Your personal residency move is only half the project. If your income flows through a company — a consulting LLC, a SaaS C-Corp, a trading IBC, a crypto entity, or an operating business with staff — that company has its own tax residency, its own banking footprint, and its own exit problem. Leave it where it is and you risk being a personal resident of a 0% jurisdiction whose home country still taxes the company you control. Move it badly and you trigger CFC rules, exit charges, banking closures, and a substance investigation in the new country. Business Relocation & Setup is the service that moves the company alongside the founder, cleanly, and gives both sides — old country and new — the documentation they expect.
We handle corporate redomiciliation, new-company formation in the destination jurisdiction, multi-currency banking introductions, accounting and payroll setup, and ongoing substance compliance across the same country list as our personal-residency work: UAE Free Zones (DMCC, IFZA, Meydan, ADGM), mainland UAE, Cyprus, Malta, Italy, Switzerland, Singapore, Hong Kong, Panama, Paraguay, Mauritius, the BVI, Cayman, and the Caribbean offshore centres. The service runs in parallel with Tax Residency Consulting and Residency Application Assistance — most clients engage all three across a 12-to-18-month relocation.
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What We Do
Business Relocation & Setup is a project-managed engagement that takes your existing corporate structure and either moves it, replaces it, or restructures around it — depending on what your home country’s exit rules permit and what the destination jurisdiction recognises. The work is operational: forming the new entity, opening its banking, registering it for taxes, and putting enough real activity on the ground that the new tax authority treats it as a local company rather than a brass-plate shell.
- Corporate structure review and target-jurisdiction fit — We review your existing entity (or holding stack), the income it generates, where customers and contractors sit, and where the IP is owned. From there we recommend the corporate move that matches your personal residency: a UAE Free Zone for 0% under the AED 375K corporate threshold, a Cyprus 12.5% company for treaty access, a Singapore Pte Ltd for Asian operations, a Malta full-imputation structure, or an Estonian OÜ for cash-retained reinvestment.
- Redomiciliation versus new-incorporation decision — Some jurisdictions (BVI, Cayman, Mauritius, Cyprus, Malta, UAE ADGM) permit corporate redomiciliation — the company keeps its name, contracts, and history but changes nationality. Others require a fresh incorporation followed by an asset-and-IP transfer. We model both routes against your home-country exit-tax exposure and pick the cheaper one.
- Company formation in the destination jurisdiction — Drafting the memorandum and articles, filing with the registrar, securing the trade licence (UAE), the certificate of incorporation, the tax ID, the share register, and the UBO declaration. For UAE Free Zones, we select the activity classification carefully — getting this wrong forces a corporate amendment and a trip back to the visa desk.
- Multi-currency banking introductions — Operating account, treasury account, merchant processing, and a personal account for the founder. We work with banking partners across the UAE (Mashreq NEO, Emirates NBD, RAKBANK, WIO), Cyprus (Hellenic, Bank of Cyprus, Eurobank), Malta, Singapore (DBS, OCBC, Aspire), Switzerland, and the Channel Islands. Every introduction includes a pre-screened KYC pack that addresses the compliance questions the bank will ask before they ask them.
- Economic substance and compliance setup — A real office or flexi-desk where the regulator allows it, a local director or nominee where required, board meetings minuted in-country, and a substance log that satisfies the OECD BEPS standard, the EU substance rules (where the company will deal with EU counterparties), and the destination authority’s own substance test. This is the part most cheap “company-in-a-box” providers skip — and it is the part that fails first under audit.
- Accounting, audit, payroll, and VAT/GST registration — Bookkeeping setup in a destination-compatible system (Xero, Zoho Books, QuickBooks UAE), VAT registration where the threshold is met, transfer-pricing documentation for related-party flows, and audit appointment where mandatory (UAE corporate tax, Cyprus, Singapore, Malta).
- IP migration and contract assignment — Where the value of the business sits in IP, customer contracts, or domain names, we coordinate with your home-country counsel on the transfer mechanics, the at-arm’s-length valuation, the exit-tax filing, and the new entity’s licensing arrangement back to any retained operating subsidiary.
- Old-entity wind-down or downgrade — Closing the home-country company, converting it to a dormant holding, or shrinking it to a low-substance services subsidiary so the new structure carries the income while the old one does not trigger an unintended permanent establishment.
