We do not exit when complexity enters. We stand by our clients through every regulatory shift, audit, and challenge. Unwavering support is the foundation of our firm.
We use cookies to ensure our website functions properly and to understand how you interact with our site. Privacy Policy
Clear definitions of the terms that recur across international entity structuring, tax, compliance, and private wealth. Written for founders, directors, and advisors who need precision without the jargon.
40 terms · Reviewed September 2026
The building blocks of how a cross-border group is owned, held, and registered.
A separate legal entity created to isolate the financial and legal risk around a specific asset, transaction, or investment. Because its liabilities are ring-fenced from the parent, an SPV is commonly used to hold property, intellectual property, or a single line of business.
Corporate structuring insightsA company whose main purpose is to own shares in other companies rather than trade in its own right. A holding structure centralises ownership, can simplify governance across a group, and may allow qualifying dividends and gains to pass between companies efficiently.
Corporate structuring insightsA financial free zone in Abu Dhabi that runs its own common-law legal system and independent courts. ADGM is widely used for holding companies, funds, and family offices that want an English-language, common-law framework within the UAE.
Dubai company setup for UK residentsSee alsoDIFC, Free Zone Company
A company incorporated within a designated UAE economic zone that permits full foreign ownership and operates under the zone’s own licensing regime. Free zone entities are a common route for non-residents establishing a UAE presence.
Dubai company setup for UK residentsAn individual who ultimately owns or controls a UK company, typically by holding more than 25% of the shares or voting rights, or the right to appoint or remove directors. UK companies must identify their PSCs and record them at Companies House.
Companies House identity verificationThe official statutory address of a company, used for legal correspondence from the registrar, tax authority, and courts. It must be a genuine address in the jurisdiction of incorporation where documents can be delivered and acknowledged.
Global entity setupA financial free zone in Dubai with its own common-law courts and independent regulator, widely used for funds, family offices, and foundations. It runs a legal system separate from the wider UAE onshore framework.
Dubai company setup for UK residentsSee alsoADGM, Foundation
The Irish requirement that every company has at least one director resident in the European Economic Area. Where no director qualifies, the company must hold a statutory bond or show a real and continuous link to an activity in Ireland. Since Brexit a UK-resident director no longer satisfies the rule.
Ireland founder financeSee alsoRegistered Office
The principles that decide where profits are taxed when a business operates across more than one country.
The requirement that an entity claiming to be resident or active in a jurisdiction has genuine operations there, such as staff, premises, and decision-making, rather than existing only on paper. Substance rules determine whether a structure is respected for tax purposes.
Corporate structuring insightsA fixed place of business, or a dependent agent, through which a company carries on business in another country. Creating a PE can give that country the right to tax the profits attributable to it, even without a local company.
A foreign subsidiary whose profits may be attributed back to, and taxed in, the parent’s home country under anti-avoidance rules. CFC regimes are designed to stop profits being shifted into low-tax jurisdictions.
The test that decides which country has primary taxing rights over a company, usually based on where it is incorporated or where its central management and control sits. A company can be resident in more than one country, which double taxation agreements then resolve.
A treaty between two countries that allocates taxing rights and provides relief so the same income is not taxed twice. DTAs are central to structuring cross-border dividends, interest, royalties, and employment income.
The rules governing the price at which related companies in different countries transact with each other. Prices must reflect what independent parties would agree, the arm’s length principle, to prevent artificial profit shifting.
Tax deducted at source from cross-border payments such as dividends, interest, or royalties before they reach the recipient. The rate is often reduced by an applicable double taxation agreement.
A UK tax status for someone who is resident in the UK but treats another country as their permanent home. It has long affected how foreign income and gains are taxed, and it remains an area of active UK policy change.
Taxation strategy insightsSee alsoExcluded Property Trust
A UAE free zone entity that meets the conditions to benefit from a 0% corporate tax rate on its qualifying income. Keeping that status depends on adequate substance, audited accounts, and staying within the qualifying activity rules.
Dubai company setup for UK residentsSee alsoUAE Corporate Tax, Free Zone Company
The long-standing test that treats a company as tax resident where its real top-level decisions are actually made, rather than where it is registered. A founder who relocates but keeps controlling the company from the old country may not have moved its residence at all.
Corporate structuring insightsSee alsoCorporate Tax Residence, PE
The federal corporate tax the UAE introduced in 2023, applying to business profits with a standard rate, a small-business relief for lower turnovers, and a zero rate on qualifying free zone income. An in-scope company must register and file a return even when no tax is payable.
