UK contractors and consultants moving to Dubai

A contractor on a good day rate has the most to gain from a clean move and the most to lose from a messy one. The structure is simple. The traps sit in the details: UK workdays during the transition, a UK limited company left running with decisions still taken in the UK, a client contract that assumes you are on site in London.

We do this from the UK side as much as the UAE side. Company, visa and bank in Dubai; departure year, IR35 position and company residence in the UK.

See the difference on your day rate: the UK vs Dubai take-home calculator →

Who it's for

• IT, engineering, finance and change contractors with UK end clients
• Management and specialist consultants billing day rates or projects
• Contractors with a UK limited company who need to decide what happens to it
• Couples where one contracts and the other is employed or moving later
• Anyone on a UK contract who wants to know whether the client will accept an offshore supplier

What's included

• Free zone company or freelance permit: a recommendation on your contracts and plans
• Company formation, residence visa, Emirates ID and business bank account
• Family visas, if your spouse and children are coming
• Your Statutory Residence Test plan, including UK workdays and the departure date
• Where the company is run from, so it stays outside UK corporation tax
• Your UK limited company: keep, close or leave dormant, and the timing
• How you pay yourself from the UAE company once you are non-resident

Free zone company or freelance permit

Both give you a UAE residence visa. They differ in what you contract through and what you can grow into.

Working for UK clients from Dubai

You can bill UK clients from a UAE company. Most UK contracts are written for a UK supplier, so check four things before you resign: whether the client or agency accepts a non-UK supplier, whether the contract requires on-site days in the UK, which law governs it, and how VAT works on the invoice. A UK business client buying services from abroad usually accounts for the UK VAT itself under the reverse charge, so your invoice does not carry UK VAT.

On-site days in the UK matter twice. They count toward your UK days and ties under the Statutory Residence Test, and UK income tax can reach pay for work done in the UK even once you are non-resident. Write the UK days into the contract before you sign it.

IR35 once you live in Dubai

The off-payroll rules (GOV.UK: IR35) only matter where you would owe UK income tax and National Insurance on the work. Once you are non-UK resident and doing the work in Dubai, that liability usually falls away for those days, so a status determination often has nothing to bite on. Two things keep it alive: years in which you are still UK resident, including the part of the departure year before you leave, and days worked in the UK. Some end clients still run a status check on every supplier or refuse offshore contractors as policy, so ask early.

Where your company is run from

A company incorporated in the UK stays UK resident for corporation tax wherever its directors live. A UAE company becomes UK resident if its central management and control sits in the UK, meaning the strategic decisions get made here (HMRC International Manual; our explainer). For a one-person consultancy that comes down to where you are when you sign contracts, set rates, borrow and decide what the company does next.

This is why a UK limited company left running after the move is a problem: it stays inside UK corporation tax, and paying yourself from it brings UK tax back with you (running a UK business from Dubai). We plan when to stop billing through it and what to do with any money left inside it before it closes.

Your departure year and the Statutory Residence Test

Your UK tax on Dubai earnings stops when you become non-resident under the Statutory Residence Test, usually part-way through a tax year under split-year treatment. Contractors trip on three things: UK workdays during a handover, a UK home kept available, and the first summer back. Check where you stand with the residency checker and plan your UK days with the day-count tool.

For scale: as at October 2026, UK dividends are taxed at 10.75%, 35.75% and 39.35% after a £500 allowance (GOV.UK), and income tax reaches 45% above £125,140 (GOV.UK). The UAE has no personal income tax, and UAE corporate tax is 9% on taxable profits above a threshold.

If you stay employed instead

Some contractors move as employees of a non-UAE company. The UAE virtual work visa lets you live in the UAE while working for an employer outside it; as at October 2026 the government portal asks for proof of that work and a salary certificate of at least USD 3,500 a month (u.ae). A UK employer may keep running UK payroll unless the position is handled, so this route needs the UK side planned as much as the company route does.

How it works

1. Discovery call

   Your contracts, clients, day rate, family, UK company and the date you want to go.

   Typical timing: Week 1

2. Plan

   Company or permit, free zone, departure date, UK days, and what happens to your UK company. The UK tax plan is reviewed by a UK Chartered Tax Adviser.

   Typical timing: Weeks 1 to 2

3. Company and licence

   Application filed and licence issued.

   Typical timing: Typically 1 to 5 working days once documents are ready

4. Visa, Emirates ID and bank

   Residence visa and Emirates ID, then the business bank account.

   Typical timing: Typically 5 to 7 weeks together

5. Switch billing

   New contracts or novations to the UAE company, UK company wound down on the agreed timetable.

   Typical timing: From your departure date

Official sources, as at October 2026: GOV.UK: off-payroll working (IR35); HMRC: RDR3, the Statutory Residence Test; HMRC International Manual: company residence; u.ae: virtual work visa; u.ae: Green visa. Rules and thresholds change; we confirm the current position for your case before you act. This page is general guidance, not personal tax or legal advice.