Market Intelligence

A family office in the DIFC or ADGM runs the family's wealth; it does not hold it. It is a taxable service company at 9%, its fee income does not reach the free zone 0% rate, and because it is where the decisions are made it is the entity most exposed to UK tax residence if the principal runs it from London.

Moving to Dubai does not make the sale of a business or crypto tax-free. What makes the gain free of UK tax is the sequence: becoming non-resident before the disposal, staying non-resident for more than five years, and not selling through a UAE company the UK still controls or whose value was built in the UK.

A DIFC or ADGM foundation is an orphan legal person, neither a company nor a trust, and the structure families reach for once the offshore trust became settlor-transparent in 2025. For a UK-resident founder it does not escape the settlements code or inheritance tax by itself.

Since 6 April 2025 the offshore settlor-interested trust is transparent for income tax and capital gains tax, and its non-UK assets sit inside UK inheritance tax while the settlor is a long-term UK resident. The question left is whether to keep, collapse, or re-home it.

The first UAE Corporate Tax return for a calendar-year entity is due by 30 September 2026, and the transfer-pricing disclosure sits inside it. A management fee or intercompany loan to a UK holding company that lacks contemporaneous benchmarking is exposed the moment the return is filed.

Holding a Dubai property through an ADGM or DIFC SPV was the standard way to avoid the 4% transfer fee. Since UAE corporate tax arrived, that wrapper is a taxable juridical person: its rental income and gains are taxed at 9% above AED 375,000, where the same property held in personal name is outside corporate tax.

A UK founder who moves to Dubai, sells a business or crypto while non-resident, then returns within five years can find the supposedly tax-free gain pulled back into UK capital gains tax on return. The temporary non-residence rules (Finance Act 2013) are mechanical, and split-year treatment does not switch them off.

A UAE Golden Visa gives you the right to live in Dubai. It does not, on its own, make you a UAE tax resident, and it gives you no protection from HMRC. Tax residency is a separate test run by the Federal Tax Authority, and a treaty certificate needs 183 days in the country, not just a visa in your passport.