EU - Consulting company

Forget anything where you remain in your current (and presumably high-tax) EU country of residence. Having a clerk in Dubai won't help if/when the local tax authority comes and asks uncomfortable questions. If you think you're smarter than your local tax authority, chances are you're not. They might not catch you this year, but for every year that goes by, the repercussions get worse.

If in summer 2026, the tax authority finally takes a look at you, you have five years of crimes to atone for. Tax fraud, tax evasion, money laundering... The longest part of your court case will be reading all the charges.

You're subject to tax based on where you live. As an EU national, just go to Cyprus or Malta. Look into the various tax advantages there.

If you really like UAE, you can of course move there. Based on your current income level, it's unlikely UAE would be much fun. Zero-tax jurisdictions aren't cheap to live in. They attract very wealthy people and are often small and isolated, requiring everything to be imported from abroad. All of this drives costs way up. Your money will last a lot longer in Malta and Cyprus, even if you end up having to pay a little bit of tax.

As @Martin Everson always say, get out of the EU as long as you can, it's only getting worse.

Jassu said:

The other impediment I have is my ex trying her best to get as much as she can from me and my kids that are big part in my life which leaves me with the question do they check that you have spent 6 months at least in a country to be eligible for residency?

Who are "they"?

Yes, they can/do check. But they also don't have to check.

In many jurisdictions, there is reverse burden of proof for certain financial crimes (tax evasion, tax fraud, money laundering). That means you're presumed guilty until proven innocent. So if we take the summer 2026 nightmare scenario, you're going to have prove that you have lived in UAE/Cyprus/Malta for five years. This proof is usually in the form of flight tickets, entry stamps in passport, utilities in your name, bank statements proving daily expenditure overseas, as well as proving the absence of ties to the home country. If you can't do that, you're in a worst case scenario looking at prison time. It's playing with fire.

If you do this by the book, you sever your ties with your home jurisdiction and become permanent, full-time, and exclusively tax resident in Malta or Cyprus. That means only visiting home the same way a tourist would.

Not to be all doom and gloom but people in your situation usually cannot take any legal actions to benefit from offshore or low-tax jurisdictions. It's complicated to have divorced parents in different countries. Some countries will consider you tax resident as long as your children go to school there, even if you're moved away. Your best bet is to work with a local accountant to maximize deductions and incentives.