Strategy grounded in what you can actually defend.
Compliance tells you what you owe. Advisory tells you how to structure so the answer is the right one next year too, before a transaction closes, not after.
Overview
The UAE's tax landscape is still settling. Corporate Tax arrived in 2023, the domestic minimum top-up tax followed for large multinational groups, and guidance continues to develop. Decisions taken now (where an entity sits, how a group is financed, which licence holds which activity) will determine your effective rate for years.
Our advisory work is deliberately conservative. We don't build structures that depend on an aggressive reading holding up. We build ones that survive scrutiny, because a position you have to defend twice has already cost more than it saved.
Most engagements start with a specific question, such as a new entity, an acquisition, a group reorganisation or a Pillar Two exposure, and end with a documented position your auditor and your board can both sign off.
What's included
Every engagement is scoped to what you actually need. This is the full range we cover:
Who this is for
Groups expanding into or out of the UAE, businesses approaching a transaction, multinationals within Pillar Two scope, and boards wanting an independent view on an existing position.
The domestic minimum top-up tax applies a 15% effective minimum to large multinational groups meeting the consolidated revenue threshold. Most groups discover the difficulty isn't the calculation; it's that the data the calculation needs was never collected. Readiness work starts well before the first filing.
How the engagement runs
- Scoping. We define the question precisely, because most structuring failures start with the wrong question being answered well.
- Analysis. Options modelled against the legislation, the guidance and the commercial reality, including the option of changing nothing.
- Recommendation. A written position with the reasoning, the risks and the evidence needed to support it.
- Implementation. We work alongside your legal and corporate service providers so the paperwork matches the position on file.
Where advisory usually pays for itself
| Trigger | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Setting up a new entity | Licence and location choices are difficult to unwind later |
| Group revenue nearing the Pillar Two threshold | Top-up tax obligations require data you may not currently collect |
| Acquiring a UAE business | Historic tax exposure transfers with the shares |
| Intercompany financing | Pricing and deductibility are both commonly challenged |
| Free-zone qualifying income at risk | Losing the status can affect multiple tax periods |
Advisory, answered.
The questions we're asked most often on this service.
Only if you are part of a multinational group with consolidated revenue at or above the EUR 750 million threshold in at least two of the four preceding years. If that is you, a 15% effective minimum applies and the real work is data rather than tax: gathering entity level figures your existing reporting was never built to produce. If it is not you, we will tell you so in one sentence and move on. Most UAE businesses are not in scope, and the answer should not cost you a project to find out.
It depends on who your customers are, not on the headline rate. A free zone entity can access the 0% rate on qualifying income, but only while it holds adequate substance, sticks to qualifying activities, keeps non qualifying revenue inside the de minimis limit, meets transfer pricing requirements and produces audited financial statements. Income from mainland customers is generally not qualifying, so a business selling into the UAE market often finds the 0% rate does not reach the revenue it actually earns. We model both structures against your real revenue mix before recommending either, including the cost of maintaining the substance the free zone route requires.
Yes, and we are asked to do this regularly. We will review the position, the reasoning behind it and the evidence supporting it, then tell you plainly whether it holds. If the advice is sound we will say so, which is a perfectly good outcome and the one we reach most often. Where we disagree, we set out why and what the alternative would be, so you can take it back to your existing adviser rather than being forced to switch. Second opinions are scoped as a defined piece of work before we start.
Yes. We handle applications for both the Tax Residency Certificate and the Commercial Activities Certificate through the FTA portal, including assembling the supporting evidence: audited financial statements, lease or tenancy documentation, bank statements and proof of physical presence. Most refusals come down to incomplete substance evidence rather than ineligibility, so we check the file will stand up before submitting rather than after a rejection.
Find out where you stand.
It takes less than 30 minutes.
A call to review your obligations across tax, VAT, audit and reporting. We flag anything at risk and give you a clear next step. If you don't need us, we'll tell you that too.