Senior fractional tax leadership for UAE and cross-border groups — group tax strategy, board papers, Pillar Two readiness, M&A input, multi-jurisdictional governance. Delivered by a Chartered Tax Adviser-led team with a live, sitting in-house Head of Tax role at a KKR/GIP-backed multinational.
🔄 Last updated: 24 October 2026
Outsourced Head of Tax (OHT) at The Tax Lead. We provide fractional Head of Tax leadership for UAE and multi-jurisdiction groups needing board-level tax oversight without a full-time hire. Three retainer tiers: Essential (AED 7,500/month, 1-2 days senior adviser time, standing call + quarterly paper), Growth (AED 15,000+/month, 3-5 days, board attendance), and Enterprise (part-time dedicated, audit committee attendance). Covers UAE CT, VAT, Pillar Two, transfer pricing, M&A due diligence, HMRC/FTA correspondence, UK-UAE cross-border planning. 30-day notice period, no annual tie-in.
For most UAE and cross-border groups between SME and £100m revenue, hiring a full-time Head of Tax is overkill — and paying Big-4 by the hour is unpredictable and expensive. Fractional sits between them.
Senior tax director as an employee
Senior fractional tax leadership on retainer
Project-by-project engagement with a top-tier firm
Series B/C businesses hitting AED 50m+ revenue — too big for ad hoc advice, too small for a full-time hire.
Portfolio companies that need senior tax leadership between the CFO and the sponsor — especially pre-exit.
UK parent, UAE subsidiary — single OHT engagement covers both regimes, aligned transfer pricing, Pillar Two readiness.
SaaS, fintech, e-commerce — IP structuring, nexus questions, VAT on digital services, group entity choice.
Multi-SPV property structures, dev finance, cross-border property investment — group tax strategy delivered monthly.
DIFC or ADGM family offices — investment holding, trust structures, succession tax strategy, UK IHT 10-year rule.
Capital-intensive businesses — data centres, logistics, renewables — where tax leakage on financing really bites.
Businesses heading toward a sale, IPO or significant transaction — the next 18 months of tax strategy define the exit value.
CFOs who have been handling tax as part of a broader finance role — and realise it’s now big enough to need its own leader.
Illustrative of a mid-tier OHT retainer. Specifics vary with your business — but this is the texture of the engagement.
Review the month’s open tax items, incoming deals, quarterly priorities. Set the agenda for the next three weeks.
Draft tax update for the audit committee: compliance status, open positions, forward tax risks, savings realised.
Review of a new acquisition target in Europe — tax structure recommendation, SPA tax clauses, closing accounts items.
Review and senior sign-off of the UAE CT return prepared by the in-house finance team. Second-pair-of-eyes on positions.
Drafting and sign-off of HMRC response on a legacy UK CT position. Strategy call with external UK counsel.
Refresh the GloBE effective tax rate model with Q3 numbers. Highlight any top-up tax exposure to the CFO.
Confirm the UAE Free Zone entity is still within de minimis, substance is intact, TP policy still aligned.
Written monthly report to the CFO. Dozen or so quick questions answered through the month by email/WhatsApp.
Free 20-minute Discovery Call with the CFO or founder. We’ll scope your current tax posture, the gaps, the priorities for the next 90 days. Written retainer proposal within two business days.
Discovery CallWritten proposalSigned retainer, secure data room, access to your systems. First 90-day plan written with you — what we’ll fix, what we’ll build, what you want the board to see first.
Data room90-day planBoard introMonthly rhythm: CFO standing call, board paper every quarter, continuous ad hoc availability, monthly written report. All deliverables as scoped, no scope creep without a conversation.
Monthly rhythmStanding callBoard paperEvery 90 days we review the retainer together. Scope up where new deals or regimes need more. Scope down where things have steadied. 30-day notice always applies — no long tie-in, ever.
Quarterly reviewFlexible scope30-day noticeMost “fractional” offerings come from ex-practice partners who left years ago. Our principal is currently in a live, sitting senior tax leadership role at a KKR & GIP-backed hyperscale infrastructure multinational — dealing with the same questions daily that your business faces.
UK, Ireland, Netherlands, Germany, Italy, France, Spain and the US — a live 8-country European perimeter plus APAC experience. We’ve seen almost every cross-border structure you can imagine, in practice, not in a textbook.
Chartered Tax Adviser (the UK’s highest tax qualification) + Fellow of ACCA. Technical depth + the commercial finance context most pure tax advisers lack.
Scale up for a big quarter (acquisition, financing, audit, Pillar Two go-live). Scale down for a quiet one. Monthly retainer, 30-day notice. No annual tie-in, no exit fees.
At AED 7,500–25,000/month, you get senior tax leadership for 15–30% of the cost of a full-time Head of Tax hire — and far more consistency than hourly Big-4 engagements, where the first 3 hours each month go on reading your file.
Our UK practice at thetaxlead.co.uk means a single OHT retainer can cover both regimes for cross-border groups — one engagement, one invoice, one person managing both sides.
All retainers are flat monthly fees, agreed up front, 30-day notice both sides. Exact fee confirmed after the Discovery Call based on activity level, geography and transactional pipeline.
UAE-focused group, moderate activity, no large transactions in flight.
UAE + UK or cross-border group, active transactional pipeline, Pillar Two emerging.
Multi-jurisdiction group, in-scope for Pillar Two, large transactional pipeline, board-level reporting.
All retainers include a 90-day review built in. Scope can flex up (for a big quarter) or down (for a steady state) by agreement. 30-day notice both sides. All fees exclude VAT and third-party costs (specialist counsel, benchmarking databases, foreign-adviser fees) which pass through at cost.
Book a free 20-minute Discovery Call. We’ll scope your tax function, propose the right OHT tier, and send you a written retainer proposal within two business days.