Russian private clients and families: residence challenges, restructuring ideas

RESIDENCE IN TURBULENT TIMES

Living in turbulent times: what are new destinations for clients, assets and structures?

• Earlier popular jurisdictions lose appeal: higher taxes, sanctions, stricter compliance and political turbulence trigger clients’ exodus
• What jurisdictions Russian and CIS Clients are looking into for banking, asset structuring, doing business and residence?
• How factors of infrastructure, accessibility, compliance, taxes and safety are assessed?
• Burning the bridges: would Clients be able to return once the turbulence resolves?
• Travelling light: what Clients often forget doing before changing jurisdictions?

A new challenge for Russian clients: proving their [non]resident status

• Russian regulators require Russians to have no links with the West, while western banks demand the opposite: what do the Clients do?
• Counting days: how time spent on either side of a border matters for personal and CFC tax, as well as currency control regulations
• Russian HNWI tax control unit: special division aimed to tax the rich, well equipped with knowledge on the usual tax evasion tricks
• Maintaining ‘living outside of Russia’ status: immigration status, permanent home, substance, time spent, and actually living outside the Russian Federation.
• What ties to Russia Client will need to sever, and what could still be tolerated?

A man proposes, but God disposes: plans which went wrong

• Seeking for a safe place to live: Russia to Israel to UAE (and where to next?)
• Comparing lump sums tax (with zero): UK to Swiss or Italy or UAE?
• Shopping for citizenship and residence permits in 2026: EU, Caribbean, Africa or Latin America?
• Anchor kids in US or Argentina: convenience for parents, life-long implications for kids?
• Like a rolling stone: is ‘nomad life’ a dream or delusion?

RESTRUCTURING ASSETS

Restructuring how Russian client’s assets are held: case studies

• Redomiciliation of an EU company to a ‘friendly’ jurisdiction
• Redomiciliation to a Russian SAR
• Conversion of a company to a UAE foundation
• Setting up parallel structures for Western and Russian assets
• Russian Private Foundation as an asset holding structure vs other options for protecting assets

A glance into the future challenges and opportunities

• Exposure risks for cross-border Clients: tax, compliance, sanctions, asset freezes or seizures
• Maintaining banking relationships (and what to do when the bank ousts the Client)
• Tax planning: is there such a thing in 2026? Russian UAE DTT and Russian tax reform, financial information exchange and tax audits as factors affecting Clients’ behavior
• Multiple countries, multiple generations: how living between several jurisdictions complicates matrimonial, child and inheritance disputes, and what are typical pitfalls
• Practical considerations for travelers: connectivity, state surveillance, conscription
• What you need to remind your Russian-related Client (s)he has probably forgotten about?