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Offshore company setup - Drop shipping / SAAS - UAE?

billybobs

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Mar 18, 2021
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I would appreciate any advice / help on the following -

Myself, wife and 6 year old are all currently UK residents and live in the UK with 1 property we live in (current home) currently owned outright (and could be transferred to a company), My work is all online (drop shipping / SAAS) and so we have no reason to stay in the UK, apart from to see family.

Im looking to possibly setup in UAE including free zone companies and residency for us all. We obviously want to come back to the UK to see family, we could rent our current home from the company who would own it. How many days can we return to the UK for visiting family? what are my options?

My idea is to make as much money online using the UAE setup with 0% tax rate (company and personal) and then return back to the UK to live permanently in approx 2-3 years time and use the tax free money I’ve made. Is this possible? Or will I have tax liabilities?

My other option is setup UAE free zone companies and residency (or similar offshore), but keep the UK as my main residency and live the majority of the time in the UK, obviously any personal income we received would be UK taxed, but the majority would be held in offshore (UAE) companies. The companies could have myself as a minority share holder, a director from another country as a shareholder and the rest / majority of the shares held in a trust by my family. Any other ideas?

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We have around 100 separate e-commerce sites (drop shipping) (each site is doing approx $5k a month, but this is growing very fast) they sell standard things (clothes, house stuff etc). Ideally I was thinking of settings up a few offshore companies and bank accounts (Dominica, UAE etc in some sort of trust setup with another director so I only own a small % of the company and effectively don’t control it with the rest of my family in the trust) and money can finally be held here. The banks that have the money must obviously be very reliable. For large purchases in the future (houses, cars etc), I would use these companies to buy.

Ideally I don’t want to have my name directly linked to the payment processors for each site or the bank accounts the payment processors pay into. I was thinking of using several companies and hire directors for each in different countries? This would stop having all my sites linked to 1 payment processor and limit risk of holds etc. When payments are made from the payment processors to the banks, I would then pay suppliers etc and transfer the rest to my offshore accounts in the UAE, Dominica etc for ‘advertising costs / management fees’.

Is this the best solution or this there a better way?
Is it possible to hire directors / setup new companies in other countries?
Im hoping for reliable payment processors such as stripe.

Other companies we have (and plan a similar setup as above), are 3 software companies SAAS. Each company is turning over approx $100k a month and growing fast and we need recurring credit card processors (stripe etc).
- I would like to convert some of the money from the domainca / caymans / hired director bank accounts to crypto.
- I would like to be able to use cards in the UK from the money in the caymans / Dominica.
Any suggestions or idea for the best setup? Does anyone see any issues with the above?

ThankYou
 
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How many days can we return to the UK for visiting family?

See the lovely flow diagram below


My idea is to make as much money online using the UAE setup with 0% tax rate (company and personal) and then return back to the UK to live permanently in approx 2-3 years time and use the tax free money I’ve made. Is this possible? Or will I have tax liabilities?

See the above flow diagram

My other option is setup UAE free zone companies and residency (or similar offshore), but keep the UK as my main residency and live the majority of the time in the UK, obviously any personal income we received would be UK taxed, but the majority would be held in offshore (UAE) companies. The companies could have myself as a minority share holder, a director from another country as a shareholder and the rest / majority of the shares held in a trust by my family. Any other ideas?

HMRC tax distributed and undistributed income of offshore companies controlled by UK residents as if the company did not exist and income was personally earned by the UK resident. In your case you will be shown as UBO at the bank level unless you plan on not telling the bank you are the UBO. CRS will then take care of the reporting of that fact back to HMRC. Moving plan sounds a lot better.


Ok so basically do the residency test above and see if you ties are cut with UK. Relocate to a Dubai if thats where you feel comfortable and run your businesses from there.
 
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in todays world it may be one of the only options there are for small setups without substance, isn't that true?

Yes especially when easy relocation options exist :D