and all the

things that comes with it, including, you know, the local taxes, the

international taxes, the transfer pricing matters that comes with them.

It it really gave me the insight of, how these

kinds of corporate restructurings can help you optimize your taxes.

And then, obviously, when I decided to start my own firm

and my own business and started an offering, it was really important that I

offer something that I can believe in and that can benefit a

wider range of, client base. Obviously, like, offering

local accounting services could have been one thing, but going through

this route, educating people on using the UAE

residency and corporate route can help you optimize

taxes in such a manner has been quite beneficial for myself and

for my clients to the result that I have since the start

of Setup Hero. I've already contested exit taxation

in around 20 countries, including Australia,

Canada, Spain, UK, Ireland, Germany, most of

Europe. Obviously, like, I'm not a tax expert in

all of these jurisdictions, of course, Ireland. But what we do

is, we work with local tax consultants, tax

lawyers like yourself, and we create a holistic plan where we are

properly making sure that you exit your tax system

in a way that your tax authority does not comes after you in putting taxes

while you have successfully become a non tax resident in your home country.

Mhmm. At the same time, making sure that we have installed a

robust structure in Dubai that take cares of your

personal taxation and your company taxation. And all the

income that goes into it remains, as I said, either

minimal tax or in many cases, 0 tax. Yeah. So I think

there's probably 2 questions I wanna ask. What

does living in Dubai look like for most of your clients? Do

the majority of your clients physically reside in Dubai? Do they

have properties there? Tell us what that looks like. Yeah.

So the trend that we have is 5050. So half of our

clients, they move to Dubai. They buy properties that they

are personally living in. Their families are there. The children are going to school in

Dubai. And the other half of the clients who have made Dubai their tax

base and their business headquarters and they're traveling or living

somewhere else or traveling the rest of the year. And it really comes down to

how you are structuring your residencies. So

but when you're moving to Dubai, that's, like, very straightforward. You just

go to your home country, cancel your tax residency. Everything has been moved

to Dubai. That's your center of life. That's where you live. That's your

businesses. And the tax is quite straightforward. In that case, mostly

what people do is they they would travel in the summer because

May, June, July, it becomes quite hot in Dubai. Mhmm. So they would probably

travel back to their home country to to meet the parents, to meet the family,

maybe in UK, Ireland, Canada, wherever they are. And, of course, they

again travel in the winter during the Christmas and the

New Year holidays. So that's the lifestyle that they maintain

if they're moving permanently Dubai. However,

some people would prefer to go and explore other cultures,

and they don't want to live full time in Dubai. And in that case, they

really want to have the safety of the Dubai banking system, the connectivity of

the Dubai's business environment throughout the world.

So what they can do is they would select a territorial jurisdiction

to live in. So a territorial jurisdiction would be that the

the the count the country will tax you if your income is coming from

inside the country Mhmm. But not if the income is coming from outside the

country. So you need to find a territorial system that would include,

let's say, moving to Indonesia or Thailand or Malaysia.

So in that case, your business's income is generated in Dubai. You're

personally living in one of these countries with the territorial tax system.

I've seen clients go to Turkey, South America. In Europe,

they have a a few other countries that have tax

breaks for expats. Mhmm. So in Spain, there's a thing called Beckham

Law that gives you, like, 5 or 6 years of tax break. So you can

structure in that way. Bulgarian tax residencies and low tax

jurisdiction. There is a lump sum taxation in in Italy.

But mostly, if you are relocating somewhere in Europe, it on a

personal basis, there is some sort of taxation involved. But

then it becomes, you know, a personal choice. Like, if you don't want to live

full time in Dubai, then it comes down to, okay, how we can

minimize the taxes instead of completely eliminating it.

As I said, half of them move to Dubai full time and then half of

them live in other countries or travel the world. And I suppose,

it's probably important then I ask the question in the context of

individuals, but you've alluded to the fact that you sometimes help corporates

shift their tax residency and I suppose from an Irish perspective both

an individual and a company can have a residency from a tax

perspective. I suppose, or I'd imagine from a Dubai

perspective, it it's it's similar. So if you see people

shifting the corporate entities to

Dubai, it's likely that they are also carrying

out the majority of control or management of those businesses

from Dubai, notwithstanding the fact that they might travel for some of the year. Is

that is that right? Or how does that work practically if somebody's living in

Indonesia, but but they have a Dubai entity? The thing is,

if you are talking about specifically from from a island perspective, there

is a double taxation treaty between United Arab Emirates and

Ireland. And then the corporate tax residency of a

company is governed by that tax treaty. And the

main thing that comes into the tax treaty is the permanent establishment, the

majority of ownership control, and, where the revenues are

mainly being generated. So, depending on how

the corporate is structured or the subsidiary is structured and then

how the double taxation treaty is being implemented.

