Tax calculator: compare Spain and the UAE

It compares the tax and social security contributions on your annual profit in your current situation in Spain with those you would have in the UAE, assuming you move your tax residency. In Spain, if self-employed, social security contributions and personal income tax (IRPF); through a company, corporation tax, IRPF on dividends and, if you pay yourself a salary, its IRPF; and, if you work in or manage the company and control it, your contributions as a working controlling shareholder. In the UAE, Corporate Tax as an individual with a licence or through a company. It shows you each side, its effective rate and the difference per year, in AED and in your currency.

Because tax is calculated on profit, what is left after expenses, and not on what you invoice. Turnover only decides which thresholds apply: hard-to-justify expenses up to EUR 600,000, the micro-company rates below EUR 1,000,000, Corporate Tax for individuals above AED 1,000,000 and Small Business Relief up to AED 3,000,000. The Spanish ones look at last year's turnover: if this year's exceeds the limit, we ask you for it. If you do not know it, it shows you one scenario for each turnover band that changes the result.

No. It is a tax-only difference, not a net result: it does not include the licence, visas, accounting or the cost of living in the UAE. The licence, visas and accounting have their own calculators, linked at the end of this page. If the UAE comes out with a higher tax burden than Spain, the tool says so too.

Yes. It calculates Spanish corporation tax at the rate that applies to your company (newly incorporated, micro-company, small company or standard) and IRPF on what you receive from it: dividends and, if you pay yourself a salary, the salary. If you work in or manage the company and control it, it adds your contributions as a working controlling shareholder, based on your salary and, depending on your shareholding, your dividends; if you do not work in it, you pay no contributions for it. If it cannot be known how you contribute, with everything paid as dividends those contributions are shown as pending and the total is not complete; with a salary, it gives no figure. It assumes the company pays out everything it has left and applies no tax adjustments or losses brought forward.

We do not give a figure: translating the Spanish calculation or changing its currency is not enough. We ask you the questions that decide your case and show you what decides it, with its official source. In the United Kingdom, its residence test, the temporary non-residence rule with all its conditions, and whether your company remains resident there. In the United States, citizenship or a green card, your state of residence, the possible expatriation tax and the fact that there is no general income tax treaty with the UAE. Then we will review your case based on your answers.

When the case does not allow a reliable estimate: if you pay tax outside Spain, if you already live in the UAE, if you are not moving your tax residency, if you are taxed in the Basque Country or Navarre, or in Ceuta, Melilla or La Palma, if you do not give your region or we do not yet calculate its scale, if you plan a free zone company, if you pay yourself a salary and it is not known how you contribute as a shareholder in your company, or if you do not know your profit or how you work today. Nor does it convert amounts in a currency without a reference rate. “I do not know” never counts as zero: in those cases we tell you what decides it and review your case.

Because the comparison only makes sense if you move your tax residency to the UAE. As a Spanish resident you are taxed in Spain on all your income, including what you earn in the UAE. Having residency or a company in the UAE is not enough, on its own, to stop being tax resident in Spain. You remain Spanish tax resident if you spend more than 183 days in Spain in the calendar year, counting occasional absences unless you prove tax residency in another country, or if the main centre of your business activities or economic interests is there. If your spouse, from whom you are not legally separated, and your dependent minor children live in Spain, you are presumed to be resident in Spain, unless you prove otherwise (Spanish Tax Agency, Article 9 of the Spanish Personal Income Tax Act). It is best to settle this before you move.

In dirhams (AED) and in the currency you choose, at an indicative commercial reference exchange rate, not an official rate: 1 EUR = AED 4.10, 1 USD = AED 3.65 and 1 GBP = AED 4.85.

Every rate, bracket and threshold comes from an official rule in force in 2026. “Sources and review” cites the rule for each one, with a link to the website of the body that publishes it. The estimate is still pending validation, and the tool shows this next to the figure. Each result records which version of the parameters and which exchange rate it was calculated with.

No. It is an indicative estimate based on a simplified calculation. The real figure depends on your tax residency, your structure and your activity, and can only be determined by reviewing your case.

The preview is calculated in your browser: what you type does not reach us until, in the second step, you leave your contact details and submit. We then store your contact details, your answers and the result, with the parameter version and exchange rate applied, to send it to you by email and review your case. The two boxes for receiving information by email and by WhatsApp are optional and left unticked. The details are in the privacy policy.