Dubai company setup for UK residentsSee alsoQFZP, Economic Substance
The controls that keep a regulated structure in good standing and transparent to authorities.
The framework of laws and controls that require regulated firms to detect and prevent the movement of illicit funds. AML obligations include customer due diligence, ongoing monitoring, and reporting suspicious activity.
Risk & governance insightsThe due-diligence process by which a regulated firm verifies a client’s identity, ownership, and source of funds before and during a relationship. KYC is the practical front line of anti-money-laundering compliance.
Risk & governance insightsThe natural person who ultimately owns or controls an entity, however many layers of ownership sit in between. Identifying the UBO is a core requirement of anti-money-laundering and corporate transparency regimes.
The UK requirement, introduced under the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023, for directors, PSCs, and those filing on behalf of companies to have their identity verified. Verification can be completed directly or through an Authorised Corporate Service Provider.
Companies House identity verificationA regulated firm authorised to form companies and trusts and to provide related administration, such as arranging directors, secretaries, and registered offices. TCSPs are supervised for anti-money-laundering purposes.
Risk & governance insightsEvidence of where the money for a specific transaction came from, such as a salary payment, a company distribution, or the proceeds of a sale. Regulated firms and banks ask for it before processing significant transactions.
Risk & governance insightsEvidence of how a person’s overall wealth was built over time, rather than where a single payment originated. Banks, regulators, and buyers in a transaction each test it in their own way, and the strongest files are assembled long before anyone asks.
Risk & governance insightsA deeper level of client checks applied where the risk is higher, for example with politically exposed persons or complex cross-border structures. It goes beyond standard verification to examine source of wealth and the purpose of the relationship.
Risk & governance insightsAn individual who holds or has held a prominent public position, together with their close associates and family members. Their profile calls for enhanced due diligence because of the higher risk of bribery or corruption.
A global framework under which financial institutions report account information to their tax authority, which then exchanges it automatically with other countries. In practice it means an account or structure in one jurisdiction is visible to the tax authority in another.
How individuals and families structure ownership for succession and long-term protection.
A legal arrangement in which a trustee holds and manages assets for the benefit of named beneficiaries under terms set by the person who created it. Trusts are used for succession, asset protection, and structured control of wealth across generations.
Private wealthSee alsoFoundation, PTC, Excluded Property Trust, Forced Heirship
The structured arrangement of an individual’s assets to provide for succession, reduce tax on transfer, and reflect their wishes on death or incapacity. Cross-border estates need the rules of each relevant jurisdiction to be coordinated.
Private wealth insightsSee alsoForced Heirship, Trust
Lawful structuring of ownership to reduce the exposure of personal or family wealth to future creditors, litigation, or political risk. It relies on legitimate separation of assets, not concealment.
Private wealthA private organisation that manages the investments, administration, and succession affairs of a single wealthy family or a small group of families. It coordinates the tax, legal, and reporting work that sits across the family’s entities and jurisdictions.
Private wealthSee alsoPTC, Foundation
A civil-law wealth-holding structure that owns assets in its own name for a defined purpose or set of beneficiaries, sitting between a company and a trust. Foundations in the DIFC and ADGM are widely used by families that want control and orderly succession without a traditional trust.
Private wealthA company a family owns to act as trustee of its own trusts, in place of an outside professional trustee. It gives the family control over trustee decisions, though that control carries its own tax residence and governance consequences.
Private wealthSee alsoTrust, Foundation, Family Office
A private company used to hold and grow family wealth, with different share classes allocated across generations. It is often compared with a trust as a way to pass value down while the founders retain a degree of control.
Private wealthSee alsoTrust, Family Office
A life insurance policy used as a wrapper to hold investments, so growth is taxed under insurance rules rather than as it arises. Its efficiency depends on the policyholder not personally selecting the underlying assets and on meeting each jurisdiction’s rules.
Private wealth insightsA trust holding assets that sit outside the reach of UK inheritance tax, historically used by non-domiciled individuals for foreign assets. Recent UK reform has narrowed when the protection applies, which makes the timing of any change important.
Private wealth insightsSuccession rules in many civil-law countries that reserve a fixed share of an estate for certain heirs, regardless of the will. Trust firewall legislation in centres such as the DIFC is designed to shield a trust from those claims.
Private wealth insightsSee alsoTrust, Estate Planning
A director will review your enquiry and respond to scope the work and next steps.