Case studiesPersonal and BusinessIllustrative example
Relocating a founder without breaking the company
A founder wanted to relocate to Dubai while the company stayed in the UK. Done carelessly, the move either keeps them UK-resident or drags the company's management abroad with them.
630GBP k / year
tax saved on dividends
- Client
- E-commerce founder moving from the UK to the UAE
- Countries
- UK · AE
- Timeline
- Typically four to six months before the move, then ongoing.
The situation
The founder owned all of a profitable UK trading company and planned to move to the UAE with their family, drawing around GBP 1.6m a year in dividends.
Their calendar, a UK home they intended to keep, and board meetings they chaired from London all pointed towards them staying UK-resident under the statutory residence test. The five-year temporary non-residence rule meant a return too early would bring the dividends back into charge.
What we did
- 1Mapped the founder's ties and day counts against the UK statutory residence test and planned a clean split year.
- 2Moved board governance to UK-based directors so central management and control stayed where the company is resident.
- 3Set up UAE residency, a tax residency certificate and a banking file that would stand up to review.
- 4Timed distributions around the departure date and built a five-year plan around the temporary non-residence rule.
The outcome
Dividends that would have been taxed at 39.35% in the UK are received while non-resident, about GBP 630k a year on current distributions.
The company's UK position is unchanged, and the founder has a day-count calendar Guard tracks every year.
Completed engagements are marked as such; examples marked "Illustrative" show how a typical situation is handled and are not client results. Names, sectors, figures and timings are generalised or omitted so that no client is identifiable. Every result depends on that client's facts. Nothing here predicts what your position would produce, and nothing here is advice.
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