Banking & FS
The Middle-East is a buoyant market and offers unique challenges to candidates looking in the region or relocating from Europe or the Far East.
Dubai is the main centre in the Middle East for in-house tax advisors within financial services organisations. This location generally acts as the regional tax function serving as the hub for the Middle East, northern parts of Africa and some parts of Asia. As such roles in Dubai tend to be part of large international financial services groups, either managing the corporate structure for the group in the region or looking after the tax reporting responsibilities for the group in the region.
As there is minimal tax in the UAE there is small need for people with strong compliance experience so the main focus on recruitment is for tax reporting (IFRS and US GAAP) or international planning and transactional specialists.
A number of Sovereign Wealth Funds in the Middle East have brought in-house senior tax professionals who can project manage the transactions their funds make. These are very interesting roles, and would require senior level M&A professionals that have ideally had experience dealing in the Middle East, or prior experience with Private Equity or Sovereign Wealth Funds.
Due to the region being an Emerging Market, people will gain excellent experience and develop much sought after experience for the future.