Why UK founders earning £10m+ are rethinking where their wealth — and their families — are anchored

Is This You?

You’re not worried about income. You’ve already solved that problem.
Your business generates eight figures annually. Your assets are global. Your children will never struggle financially.
And yet, there’s a growing discomfort you can’t quite ignore.
Not because you’re losing money — but because you’re starting to realise how much of what you’ve built may never truly be yours to pass on.

You’ve done everything right:

• Built a profitable business
• Paid your taxes
• Created value and employment
• Thought long-term

But the rules around you are shifting.
Quietly. Gradually. Structurally.
And the uncomfortable question begins to surface:

If something happened to me tomorrow, how much control would my family actually have — and how much would be decided for them by a system I didn’t design?

This is where inheritance tax stops being theoretical.
And where relocation becomes a strategic necessity, not an emotional reaction.

Why This Blog Matters Now

Inheritance tax is one of the least discussed — and most consequential — risks facing UK ultra-high-net-worth founders today.

Not because it’s new.
But because at scale, it interacts brutally with global assets, international families, and modern business structures.

At Dubai Shift, we see this conversation unfold every week — quietly, privately, often late.

Founders don’t come to us asking how to “avoid tax”.
They come asking how to protect what they’ve built, how to create continuity for their children, and how to move from accumulation to preservation without breaking the structure.

This blog exists to explain:

• why inheritance tax hits founders differently,
• why 2025–2026 is a turning point,
• why doing nothing is still a decision,
• and why Dubai and the UAE have become a serious alternative for founders thinking in decades.

And most importantly:
why this must be handled strategically, not administratively.

The Lakshmi Mittal Signal: Why This Case Matters

Lakshmi Mittal is not relevant because of his name.

He is relevant because of what triggered his decision.

Mittal — founder of ArcelorMittal, one of the world’s largest steel producers, with a reported net worth exceeding $20bn — has been widely reported to be relocating away from the UK and spending significant time in Dubai.

According to advisers familiar with the move, the issue was not income tax.
It was inheritance tax.

Specifically, the principle that all worldwide assets — regardless of where they are generated, held, or intended to benefit — can fall within the UK inheritance tax net.

For founders with:

• international operating companies,
• global investment portfolios,
• children educated across borders,
• and lives that are no longer UK-centric,

this creates a fundamental mismatch.

The critical quote from reporting is this:

“Many wealthy people from overseas cannot understand why all of their assets, wherever they are in the world, should be subject to inheritance tax imposed by the UK Treasury.”

This is not outrage.
It is structural disbelief.

And it reflects exactly how many UK founders earning £10m–£100m feel today.

Why the Autumn Budget Changed the Psychology of Founders

For most people, budgets are about rates.

For founders at scale, budgets are about direction.

Recent UK budgets have reinforced several realities:

• Inheritance tax remains aggressive, with rates up to 40%
• Global asset exposure continues to be pulled into the UK net
• Reliefs are narrowing, not expanding
• Discussions around further levies and exit-style taxation have entered mainstream policy debate
• The non-dom regime reforms have altered long-term planning assumptions

None of this creates panic.

What it creates is clarity.

Founders realise that waiting for a “better moment” may simply mean waiting until options are fewer.

Why Inheritance Tax Hits Founders Differently

For salaried professionals, inheritance tax is an estate problem.

For founders, it is a business continuity problem.

At £10m+ annual income, inheritance tax interacts with:

• illiquid business interests,
• operating companies that cannot easily be broken up,
• shareholder agreements,
• management continuity,
• and family governance.

It introduces risks such as:

• forced asset sales at the wrong time,
• dilution of family control,
• misalignment between business timelines and tax timelines,
• stress on next-generation leadership.

Most importantly, it removes choice at the moment choice matters most.

Why Doing Nothing Is Still a Decision

Many founders delay inheritance and relocation planning because:

• they are busy scaling,
• nothing feels urgent yet,
• the business still needs them fully engaged,
• or the family is settled.

But inaction is not neutral.

It silently locks in:

• jurisdictional exposure,
• asset classification,
• and future constraints.

When a trigger event occurs — a health issue, a liquidity event, a regulatory change — decisions are suddenly made under pressure.

That is when founders say:

“I wish I had structured this earlier.”

Why Dubai Changes the Equation

Dubai does not remove responsibility.
It changes the framework.

Under UAE law:

• There is no inheritance tax
• There is no personal income tax
• Wealth can be structured deliberately rather than defensively
• Family succession can be planned globally
• Business structures can align with how value is actually created

Beyond tax, Dubai offers something equally important: future alignment.

The Next Generation Question (This Is Where Decisions Are Really Made)

For many founders, inheritance tax planning is not about themselves.

It’s about their children.

Dubai and the UAE offer:

• British curriculum schools
• IB and international schools
• Technology-driven education
• Early exposure to AI, robotics, entrepreneurship
• A truly global peer environment
• Cultural diversity without instability
• Safety, healthcare access, and global mobility

Children raised in this environment grow up globally fluent, not domestically constrained.