However, in a practical circumstances, if you have

opened a company in Dubai and the central management is still

residing in Ireland, there is a high chances that that

company is deemed as a CFC or a controlled foreign corporation. So

you you might not be able to fully benefit from the UAE Ireland

double tax exchange treaty, and then you have to declare and pay taxes

in Ireland. Mhmm. Yeah. So majority of our work consists

that we make sure that our client is also becoming a non tax

resident in their home country. And I think that's an important point for

people listening who maybe are planning to go to Dubai

or are there is that generally tax

follows where value is created and value

or profit is generally created where the people are.

So if we have an entity that is for all intents and

purposes being run and controlled and managed

from Ireland, it it's difficult to argue that it it has shifted its

residency to a different jurisdiction. So, yeah, it sounds like that's where

you guys provide support to kind of help navigate that and help people

understand the intricacies of of how these rules work. And

they're complicated and I suppose it often depends on what's being done and by who,

but it it matters in the context of of the type of planning you're

alluding to. So for you Shiraz, what are

the benefits? And I know tax is gonna be higher than this. What are the

benefits of of people and companies going to Dubai? You

mentioned earlier, you know, the banking system, but I think listeners would be keen to

hear why Dubai as as as a as an answer from

you. Yeah. So, Stephen, that's a very good question.

And sometimes it depends on the tax that that comes on

the numb on the top of the list. But then there are quite a few

secondary reasons, and then it depends on a personal preference

that a person choose to move to Dubai out of those secondary reasons.

So if I want to list down a few, obviously, from a

tax perspective, you have 0% taxation. So

there's no salary tax, income tax, capital gain, or

profit or dividend tax, no tax on crypto or forex,

tradings or personal investments, and no tax on rental incomes,

dividend income. So, really, whatever you make in your personal name is zero

tax. Okay? In terms of the corporate side, one of the

lowest tax jurisdictions with 9% corporate tax. And then if you

are qualified for a small business relief, even that becomes a

0% in terms of the corporate tax. So there there are

the the tax is obviously on the top of the list. Then comes the

corporate and the banking structure because it is a jurisdiction

that needs to be able to do business throughout the world because our

clients come from all over the world. So it has to work with the

European Union. It has to work with the UK system, the US,

the IRS. So we need to make sure that the banking system

and the corporate system is globally respected. You know? It's

not something that goes into blacklist of countries. There

are some island nations where you can open zero tax

companies, but then the banking is very difficult.

Is very difficult because of the they're, like, they're called noncooperative

jurisdictions. So the thing that comes with Dubai

is that the banking system is very smooth. You can open multiple

currency accounts. Let's say you are someone from Australia, then you can do all your

business in Australian dollars while being in Dubai. At

same time, if you are from Europe, then you can do in euro.

The flow of money is very easy. You know, there are not much restrictions. Of

course, you have to give a robust KYC to your banks that

you have to prove that you are doing a genuine business and this is your

expertise and this is your website and products and these are your clients and

suppliers. But once you have given substantial evidence to your

bank that you are doing a genuine business, the general flow of

funds, the operations of the banking becomes very smooth, especially when you are

dealing with international fund transfers. And investors who come

to Dubai, you know, they're bringing their savings to buy properties or do

investments to the tune of 1,000,000 of dollars maybe in a single transaction

and the banking system in Dubai that allows you to do such transactions.

So that's the second part, the corporate and the banking structure.

Now from a personal perspective, we we usually see young

entrepreneurs move to Dubai on for the networking effect of

things because, it it's become a cluster

of highly successful entrepreneurs to be in Dubai. So they they they

meet here, they network here, they they create partnerships. And I've seen

literally seen my client business jump to 4

or 5 times in revenue just in 1 year because of the

partnerships and the networks that they were able to develop as a result of

moving to Dubai. For networking and you find people in your industry

and really the people who are winning in your industry because, generally, people who

