Italian residents in Dubai: the race to maintain tax status with quick returns

Escape from Dubai, with a return ticket in your pocket. The private jet charter companies, surveyed among those still active on the routes between Italia and the Middle East, tell at the moment of a demand for return flights, certainly not outward flights from Milan or Rome to the Emirates. Yet the subject may arise unexpectedly in the coming weeks or months.

As the Financial Times reported on Saturday, 10 March 2026, while Gulf millionaires are understandably willing to pay up to hundreds of thousands of euros for a private jet flight to take them far away from the Middle East, there is also a much less decipherable flow of people these days who are instead seeking a boarding for the United Arab Emirates, in particular Dubai. They are concerned about losing the favourable tax status guaranteed by the Emirates, which provides no income tax for individuals, investors or most companies. A status that is generally preserved under one condition: that one spends at least 183 days in the country (even non-consecutive days within a 12-month period).

And here comes the juncture with the Italian reality. Because the same condition is naturally also valid for our fellow citizens with tax residence in the Emirates. According to data from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, the number is close to 20 thousand. In particular, there are 18,671 Italians registered with the consular registry office in the United Arab Emirates. As many as 15,000 of these in Dubai alone, which has become one of the world's main hubs of global mobility, an expression used to indicate the international mobility of highly qualified people, entrepreneurs, managers and large fortunes.

For the most part, these are individuals drawn to Dubai not only by the tax advantages, but also by the presence of global infrastructure and a strategic geographic location, straddling Europe, Asia and Africa. A mix that has led to many multinationals establishing regional offices in the area, especially in the finance and technology sectors, with skilled workers coming from various countries, including Italia. A force of attraction that has therefore primarily involved talent and only secondarily influencers or digital creators Italians stuck in the country and become, despite themselves, protagonists of the news these days.