For founders thinking about legacy, this matters more than any spreadsheet.

Why Early Structure Protects the Next Generation

Inheritance planning cannot be rushed.

Structures designed early:

• preserve optionality,
• allow wealth to be governed intentionally,
• reduce forced outcomes,
• align business succession with family readiness,
• and give children clarity rather than confusion.

This is why founders who move early retain control — and those who wait are forced into compromises.

Case Study

A Digital Investor Redesigning His Base Before the First Inheritance Decision Is Made

(Illustrative, anonymised — reflects a live Dubai Shift engagement)

This founder did not come to Dubai Shift because something had gone wrong.

He came because something had changed.

Background

• UK-based digital investor and operator
• Annual profit: approximately $15 million
• Assets and income generated across multiple jurisdictions
• Recently married
• Newborn child
  

At this level, decisions are rarely reactive.
They are anticipatory.

The Trigger: A Newborn, Not a Tax Notice

The catalyst was not income tax, capital gains, or regulatory pressure.

It was a simple realisation:

“If something happened to me tomorrow, the first major decision about my child’s future would be made by default — not by design.”

Despite operating globally, the founder’s personal and family wealth remained structurally anchored to the UK framework, including worldwide inheritance exposure.

For someone with:

• international investments,
• long-term capital horizons,
• and a child who would grow up global,
  

This misalignment mattered.

Why Waiting Was the Risk

The founder understood that inheritance planning cannot be done well under pressure.

Waiting until:

• a liquidity event,
• a health issue,
• or a legislative change
  

would reduce options and introduce forced outcomes.

He wanted his first inheritance decision — the one that sets the tone for everything that follows — to be intentional, calm, and future-aligned.

Dubai Shift’s Role: Designing Before Urgency Exists

Dubai Shift was engaged as a strategic relocation partner, not an execution vendor.

Our role was to coordinate the entire transition — legally, structurally, and personally — before urgency entered the picture.

UK Exposure & Exit Planning

We worked alongside UK tax specialists to:

• assess Statutory Residence Test exposure,
• review behavioural and tie-based risks,
• plan a defensible exit aligned with tax-year logic,
• ensure the move reflected real life, not just paperwork.
  

Wealth & Succession Architecture

In coordination with legal and tax advisors, we focused on:

• separating operating risk from family wealth,
• designing succession structures that would still work decades later,
• avoiding forced decisions triggered by jurisdiction rather than intention.
  

This was not about reducing tax.
It was about preserving control.

UAE Base & Residency Design

We structured a UAE base that:

• supported long-term residency,
• aligned with how the founder actually invests and allocates capital,
• provided stability for family planning and governance.
  

Family Ecosystem Planning

Because the decision was driven by a child, we addressed:

• healthcare continuity,
• future education pathways (British and global curricula),
• residential environments prioritising safety, privacy, and long-term living.
  

Why Dubai Was the Right Base at This Life Stage

For this founder, Dubai was not attractive because it was tax-efficient.

It was attractive because:

• there is no inheritance tax under UAE law,
• wealth transfer can be structured deliberately rather than reactively,
• succession planning is not distorted by domestic assumptions,
• the education ecosystem is designed for global citizens,
• and the jurisdiction is aligned with the future economy his child will inherit.
  

Dubai allowed the founder to make his first generational decision early — calmly and on his own terms.

Final Words from Haseena

Over the past year, I’ve spoken to hundreds of founders earning £10m, £30m, £70m a year.

None of them were worried about money.

They were worried about misalignment — between the lives they were living, the businesses they were building, and the systems they were still anchored to.

Inheritance tax is often the moment that forces honesty.

Not because people want to leave the UK — but because they can no longer justify leaving their children exposed to a structure that no longer fits their reality.

Dubai is not the answer for everyone.
But for founders who think in decades, who care deeply about continuity, and who want to pass on clarity rather than complexity — the UAE offers a framework that aligns with the future.

At Dubai Shift, our responsibility is simple:
to make sure that when founders move, nothing breaks later.

What Next

If this article resonates, the logical next steps are:

• UK inheritance exposure assessment
• Statutory Residence Test review
• Business and asset mapping
• UAE structuring strategy
• Residency and family planning
• Banking and compliance readiness

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Explore More: So who here has actually moved to Dubai in Last year and Why

This article is part of the Dubai Shift Insight Series. The objective of this series is simple: to provide clear, compliant, and strategic guidance for UK high-net-worth founders exploring relocation to Dubai and the UAE — covering global structuring, residency planning, tax alignment, and long-term jurisdictional strategy without hype, shortcuts, or generic relocation advice. Dubai Shift works alongside UK tax specialists, UAE legal advisors, accounting partners, and banking institutions to design and implement end-to-end relocation and structuring solutions for founders earning £10m–£100m+ annually.Our work is built around one principle:structures that hold up over time — under scrutiny, growth, and change. Learn more at: https://dubaishift.com/