Exit Tax Checklist — 12 Months Before Your Departure to Dubai
15 pages, authored by Jonathan Sémon, Esq., setting out every action to take during the year preceding your transfer of tax residence to the United Arab Emirates. To share with your advisors (attorney, notary, accountant, private banker).
- Mapping of the conditions for being within scope
- Calibration of guarantees and designation of the fiscal representative
- T-12 / T-6 / T-3 / T-30 days / T+0 schedule
- Top 10 common mistakes with countermeasures
- Appendix: 17 essential legal references (CGI, BOFiP, FTA, 1989 tax treaty)
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PDF · 15 pages · 33 KB · French
Who is this checklist for?
French executives holding significant equity stakes who plan to transfer their tax residence to the United Arab Emirates. Three profiles benefit in particular:
- The selling executive who anticipates the total or partial sale of his or her company within 12 to 24 months following the departure.
- The SAS founder who holds 100% of the share capital, with a valuation exceeding the applicable thresholds.
- The investor or family office structuring their wealth between France and the UAE.
Why this checklist?
Because most mistakes made by French expatriates moving to Dubai come down to poor sequencing: starting too late, underestimating the 90-day deadline for guarantees, forgetting to file form 2074-ETD. This checklist reduces the entire procedure to a simple, month-by-month sequence.
It is authored by Jonathan Sémon, Esq., Attorney admitted to the Paris Bar, formerly with CMS Bureau Francis Lefebvre and Gide Loyrette Nouel, established in Dubai since 2024.
PDF Table of Contents
- Understanding your exposure (T-12 months)
- Mapping your assets and valuing the shares
- Choosing the right deferral regime (IV or V)
- Preparing guarantees and designating the fiscal representative
- Documenting UAE tax residence
- Executing the transfer and filing form 2074-ETD
- Living under deferral: annual reporting where required and event-triggered filings affecting the securities
- Exiting the deferral: relief after 2 or 5 years
- Common mistakes — top 10
- Appendix: 17 essential legal references
Sources & case law
References current as at the date of last revision, cited for information only. Any application to a particular situation requires an individualised analysis.
Legislation
- Article 167 bis CGI (exit tax, transfers since 3 March 2011); Article 238-0 A CGI (non-cooperative States list); Article 41 tervicies E of Annex III to the CGI.
- Décret n° 2019-868 of 21 August 2019 (on-election deferral, proposal of guarantees).
Administrative doctrine (BOFiP)
- BOI-RPPM-PVBMI-50 (exit tax); -50-10-30 (deferral); -50-10-40 (relief); -50-10-50 (reporting obligations, Forms 2074-ETD / 2074-ETS). (historical archived guidance; cross-check against the CGI, implementing rules and current 2026 forms/notices)
Case law
- CE, 9th–10th Ch., 15 December 2025, No. 495783 — the deferral suspends the limitation period for recovery; a reporting failure restores immediate enforceability only after an unanswered formal notice to regularise.
- CE, 5 February 2025, No. 476399 — limits on the retroactivity of the exit tax under EU law.
- ECJ, 11 March 2004, de Lasteyrie du Saillant, C-9/02; CE, 10 November 2004, No. 211341; CE, 29 April 2013, No. 357576; CE, 20 May 2022, No. 449038.
