Do you have a Plan B if Australia is Plan A?
Set up your Plan B: a real second base in the UAE. I spent twenty years inside ABN AMRO, RBS and Investec, and now I help Australian founders move their business to Dubai and get it set up properly, so you don't cop a surprise tax bill, get knocked back by the banks three times, or end up with a "0% structure" that falls apart a year in. I'm Akshaya, and I run every engagement myself.
The gap is legal. It is the reason founders are leaving. The only question is whether you capture it properly.
Plan A is getting harder. Plan B is opening up.
Australia keeps tightening the rules on founders and capital. The UAE keeps opening its doors. You do not have to like the politics to plan around it, and the founders who move early move on their own terms.
A bank account in the UAE is not a given. It takes the right network, the kind we already run for large enterprise clients. That is what our Dubai concierge service is for: we handle the move on the ground, so you land with the company, the banking and the residency actually working.
Headlines are shown for context, from the outlets named. This is a business growth consultation, not political comment, and not legal, tax or financial advice.
Leaving Australia can tax you on the way out.
The ATO can treat your departure like a sale. Your company, your shares, assets you have not touched in years, all of it potentially taxed the day you stop being a resident.
I have watched founders hand over six figures they never owed, purely because they did the steps in the wrong order. Residency, the company, the banking, a future sale, the family. They all move on different clocks. Miss one and the bill lands.
This is not one decision. It is closer to forty, and the order you make them in decides what you keep.
Your accountant, your lawyer, your banker. Someone has to run the room.
Each of them is good at their piece. None of them owns the move. I do. I brief them, put the steps in order, chase the paperwork, and make the decisions line up, so nothing stalls while the clock ticks on your residency.
What you actually want
Where you want to live, how the business should run, and what you are not willing to give up to get there.
The full picture
Company, ownership, income, assets, family, banking, and whatever advice you already have in play.
The right people
The Australian and overseas specialists your situation genuinely needs. No more, no less.
Getting it done
I run the documents, the decisions and the hand-offs so every step happens in the right order.
Akshaya Naronikar
For twenty years I sat inside private banking at ABN AMRO, RBS and Investec, watching how the wealthy actually structure and move capital. I have advised founders and family offices through it, been quoted in the national press on it, and written a book on the mindset behind it, ASCEND-MINDSET.
Here is what most "Dubai setup" shops will not tell you: your tax outcome is decided by your residency and the order you do things in, not by which licence you buy. Get that wrong and you trigger the exact bill you were trying to avoid.
So I run every engagement myself. I build the plan, I coordinate your Australian and overseas advisers, and my implementation partner in Dubai, with more than 25 years and over 100,000 company formations behind them, handles the setup on the ground. You deal with me, from the first call to fully operational.
Akshaya
Twenty years inside the institutions that move money.
Before founding Iridium, Akshaya spent two decades in private banking at ABN AMRO, RBS and Investec, advising founders and family offices across borders. That is the experience now working on your exit.
- ABN AMRO · RBS · Investec20 years in private banking
- 12,000+ followersA trusted voice for founders on LinkedIn
- AU · UK · US · EU · GCCCross-border capital and advisory
Time in the room with the founders making the move.
Akshaya works with founders and family offices in person, one on one, from the first conversation to a business that is up and running in the UAE.
The complete move, not one isolated product.
Australian departure
Residency analysis, company management, ownership and departure timing, coordinated with qualified Australian advisers.
Dubai structure and licensing
Entity, banking, substance and commercial arrangements chosen for how the business genuinely earns and operates.
Personal residency
A genuine place to live and a lawful residency position that works with the company and your real lifestyle.
International structures and IP
Cross-border structures that protect and position what you own.
UAE residency, visas and Golden Visa
Residency and Emirates ID for you and your family, and the 10-year Golden Visa where you qualify, coordinated with registered agents.
Banking and substance
Corporate and private banking set up properly, with the real substance the structure needs.
Wealth strategy
Putting freed capital to work in cash-flowing assets.
Implementation in Dubai
Formation, banking, visas and registrations, handled on the ground by an established Dubai partner and run as one sequence.
The clearest move for an Australian founder.
Dubai only works when residency, company and banking genuinely line up. That is the part we coordinate for you.
One engagement. The whole move, end to end.
I own the plan and coordinate your advisers. The setup itself is delivered by my Dubai partner, more than 25 years and over 100,000 company formations behind them, so much of it is handled remotely with one short trip to finalise. Which of these you actually need, we work out on the call.
Your Australian exit
Your residency and capital-gains position mapped and sequenced with your Australian advisers, so leaving does not trigger the bill you are trying to avoid.
Your UAE company
The right free-zone or mainland licence, chosen for how your business genuinely earns, not the cheapest package on offer.
Residency & Golden Visa
Your UAE residency visa and Emirates ID for you and your family, and the 10-year Golden Visa where you qualify.
Banking that opens
Corporate and personal account introductions through the right channels, so your application is not rejected three times first.
Compliance & admin
Tax registration, renewals and PRO services handled by the partner on the ground, kept on schedule.
After you land
I stay on after setup, through banking, renewals and the practical side of actually living the move.
A concierge service in Dubai, run through our enterprise network.