- CFC, place-of-effective-management, and treaty-residency review — A written memo confirming that the new company will not be deemed tax-resident in your former home country, that controlled-foreign-company rules will not pull income back through your personal return, and that the chosen treaty network actually applies to your real revenue mix.
Our Process
A typical business-relocation engagement runs ten to twenty weeks, depending on the complexity of the existing structure, the destination, and how much banking due diligence the founder’s profile triggers. Single-founder consulting LLCs move fastest. Operating businesses with staff, customer contracts, and embedded IP take the longer end of the range.
- Free 30-minute consultation (Week 0) — We confirm the personal residency plan, map the existing corporate structure, identify whether your home jurisdiction has an exit tax on corporate emigration, and check whether the destination is right for the income profile. About one in five calls ends with us recommending you keep the existing entity in place and only move personally — moving the company is not always the right answer.
- Engagement letter, scoping memo, and target structure (Weeks 1–2) — Signed engagement, a written target-state memo describing the new entity, where banking will sit, what substance will look like, and the IP/contract assignment plan. We also prepare the home-country exit checklist: any board resolutions, tax clearances, or filings needed before the company changes nationality or before the IP transfer is recognised.
- Incorporation or redomiciliation filing (Weeks 2–6) — Forming the new entity or filing the redomiciliation application. UAE Free Zone licences typically issue within 2–4 weeks; Cyprus, Malta, and Singapore in 1–3 weeks; redomiciliation processes (BVI to Cayman, Cayman to UAE ADGM, etc.) run 4–8 weeks. We register for tax IDs and VAT/GST in parallel.
- Banking due diligence and account opening (Weeks 4–10) — The longest variable. We submit KYC packs to a shortlist of pre-aligned banks rather than spraying applications. Operating accounts at UAE neo-banks open in 5–15 business days; traditional GCC banks 4–10 weeks; Singapore and Switzerland 6–12 weeks. We sequence personal and corporate applications to avoid one rejection contaminating the other.
- Substance build-out (Weeks 6–12) — Office or flexi-desk lease, local-director appointment if required, payroll setup, first board meeting minuted on the ground, and a documented substance file. For UAE qualifying-free-zone-person status (the route to 0% on qualifying income above AED 375,000), we calibrate substance specifically to the QFZP test rather than the generic free-zone minimum.
- IP, contract, and customer migration (Weeks 8–14) — Where applicable: arm’s-length IP valuation, transfer agreements, customer contract assignment or novation, payment-processor switchover, and continuity letters to material counterparties. We coordinate with your home-country counsel on the exit-tax filing.
- Old-entity wind-down (Weeks 12–18) — Final tax return in the home country, board resolution to dissolve or convert to dormant, deregistration with the home tax authority, and a closing memo for your records.
- Year-end compliance handover (Month 12+) — First annual accounts, audit appointment if mandatory, corporate tax return, VAT returns, transfer-pricing file, and a one-page summary the founder can hand to a future buyer or financier.
Who This Service Is For
Profile 1: Solo Founder with a Services LLC or SaaS Co.
You run a one-to-five-person business that generates $300K–$5M in annual revenue, mostly from customers in the US, EU, or UK. Your home country (likely the US, UK, France, Germany, the Netherlands, or Australia) taxes the company at 19–28% and you personally on top of that. You are moving to the UAE, Cyprus, or Singapore. You need the new operating company in the destination, banking that lets you collect from Stripe and PayPal, a clean exit from the home company, and a substance file that survives a CFC review.
Profile 2: Crypto, Web3, or Trading Founder
The company is a holding-and-trading vehicle for digital assets, intellectual property in a Web3 project, or a proprietary-trading book. Capital gains and corporate treatment matter as much as the personal residency. You are looking at the UAE (entity in ADGM or Free Zone; personal residency in Dubai), Cayman or BVI (offshore vehicle with a UAE or Cyprus operating arm), or Cyprus (8% crypto-gains rate from 2026). We handle the entity stack, the banking — which is the hardest piece of crypto-relocation — and the exchange and custodian onboarding.
Profile 3: Established Operating Business with Staff and Customers
You run a 10–100-person business with multi-year customer contracts, employees on local payroll, and IP that has real value. You cannot simply abandon the home company. We design a parallel-then-replace structure: a new destination entity, a phased customer-contract assignment over 12–18 months, an employment-of-record arrangement for staff who stay behind, and a long-tail wind-down of the old company that does not trigger penalty-grade exit charges. This is the most complex profile and the one where the substance and place-of-effective-management work matters most.
