Tax services in the Middle East
A fully integrated one-stop-shop for legal and tax services
Gateley Middle East is the first and only fully integrated one-stop-shop for legal and tax solutions in the Middle East and home to the largest tax practice within a law firm in the region.
Based in DIFC, we coordinate cross-border tax matters across the Middle East, including international tax matters, the introduction of corporate tax across the region, evolving VAT regimes, transfer pricing and global minimum tax (Pillar Two) matters, so that groups operating across the Middle East region (and beyond) deal with one integrated team. Our experts advise on:
- Corporate tax: advisory and compliance
- International tax: Treaties and structuring
- M&A tax: Deals and due diligence
- Transfer pricing: Policy, documents and filings
- VAT and indirect taxes: advisory and compliance
- Withholding tax: Cross-border flows
- FATCA and CRS: Advisory and compliance
- Pillar Two: Global minimum tax
- Tax structuring: Operating models
- Private wealth: Family offices and high-net-worth individuals
- Financial services tax: Banks and funds
- Tax disputes: End-to-end resolution
- Zakat: Advisory and compliance
More than a law firm. More than the Big Four.
Tax doesn’t sit in a silo. Traditional law firms carry limited tax resource. Advisory firms face regulatory limits on legal work and privilege. We do both and as such we can offer:
- Largest tax team at a law firm in the Middle East
- Full corporate tax, VAT, withholding tax and transfer pricing advisory and compliance
- E-invoicing capabilities, with no regulatory restrictions
- Legal and tax structuring with end-to-end setup plus yearly legal, regulatory and tax compliance
- Full end-to-end support from Tax Authority level all the way up to the Supreme Court. From the first audit query to the highest court, we stay with you the whole way. Advisory firms cannot represent you in the courts; we can.
- Legal privilege over tax advice
Our team works alongside Gateley’s lawyers, so tax is built into the legal work from day one, not bolted on afterwards.
How Gateley Middle East can help:
Advisory
- Corporate and international tax structuring
- Pillar Two readiness
- R&D tax credit determination
- VAT and indirect tax
- Transfer pricing and Pillar Two readiness
- M&A, transactions and restructuring
- Transfer Pricing advisory and operation model
- Governance frameworks and health checks
Compliance
- Corporate tax registration and returns
- VAT registration, returns and reviews
- Transfer pricing documentation and filings
- Withholding tax obligations
- Emirate level tax filings
- Zakat filing reviews
Disputes
- FTA audits, reviews and queries
- Voluntary disclosures and remediation
- Reconsiderations and TDRC
- Penalty mitigation and negotiation
- Litigation to the Federal Supreme Court
Wrapped around three integrated capabilities:
1. Tax structuring
Holding and operating structures, free zones (QFZP) positioning and group reorganisations, tax efficient and defensible.
2. Legal services
Company set-up, execution and ongoing legal, regulatory and tax compliance, by qualified lawyers, not referred out.
3. Technology
E-invoicing readiness, R&D tax credit tooling and tax data solution, the infrastructure behind compliance.
Tax built into legal advice from day one
Tax does not sit in a silo. Our tax specialists work alongside legal teams to ensure tax considerations are integrated into corporate structuring, transactions and workforce planning from the outset.
Bringing tax and legal expertise together helps clients avoid surprises, manage risk and achieve better commercial outcomes across the business lifecycle.
- Entity and group structure (including free-zone vs onshore, holdco location) drives corporate tax exposure and incentive/ preferential-regime eligibility
- Dividends, shareholder loans and intragroup funding raise related-party and withholding-tax questions.
- Tax due diligence on historic corporate tax, VAT and transfer-pricing exposure – reflected in price, warranties and indemnities
- Share vs asset and holding structure decide whether a future exit is taxed once, twice or efficiently
- Executive and owner pay must be at arm’s length – the excess is non-deductible and understates entity-level tax
- Global mobility and remote work create permanent-establishment and cross-border filing exposure for both company and executives – not just the 183-day rule
- Where IP is owned and managed drives royalty withholding tax and transfer pricing exposure as substance rules tighten
- Intra-group IP migration or licensing is a taxable event needing arm’s-length valuation
- The licence route and the substance you build (people, premises, decision-making) determines access to preferential regimes and permanent establishment risk
- Property transfers and leases can carry VAT, potential real estate transaction taxes and local transfer-fee or registration-tax considerations that move deal economics