move to Dubai, they have a criteria that they are winning. There's

someone making a substantial amount of income that

that invites a substantial amount of tax, And as a result, that motivates

them to move out of their home country and to benefit from the tax

system of Dubai. So that's one thing. In terms of culture, it's a

very multicultural city. Probably, like, more with more than 50

countries are being represented here. English is is a

very widely spoken language, so you don't have to learn any

local region language in order to work in Dubai. So most

of the expats that come, they don't have a language barrier because

English is a generally spoken language in the community as well as in the

government offices. Apart from that, from a safety

perspective, it's also classified as one of the most

safest city in the world. So depending on where you're coming from,

what's your background is, you know, but sometimes our

clients feel that, okay. I think our families or and

we feel much safer while living in Dubai as compared to where we are coming

from. But, obviously, that's not always the case. I understand there are

also many generally safer cities around the world, but it

does gives you a sense of security. It is classified as

the top one of the top three safest cities for expats who are who

are relocating abroad. Yeah. There's a lot plenty there. And you've

given, like, practical things too, you know? Great to kind of be able to

set up a company or have a business in your jurisdiction. But I suppose if

it's safe and, you know, it's it's easy to integrate because

there's lots of different nationalities and English is a spoken language, that goes a

long way to making practically viable. In terms

of that entry for somebody, so perhaps a listener in

Ireland who has a successful business, a lot of businesses are online

now and digital. They can potentially be quite,

easily moved to a different jurisdiction. What's it like and how does it

work if you want to set up a company in Dubai? Talk us through what

that looks like practically. Probably the digital

based businesses are the best suited for the service that we

offer because, again, they they're not required to be present in

their own country. The business is not required to be in that country.

So usually, these are service based businesses, ecommerce

businesses, coaching, consulting businesses, or software

development and marketing agencies and stuff. In terms of the process

of walking you through how it looks like in terms of just moving the

business from the home country, let's say, Ireland to Dubai, we

would be setting up a company in the UAE, most probably in

a free zone establishment. And then using that company,

we will issue a residence visa or a general manager visa for

the owner of that company to come to Dubai and acquire a

residence. And it's a very easy process. It's a fast process. The

residency success rate is very high because the government

itself wants to promote entrepreneurs coming to Dubai. So

the the residency and the immigration process is very easy, and it's also very

easy to maintain your residency. However, the second step, as I said, the first step

is to set up the company. The second step is to acquire a residency.

And then once that residency is acquired, we can open local banks in

Dubai and some of the international banks and payment processing

like,

and some of them would prefer, like, online checkouts for Shopify

or ecommerce integrations and stuff. So depending on what

your business payment requirements are and the currency requirement is also

very important. So some of the clients are quite comfortable just shifting to the

local currency or the US dollar is quite prevalent. So we just

open them a US dollar payment account, a payment gateway that works

in USD and a bank account that works in USD, and that's kind of it.

But some people, they really prefer to continue the transactions in their

original currency, let's say, euro and Canadian dollar and stuff.

So we we look at what type of payment solution is required.

And then because it's a location independent business, you can

continue invoicing your clients wherever they are from your

UAE company. And just as an example that, you know, if you have a

marketing agency in the UK, it does not stops you from

bringing onboard clients from the US or the or Canada

or Middle East. It's the same. Like, if you are doing a logo design service

company or a software development company, you can sell your software anywhere

in the world. And then, you know, just you you just have to invoice your

client from the the company that you're headquartered in, and that would be in

Dubai. That all sounds nice and straightforward, which really is what a lot of people

are looking for when they initiate moves like this, which are a big life move.

In terms of day to day life in Dubai, our business hours,

similar to what we're used to here in Europe. Yeah. Talk us through

kind of what day to day life is like and how it differs maybe from

life in rainy Ireland? Yeah. So of of course, from

a business hours perspective, we used to have a weekend as

Friday, and Sunday used to be a working day. So, you know, throughout

my corporate life at Deloitte, when we were working with

clients in the US, UK, Europe, right, it it used to be a

very surprising thing. Oh, you guys worked on Sunday. But last year

from, I think, 1st January 2023, we were able to,

like, shift our weekend from Friday to Sunday. So that's kind

of a a relief that now the working days and the working hours are

quite normal to the global norms, with a very

specific exception of the holy month of Ramadan. That's

usually around April or May every year. And, of course, the dates

change, but the work really slows down. In that month,

the government hours, the working hours changes substantially,

like almost 50%, for all the employees. And,

of course, that's like a local cultural norm, so you get adopted

to that. In terms of day to day life, of course, from a from

a rainy winter style lifestyle

where you are probably, you know, wearing 6 layers of

clothing when you go out. Mhmm. In Dubai,

it's almost like one layer of clothing that you can wear throughout the year.

