100% Foreign ownership into UAE mainland entities.
Following a UAE Cabinet announcement, foreign investors will soon be entitled to own 100% of the capital of companies registered in the UAE mainland. This constitutes a major breakthrough in relation to foreign investment rules.
This anticipated evolution has been carefully prepared. It is the natural continuation of Federal Decree Law No. (18) of 2017 amending Federal Law No. (2) of 2015 on Commercial Companies, which provides for possible exceptions where the mandatory 51% shareholding of LLCs by UAE national or entities may be lifted via further Cabinet resolution for specific sectors.
BEPS.
The United Arab Emirates joins the Inclusive Framework on BEPS and became the 116th jurisdiction which joined it. The OECD welcomes the commitment of the United Arab Emirates in implementing the four anti-BEPS minimum standards. The implementation of agreed minimum standards will provide the United Arab Emirates with further support and give the opportunity to work on an equal footing with other OECD and G20 countries on implementing the BEPS package consistently and on developing further standards to address remaining BEPS issues.
Resident visa changes.
The UAE has declared about the introduction of a long-term resident visa scheme which will be additional to the current visa options. The launch of a long-term resident visa scheme is aimed to attract and retain professionals and talented people in sectors deemed vital for the UAE economy.
Thus, the new resident visa scheme will provide a permanent visa for up to 10 years to innovators, entrepreneurs and specialists in the medical, scientific, research and technical fields.
As of student visa, there is standard visa for 5-year and it wil also be introduced 10-year visa for "exceptional" students.
VAT.
On May 18, 2018 Central Bank of UAE issued the exchange rates against AED on the bank`s official website.
According to the Article 69 of the UAE VAT Law, if the currency used on the VAT invoice is a currency other than Arab Emirates Dirham (AED), the amounts should be converted into AED at the exchange rates approved by the Central Bank of UAE.
The rates are expected to be updated Monday to Friday and based on the foreign exchange rates prevailing at 6 PM UAE time each day.
