Author: Hussam Elbakery

AUDIT

Financial audits are critical to ensuring that organizations are transparent and accountable in their financial reporting. An audit is an independent review of an organization’s financial statements, records, and internal controls, performed by a certified public accountant (CPA) or an external auditing firm. The primary objective of a financial audit is to provide an opinion […]

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Feasibility Study

A feasibility study is one of the basic steps to starting any business or investment project. It is considered a comprehensive evaluation process for all aspects of the project, starting from the costs required to establish it, to financial projections and the expected return on it. For this reason, it is very important to conduct […]

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VAT vs Excise tax

VAT (Value Added Tax) and excise tax are two different types of taxes that are applied in various countries. While they share some similarities, they also have some significant differences. VAT is a tax on the value added to goods or services at each stage of production or distribution. It is applied to almost all […]

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Difference between trust and foundation

A trust is essentially an agreement between two parties, the settlor and the trustee, and it does not need to registered to be effective. Pursuant to a trust deed, the settlor will transfer his properties to the trustee, where the trustee will then hold on to all the properties but for the sole benefit of […]

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How is a Trust Taxed?

The taxation of trusts is not straightforward. Because a trust is a relationship, not a person, it does not fit neatly in the categories of individual or corporation. Further, even though the trustee has legal title to the trust assets, the assets really belong to someone else, i.e. the beneficiary or beneficiaries. Despite this, most […]

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Foundations – a Trust Alternative

The ADGM has been promoting foundations as a vehicle for wealth and estate planning. Many people think of foundations as philanthropic organizations. However, ADGM foundations have great utility as a vehicle for private family wealth and especially family offices. ADGM foundations combine characteristics of trusts and corporations – assets are managed by directors of the […]

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UAE Trusts and Foundations for Tax-efficient Wealth Preservation

Trusts have been around a long time. Even though the Dubai International Finance Centre (DIFC) and the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM), both free zones with their own bespoke legal systems, only introduced trusts in recent years, trusts and similar legal instruments have a long history spanning multiple legal systems. The trust most familiar to […]

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