A UAE bank account is not a given. Applications stall without the right introductions. We open accounts through the same network we run for large enterprise clients, and we handle the setup on the ground, so you are not doing this alone from Australia.
Concierge on the ground
The company, the visas and the paperwork handled in Dubai, so much of it is done before you ever fly over.
Enterprise banking network
Corporate and personal accounts opened through real introductions, the same channels our enterprise clients use.
One point of contact
You deal with Akshaya from the first call to a business that is up and running, never a call centre.
- BBrian
- LLuke
- DDaniel
- DDeon
- KKris
- NNat
- BBob
Same business. Two outcomes.
A business with $1m in annual revenue and $400k in annual profit can produce materially different results depending on where the founder lives, where the company is managed, how profit is extracted, and how an eventual sale is treated.
Illustrative example: a service business, $1m revenue, $400k profit before company tax, and a later share sale at four times annual profit. The figures isolate selected company-tax and share-sale outcomes only.
Australian company, Australian-resident founder
Founder genuinely overseas, qualifying foreign-income structure
*Outcome A assumes an Australian-resident individual, nil cost base, shares held more than 12 months, the 50% CGT discount, and a 47% top marginal rate including Medicare levy. Outcome B assumes the founder has genuinely ceased Australian tax residency, the foreign company is not Australian tax resident, income is foreign-sourced under the relevant rules, no Australian permanent establishment or source exposure applies, and the destination imposes no capital gains tax on the share sale. Real outcomes depend on your full circumstances and qualified advice. This is not a calculation of your position.
On your own, or with Iridium.
The Australian founder's guide to the UAE.
The honest version of what a UAE base actually involves in 2026: what qualifies, what it costs, what the rules require, and where founders get burned. Written for founders with a real business to move, not a mailbox.
- What a real base is: free zone versus mainland
- Residency, visas and the banking reality
- Substance: the part cheap set-ups get wrong
Share your details once. Download the guide and book your discovery call in the same step.
Most firms sell a licence and vanish. I don't work that way.
The day the licence is issued is where the trouble usually starts: the bank rejects your account, a deadline slips, and the "0% structure" quietly stops working. I stay on it. I hold the whole plan, and the setup itself is delivered by my Dubai partner with more than 25 years and over 100,000 company formations behind them.
- 01You work directly with me.Not a junior, not a call centre.
- 02A plan built around your residency.Your circumstances, in the right order.
- 03Your advisers, coordinated.I make your accountant, lawyer and bankers work together.
- 04Company, residency and bank account.Trade licence, UAE residency visa, Emirates ID and a corporate account, much of it handled remotely.
- 05I stay after the setup.Banking, Golden Visa where you qualify, and actually living it.
A UAE setup gone wrong. How we fixed it.
A European founder came to us six months after setting up in the UAE: the wrong free zone, three rejected bank applications, and missed compliance deadlines that had already cost them in penalties. Here is what we did.
The right free zone
We moved them to a free zone matched to their industry, so the business could operate the way it actually needed to.
Banking, solved
We corrected the documentation and introduced the right banking contacts. The account was approved in under two weeks.
Compliance, systemised
From employee visas to tax filings, we set up a system for every UAE obligation. No more penalties, just smooth operations.
The bigger opportunity
They did not know the UAE's sovereign wealth funds actively back innovative businesses. We helped tailor their pitch to those priorities; today they are in funding discussions.
Anonymised client engagement. Outcomes depend on individual circumstances and qualified advice.
Compliant and fast. A repeatable system, not months of red tape.
Request a consultation
A confidential thirty-minute conversation, one-on-one with Akshaya.
Map your position
Your objectives, current setup, likely jurisdictions, and the specialist work the move requires.
Your roadmap
The exact sequence, built for your situation.
Execute together
Structures, residency and banking, pushed forward as one sequence, with support the whole way.
Who this is for, and who it is not.
Usually a fit
- Australian founders with an operating, location-flexible business
- Seriously considering living overseas, and wanting it done properly
- Company value is growing, or an exit is on the horizon
- Family or co-founders involved, or advice already spans jurisdictions
Not a fit
- Anyone seeking concealment or sham residency
- Undocumented nominee arrangements
- A copied zero-tax structure with no regard to substance
- Shopping purely on price
This is legal, fully disclosed structuring, or it is nothing. Every outcome depends on your circumstances and qualified professional advice.
Before you book.
Is this legal advice? 01
Will you actually save me tax? 02
Do I have to leave Australia for good? 03
Is Dubai realistic for someone like me? 04
What happens after I book? 05
Do I actually deal with you, or a team? 06
How exposed is your exit, really?
Is your business making real money and not tied to one place?
Get the guide, and book your discovery call.
Share your details once. Then download the Australian Founder's Guide to the UAE and book a private thirty-minute discovery call with Akshaya, in the same step.
- A live read of where you stand today
- The specific decisions your move depends on
- A prioritised action list, yours to keep
- An honest answer on whether an overseas move even fits
The last few minutes are not a pitch. If we are not the right fit, Akshaya will tell you.
A Business Growth Consultation with a Growth Strategist, not legal, tax or financial advice.
Book your discovery call
A few details, then pick a time with Akshaya. I read every request myself and reply within one business day.