Start a Company In
Dubai from the UK

Dubai has become one of the most popular destinations for British founders and business owners — a ~7-hour flight, only a few hours ahead of UK time, English spoken everywhere, and a large, established British community. Since 2021, foreign investors can own 100% of a mainland company for most activities, and free zones have always allowed full ownership, so a UK founder needs no local partner. The headline draw is tax: no personal income tax on salary or dividends, corporate tax of 9% only on profits above AED 375,000 (0% for a Qualifying Free Zone Person's qualifying income), 5% VAT, and full repatriation of profits and capital. For those used to UK income-tax and dividend rates, the difference is substantial.

The UK-UAE corridor is well supported. A UK-UAE Double Taxation Convention has been in force since December 2016, helping avoid the same income being taxed twice, and the DIFC and ADGM operate under English common law with their own English-language courts — a familiar legal environment for British business. Most of the setup — licence, incorporation and even initial banking steps — can be handled remotely from the UK, with a short visit usually needed only for Emirates ID biometrics. The part that matters most on the UK side is tax residency: whether you remain UK-resident under HMRC's Statutory Residence Test (SRT) determines how UAE income is treated, and the April 2025 replacement of the non-dom/remittance basis with a residence-based regime has made getting this right more important than ever. Avyanco sets up the UAE company end-to-end and flags exactly where you should take UK tax advice, so the structure works on both sides.