UAE tax residency for relocating families: the tests, the certificate and leaving home

An individual is UAE tax resident if their usual or primary place of residence and centre of financial and personal interests are in the UAE, or if they spend 183 days or more in the UAE in a consecutive 12-month period. A shorter 90-day test applies to UAE and GCC nationals and UAE residence-visa holders who also have a permanent place of residence or a job or business in the UAE. Residence is evidenced with a tax residency certificate from the Federal Tax Authority. Becoming UAE resident does not by itself end residence in the country a family has left.

The rules are in Cabinet Decision No. 85 of 2022, effective from 1 March 2023 (UAE Legislation), and the FTA’s tax residency guide explains how they are applied (FTA guide).

What are the UAE tax residency tests for individuals?

A natural person is UAE tax resident if they meet any one of three tests.

The centre of interests test

Their usual or primary place of residence and their centre of financial and personal interests are in the UAE. The FTA’s guide lists the factors it looks at, such as the place of employment and business, investments, family and social ties and club memberships, and asks where the person’s relations are closest or of the greatest significance (FTA guide, s. 5.2.4.2).

The 183-day test

They were physically present in the UAE for 183 days or more during the relevant consecutive 12-month period. The days don’t need to be consecutive, and any part of a day counts as a day.

The 90-day test

They were physically present in the UAE for 90 days or more in the relevant consecutive 12-month period. They also meet two further conditions: they are a UAE national, hold a valid UAE residence permit, or are a national of a GCC state; and they either have a permanent place of residence in the UAE or carry on employment or a business in the UAE.

The FTA may disregard days spent in the UAE because of exceptional circumstances when applying the day-count tests.

How do you get a UAE tax residency certificate?

The FTA issues tax residency certificates (TRCs) through the EmaraTax platform. Individuals use it to claim benefits under the UAE’s tax treaties and to show residence to banks and foreign tax authorities.

According to the FTA’s published FAQs, the fees for a natural person are a submission fee of AED 50, a certificate fee of AED 500 for an applicant registered with the FTA or AED 1,000 for one who isn’t, and AED 250 for a printed copy (FTA FAQ). Applicants typically provide passport and visa copies, an Emirates ID, a report of entry and exit movements, evidence of a UAE residence such as a tenancy contract or title deed, and evidence of income or employment. The FTA’s guide on tax residents and TRCs lists the requirements in full (FTA guide). PBF has a note on TRCs for natural persons.

Does UAE residence end tax residence in my home country?

Not automatically. Each country applies its own rules, and a person can be resident in two countries at once. Where the UAE has a tax treaty with the other country, the treaty’s tie-breaker clause decides which country has priority. For the UK this is Article 4(3) of the 2016 convention between the UK and the UAE, which follows Article 4(2) of the OECD Model Tax Convention (UK and UAE convention, Art. 4(3); OECD Model Tax Convention, Art. 4(2)). It looks in turn at permanent home, centre of vital interests, habitual abode and nationality, and if none of these settles it, the two tax authorities decide by mutual agreement. Where there is no treaty, both countries may tax.

The countries families most often leave have detailed rules of their own:

• The UK uses a statutory residence test based on days and ties. From 6 April 2025 it replaced the remittance basis with a four-year foreign income and gains regime for people who have not been UK resident in any of the previous 10 tax years (ITTOIA 2005 s. 845B, inserted by Finance Act 2025 s. 37), and moved inheritance tax to a residence test of 10 out of the previous 20 tax years, with a ‘tail’ of 3 to 10 years after leaving (IHTA 1984 s. 6A, inserted by Finance Act 2025 s. 44; GOV.UK policy paper). A temporary non-residence rule can also tax certain gains and income, such as gains on assets held before leaving and some dividends from close companies, if the person was UK resident in at least 4 of the 7 tax years immediately before the year of departure and returns within five years (Finance Act 2013 Sch. 45 para 110; TCGA 1992 s. 1M). PBF has written on the UK temporary non-residence rule.
• The United States taxes its citizens and green card holders on worldwide income wherever they live, so a move to Dubai changes their US position far less than they may expect.
• Several European countries, including Germany and France, apply exit charges on unrealised gains in shareholdings when residents leave (AStG §6; CGI art. 167 bis).

Our article on CRS and FATCA for family offices explains how these countries receive information about accounts held in the UAE.

What should a relocating family plan for?

The order of steps counts for more than any single test, and the issues that come up most often are:

1. Timing of income and disposals. Selling a business or receiving a large dividend before residence has changed, or in a year of split residence, can be taxed in the old country.
2. Companies managed from the UAE. A foreign company whose directors now make decisions in Dubai may become UAE resident under the effective management and control test in Article 11 of the Corporate Tax Law, and may stop being resident where it was incorporated. PBF has written on place of effective management in the UAE. Our article on substance after ESR covers the corporate side.
3. Trusts and foundations. Structures set up under one country’s rules may be taxed differently once the settlor or beneficiaries move.
4. Family members who stay behind. Children at university abroad, or a spouse who travels frequently, may remain resident elsewhere, which affects gifts and distributions to them.
5. Evidence. Keep travel records, tenancy contracts, school enrolments, club memberships and bank statements. They decide disputes years later.

PBF’s note on leaving the UAE and becoming non-resident covers the reverse move.

A relocation touches several countries, advisers and family members at once, so it helps to have one person coordinating the timetable and the evidence. That is a common reason families bring in a fractional head of tax for the year of the move. The work usually starts before the move: agreeing the date residence is meant to change, the disposals and distributions to make before or after it, and the evidence each family member will keep. It then runs for the years in which the old country can still reach back.

Within, by PBF, is fractional tax advisory: your tax team, within your business. For families moving between countries, a senior tax team works as part of your family office, alongside your accountants, lawyers, trustees and local tax advisers in each country. Start by listing who is moving, when, and what each person owns. See how Within works.