Profile 4: Personal Investment Holding and Family Office
The “company” is a holding vehicle for portfolio investments, a family-trust feeder, or a single-family-office structure. The relocation question is less about operations and more about the treaty network, the dividend-withholding stack, and the inheritance-tax footprint. We design and stand up the new holding (Cyprus, Malta, Mauritius, Singapore, or UAE ADGM depending on the underlying assets) and coordinate with your trustees and private bank.
Pricing & Engagement Model
Business Relocation & Setup is a fixed-scope, fixed-fee engagement after the free consultation. Fees are quoted against the scope agreed in the engagement letter, not by the hour. The scope determines the price — we do not price by net worth or revenue.
Indicative ranges, all-in (our fees plus government and registry costs, excluding bank deposits, share capital, or property):
- Single-founder Free Zone or services-company setup (UAE, Cyprus, BVI, Cayman) — €8,000–€18,000
- Redomiciliation of an existing entity — €15,000–€35,000 depending on origin and destination
- Multi-entity restructuring (operating co + holding co + IP co) — €25,000–€60,000
- Operating-business migration with staff and contract assignment — €40,000–€120,000+
- Family-office or investment-holding structure — €20,000–€80,000
Banking introductions are included in the fee. Annual ongoing compliance (accounting, substance maintenance, VAT, audit coordination) is quoted separately as a recurring retainer once the build is complete.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I have to move the company, or can I just move personally?
Sometimes the right answer is to leave the company where it is. If your home country has a CFC regime that captures companies controlled by non-residents, or if the company has heavy local customer concentration, moving the entity may add risk rather than remove it. We model this in the consultation — if the company should stay, we will say so.
Will my home country charge an exit tax on the company emigration?
It depends on the country and the structure. Several EU member states (Germany, France, the Netherlands, Spain, and now the UK in expanded form) impose corporate exit tax on the deemed disposal of assets and IP when a company emigrates or transfers its place of effective management. We quantify this exposure before recommending the move and time the migration to minimise it. Read How to Legally Exit a High-Tax Country for the underlying mechanics.
Why not just buy a shelf company online for $500?
The $500 incorporation is the cheapest 5% of the project. The expensive 95% is opening banking, building substance, surviving the first CFC and place-of-effective-management review, and migrating customer contracts without breaching them. A shell with no banking and no substance is not a tax structure — it is an audit trigger.
How long until I can invoice from the new company?
UAE Free Zone licences typically issue in 2–4 weeks; the operating bank account opens 1–6 weeks after that. Realistic time from engagement to first invoice is 6–12 weeks for a clean UAE setup, 8–14 weeks for Cyprus or Singapore. We sequence the work so that the licence arrives before the bank application — banks will not open an account for an unincorporated entity.
Can you handle the personal residency and the company move together?
Yes — most clients engage all three of our services together. We coordinate the corporate timeline with the personal residency timeline so that you become a tax resident of the new country and the company becomes resident there in the same fiscal year, which simplifies the first cross-border tax filing.
What about US persons?
US citizens and green-card holders remain subject to worldwide US taxation regardless of where they live or where their company sits. Business Relocation can still meaningfully reduce state tax, eliminate non-US country tax, and optimise the entity classification for FEIE, GILTI, and Subpart F. We coordinate with a US-side CPA — we do not replace one. See Tax Residency vs Citizenship for the citizenship-based-taxation framing.
Ready to Get Started?
Book a free 30-minute consultation — we’ll review your corporate structure, your personal residency target, and your home-country exit constraints, and tell you whether moving the company makes sense for your situation. No obligation, no pitch deck.
Last updated: 2026-04-26
Sources:
– UAE Federal Tax Authority — Corporate Tax (https://tax.gov.ae/en/taxes/corporate.tax.aspx)
– PwC Worldwide Tax Summaries — Cyprus, UAE, Singapore, Malta (https://taxsummaries.pwc.com)
– OECD BEPS Action 5 — Substantial Activity Requirements (https://www.oecd.org/tax/beps/)
– EU Code of Conduct Group — Economic Substance Requirements