And in terms of the weather, I know Dubai is famous for hot weather, but

but it's really like a few months, I would say. From May, June,

July until August that it's really difficult to go

outside. And then most of the time, you're indoors in the air

condition, and that sometimes become a negative for families with

children and dogs who wants to go out and play. But then you

try to schedule your vacations in those months. However,

as soon as August, September starts, there's a very stable

weather throughout the year until March, April when you are

going out. It's not very hot. It's not very cold. It's a very pleasant weather

that you will experience. In terms of nature,

it's mostly focused towards the sea and the deserts and

the mountains. So maybe not as green nature

as focused as what we see in Europe. Of course, we do have

hiking tracks and, you know, green belts. But

really on a day to day perspective, people usually

navigate towards the sea. And you see a contrast

in the two sides of, cultures or living

environment, and both have their own advantages and, I would

say, disadvantages. It depends on your perspective as well. Things

become very easy in Dubai because of the how the

systems work, how the services are there. But,

again, like, if you get too accustomed, then you might also become a lazy

person. You

know? Yeah. You're you're selling it though, Shiraz. I I can see why it's

become such a popular location. One of the next questions

people are going to have naturally is how can you help

them? How do they contact you? And what does working with

you look like? I'd imagine that's naturally what people are gonna

ask. So the first step of working with me

is like going to my web site, that's set up hero.com, and

then booking an initial consultation call with myself. And then we

will look at a few things, including the the business,

the the personal residency side of things, the clients, the customers.

And, really, we need to establish, is it possible for you to relocate

your business and to have benefit from the tax free

lifestyle? That would be the initial purpose of the

call. And then once that is established, what we do is a series

of workshop that that's called map your exit workshop,

and that workshop will be with myself and one of the tax

partners in your home country. So if it's in Ireland, most

probably it would be with Stephanie that we look to all your

personal and corporate taxation side of things. And in the map of

map your exit stage, we map out, okay, when is the best

time to set up your company abroad? When is the best time to move yourself?

When do we stop trading in your home country? And when is the

best time to declare you a nontax resident in your home country?

And then we will also map out what are the documents and the requirements that

we need to fulfill to achieve that goal. So that would be the map your

exit stage. That's the mini workshop that we conclude. It's a 1 on 1

workshop. And then based on that, we create we come up with a

plan, and then we start executing. And the execution is basically,

setting up the company in Dubai, setting up the residencies, making sure that your

exit plan is going well, and then eventually declaring you a non

tax resident for the tax authorities in your home country. And then you are settled

in Dubai and operating your personal and business life from Dubai.

And that's kind of the first phase of the project. But but, of course, as

you start operating, we also provide ongoing support to make

sure that you are compliant in both the countries. It's so important.

I mean, from an Irish perspective, you know, we work with a lot of clients

who they want to migrate their personal and business

lives outside of Ireland. And then there's generally, and I know we've had a

podcast on your own very successful podcast show, Sure Oz, where we've

spoken about that. But for anybody who didn't catch that episode, I suppose the

distillation of it from an Irish perspective is firstly, you

know, as an individual, how many days are you going to have in Ireland,

post departure? Is this a move, or is it just

essentially a transient departure from Ireland with frequent

returns? You know, we're counting days. And then we're also

looking at, depending on how long you're gone for, what connections

you've retained with Ireland. And that's when we start looking at the treaty, which

can be helpful in some instances. So really

from an Irish perspective, this move needs to be navigated carefully

because an individual is moving to a very

low or a non tax jurisdiction from a high tax,

from an individual perspective jurisdiction. So there's obviously anti

avoidance that we have enshrined in our own domestic law. It's

designed to prevent people affecting these moves purely for

tax avoidance purposes. And that's what I think a trained

professional, both here in Ireland and Dubai will help you navigate,

is how to navigate a move and avoid pitfalls that can

can can catch anybody really because it is complicated. And like

everything to do with tax, it's always down to the circumstances and the desire

of the individual. There's no one fit all approach. It's really about

working with somebody who can help you achieve your objectives. And it sounds

that's exactly what your company does, Shiraz. I

think any of our listeners who are considering a

move will be have been able to glean quite a lot from what you've shared

today. Thank you so much. I I say this to most of our guests, but

I I always end episodes thinking that we we need to do another because

there's probably lots more we could have spoken about. We'll

have your website in the show notes, but it's set up

hero.com, and I'm sure people can find you on LinkedIn if they wanna

connect there. Thank you so much for joining us and and giving us

the time to share your insights with the people who are listening. Thank you,

Stephanie. It was a pleasure speaking to you, and it was a pleasure connecting with

your audience through this podcast. Yeah.

Thanks for listening to Taxbytes for Expats. Please do leave a

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always, remember to take take professional tax advice specific

to your personal circumstances before acting or refraining from

action in connection with the matters dealt with in this series.

The material in this podcast is intended to give general guidance

only.