Short answer
Relocation is rarely the move of a single company number. Usually you form a Dubai entity and close or restructure the old one. This briefing lines up the home and Dubai tracks.
This is an orientation answer, not advice for an individual case.
“We are moving the company to Dubai” sounds like one act. In practice there are at least two: you form an entity under DET or a free zone, and you decide what happens to the existing company in the Netherlands, Belgium or the UK. That second decision — freeze, liquidate, keep a holding, transfer IP — hits the home tax authority harder than the Dubai trade licence. This briefing is a preparation list. It is not restructuring advice and not a promise that clients, banks or staff will follow.
Dubai registration is emirate-specific. Tax residence of the shareholder is not the same as the seat of the company. Language proves neither.
Contents
- What you actually want to move
- Home country before you call a CSP
- The Dubai track
- Contracts, IP, people, bank
- Timeline
- Costs
- Sources
What you actually want to move
Make four columns: customers, IP, people, capital. If only the shareholder moves to Dubai and the company stays in Amsterdam, that is emigration of a person, not relocation of a company. See relocating. If the company keeps invoicing EU customers from a flexi-desk without substance, you have an FTA problem and a home problem, not an “optimisation”.
Cross-border seat transfer of an EU company into the UAE is rarely a form. Budget for formation plus transfer of assets/contracts, or for a holding structure that runs in parallel for years.
Home country before you call a CSP
Netherlands
Ask a tax adviser about: exit tax on a substantial interest, transfer of the enterprise, a permanent establishment left behind, VAT registration, and the emigration checklist if you move (Belastingdienst). Leaving the Chamber of Commerce is not a tax exit.
Belgium
FPS Finance: resident status, seat of fortune, company contributions, transfer of shares or goodwill. Family seat weighs for individuals. Start: Leaving Belgium.
UK
HMRC: residence of the company (central management and control), residence of the shareholder (statutory residence test), P85/SA109 if you yourself leave (GOV.UK), VAT, PAYE for anyone still working in the UK.
In all three countries ask the same core question: where will the business be run after the move, and with which minutes, people and contracts can you prove it?
The Dubai track
Follow the formation plan: activity, mainland or free zone, office, FTA. If you sell IP or services from the zone to non-free-zone customers, QFZP is not automatic. FTA guide 20 May 2024.
Visas for shareholders and staff are a separate track, not an annex of the licence. Visa.
Contracts, IP, people, bank
- Contracts: novation or a new Dubai entity as party. Customers do not have to sign.
- IP: where do the marks and software sit? Transfer has home-country tax effects.
- People: employment contract in which country, social-security treaties, remote-work policy of the UAE entity.
- Bank: new KYC, no takeover of the old IBAN. Business account.
Timeline
- Home advice (tax + counsel) — written scenario.
- Decision: run in parallel or wind down, and the date.
- Choose the Dubai registrar, attest documents.
- Licence, FTA, office.
- Novation wave; close the old entity only when obligations (lease, staff, claims) are parked.
- Review after twelve months: substance, filings in both countries.
Worked example (assumptions): home legal/tax EUR 12,000, Dubai formation AED 72,500 (see the cost-briefing example), novation legal EUR 4,000, three KYC trips EUR 6,000. Sum around EUR 40,000+ before you send a single invoice from Dubai. If the old company must run another year, you count two audits. That is not an argument against relocating; it is the real year one.
Costs
On top of formation: exit advice, dual audit, overlapping leases, settlements, FX. Help: Business, Relocation.
Customers, suppliers and staff do not have to accept the new entity. Plan a parallel invoicing period in which the old company still carries obligations. IP transfer without a valuation is a home-country risk; do not do it “in an annex”.
Governance: where do board minutes sit after the move? If decisions keep falling in Amsterdam while the letterhead shows Dubai, you have a residence question in the origin country. Write it into the gate-0 advice.
You do not pack the Dutch or Belgian company number, the UK Companies House identity, the existing IBAN, existing employment contracts without novation, or the assumption that free-zone 0% switches off tax at shareholder level. Free zone.
FAQ
Is a branch cheaper than a new LLC? Sometimes in registrar fees, rarely in compliance (two auditors, PE questions). Price both scenarios, including home advice.
Can I reverse the move in year 1? Only if you have not dissolved the old entity. That is an argument for running in parallel, not an argument against Dubai.
Worked example: governance: four board calls a year with minutes + one physical week in Dubai for KYC. If that week does not fit the diary, the substance claim is weak — whatever the trade licence says.
Frequently asked questions
Who is “Relocating a company to Dubai: what should you arrange first?” for?
Dutch and Belgian readers considering dubai. The file organises process, cost logic and sources — it does not decide an individual case.
Does this apply in every emirate?
No. This briefing covers dubai. Other emirates have their own registrars, tariffs and portals.
Is this personal advice?
No. We do not guarantee a licence, visa, bank account, return or tax residence. Unknown items stay open.
Sources
- Belastingdienst emigration checklist (NL)
- FPS Finance leaving Belgium
- GOV.UK tax if you leave the UK
- Invest in Dubai / DET
- FTA Free Zone Persons PDF
Reviewed 17 September 2026. Knowledge library, the platform.
Talking to customers and staff
Customers hear the date on which the contracting party changes, not a vague “we are in Dubai now”. Send a novation or a new contract with a transition date and who carries running claims. EU staff have home-country consultation and dismissal rights; a Dubai contract is not an automatic replacement.
List licences that hang on the old entity (VAT, sector permits, software). Each item gets an owner and a date.