Singapore vs United Arab Emirates
Side-by-side comparison of Singapore and the United Arab Emirates for founders weighing two low-tax international financial centres.
Side-by-side
| Taxation | Singapore | United Arab Emirates |
|---|---|---|
| Corporate tax | 17% | 9% |
| VAT | 9% | 5% |
| Dividend tax | 0% | 0% |
| Formation | Singapore | United Arab Emirates |
|---|---|---|
| Difficulty (1–5) | 1 | 3 |
| Cost | 1500 SGD | 15000 AED |
| Time | 2 days | 14 days |
| Banking & Payments | Singapore | United Arab Emirates |
|---|---|---|
| Banking difficulty (1–5) | 3 | 4 |
| Stripe | Yes | Yes |
| PayPal | Yes | Yes |
| Wise | Yes | Yes |
| Operations | Singapore | United Arab Emirates |
|---|---|---|
| Accounting difficulty (1–5) | 2 | 3 |
| Payroll difficulty (1–5) | 2 | 2 |
| Compliance difficulty (1–5) | 2 | 3 |
| Market access | Singapore | United Arab Emirates |
|---|---|---|
| EU member | No | No |
| EEA member | No | No |
| Currency | SGD | AED |
When Singapore wins
- Your customer base is APAC-centric and you need a regional financial-centre base
- You qualify for the Start-Up Tax Exemption (SUTE) reducing effective rates for new companies
- You want a stable common-law jurisdiction with English-language administrative defaults
When United Arab Emirates wins
- You want a 9% headline CIT applied only above the AED 375,000 profit threshold (0% below)
- Your customer base spans the GCC, EMEA, and South Asia
- You can satisfy Qualifying Free Zone Person requirements for further tax efficiency
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Sources
- Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore — Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (accessed )
- Federal Tax Authority of the United Arab Emirates — UAE Federal Tax Authority — Corporate Tax (accessed )
- Ministry of Finance of the United Arab Emirates — UAE Ministry of Finance — Corporate Tax (accessed )
- OECD — OECD — economic and tax statistics (accessed )
- PricewaterhouseCoopers — PwC Worldwide Tax Summaries (accessed )
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