Introduction
Relocating to Dubai isn’t just a lifestyle upgrade – it’s a complete financial reset that could bring you massive benefits like saving hundreds of thousands in taxes and getting access to opportunities that simply don’t exist anywhere else.
But here’s the thing: while thousands dream of moving to the world’s most dynamic city, only a handful truly realize what it takes to make the process of relocation seamless, compliant, and profitable.
In this extensive conversation, GenZone Co-CEO Kevin McKenzie tells Peter Komolafe how he escaped 55% Canadian taxes to build Dubai’s most trusted relocation company with his partner Shayan Nasiri.
With over 800 companies and 1,500+ individuals successfully relocated, Kevin and his team have become the go-to experts for entrepreneurs, investors, and high-net-worth individuals looking to establish themselves in the UAE – and in this interview, he reveals exactly how to do it right.
The GenZone Achievements
Peter: It’s been about 4 months since we last spoke. How have things been at GenZone?
Kevin: Actually, I have some fun facts to share with you. We’ve been growing, everything has been going amazing, and everyone’s very happy both internally in the company and externally with our clients.
We’ve gotten some new achievements. We actually have the highest satisfaction/renewal rate for company licenses with the Dubai free zone. Out of all the companies in the UAE, we’re number one.
Yeah, so the reason why is because of course people are having a good experience, but just having a good experience alone is not why you renew a license. The biggest factor behind that is we tell everything to our clients well in advance and we’re very transparent about things.
So once it does come time to renew their license or do anything in the future, they know that this is expected and it’s not a surprise.
And also with Wio Bank, you know Wio Bank quite well. We actually have the highest opening rate with their bank accounts. We’re one of their top service providers. We’re number one for opening bank accounts there too and we’re the number one with the highest opening rate as well.
The Western-Style Service in Dubai
Peter: But to be honest, it doesn’t surprise me because in the Telegram group, the guys that have used you like Mel and others have all given really good feedback about you guys and the time you spend helping people understand the process and going the extra mile. So that doesn’t surprise me at all. I think it’s part of what you’ve built and the customer service levels you maintain. It’s fantastic.
Kevin: Appreciate that. And it’s super happy to hear that people have that experience. I was actually speaking to someone yesterday, the CEO of a new company here in Dubai called BurjX.
He was the founder of one of the biggest crypto exchanges in Canada, exited his shares, moved here, and he said something I really relate to: ‘If you move to Dubai and start a business here, if you give really good western-type service, you’re already better than 99% of the market.’
And I genuinely believe this is true. We’re in one of the most competitive industries with so many competitors that charge more, less, or the same as us, but we’re still kind of dominating the space.
Why? Because our service is significantly better. And honestly, to me it’s just normal service – I’m trying to give good service, but to me that’s the standard.
Peter: Yeah. I would agree with that because looking for apartments and that kind of stuff, I think if you come from the western world, you have a certain expectation that is not normal business practice here. So, if you can bring western levels of service, you’re pretty up there in terms of just the customer experience and the outcomes for the customers for sure 100%.
Kevin: Like even just going the extra mile, for example with a rental. Let’s say I was helping someone find a rental. Even for myself, I rent apartments where I like to live. I invest, I buy what I invest in, but I rent where I like to live, at least for now. Going the extra mile for a client would look like not just bringing them to the place and opening the door.
It would look like getting them an actual report on what are the actual rental contracts in that area from data. People don’t do that these days, unfortunately.
Peter: I’ve had situations where it’s like, “Oh, just pick up the keys downstairs with the security guard.” I’m like, “Okay, that’s a little weird because then you become paranoid like what if something goes missing in it and it’s like you’re the last person that’s in there.”
Kevin: Yeah. I definitely agree with that. And for real estate agents, it could be just opening the door and letting the client look through it. Or you could be the number one agent or the top 1% and open the door, yes, but tell them what are the comparables.
Actually be critical on what they’re looking at. Say this is mold, this is broken, this should be fixed, this shouldn’t be like that or this is good, this is good. Looking at both sides, but people just don’t do that. They just want to close the deal.
The Personal Journey: Why Dubai?
Peter: I mean, since last time we spoke, a lot has obviously happened and the business has grown. You got some accolades there. I wanted to delve a little bit into you and why you started GenZone. What was the real story behind you moving to Dubai in the first place? And did it live up to the immediate expectation you had when you first moved?
Kevin: Yeah, that’s an amazing question and I think a lot of people will relate to it. Dubai came into my mind when I started making significant money. I was always fine paying 20%, 30%, even 40% in tax. But it really started bothering me once that 40-50% came from a business I knew I didn’t have to be in Canada for. I knew people online were moving to other places to legally pay 0% taxes. How can I do the same?
Back then we had an influencer marketing company. We ran campaigns for some of the biggest brands in the world—Bybit, Binance, KuCoin, MEXC, all these major exchanges. And I still have amazing relationships with them to this day. It’s crazy how things come around because now the people I used to do marketing for, I bring clients to them for major OTC deals or to help them cash out their crypto legally.
But that’s how it came to be. We were making a lot of money and genuinely paying 50-55% in taxes. It just didn’t feel good and we were quick to make that decision. My co-founder was actually fine staying in Canada because of course moving to another country, leaving your family, it’s a huge move.
Peter: Yeah.
Kevin: For me, I was like, listen man, this is how much money we’re losing. You’re really screwing yourself over. You never know how long a business will last. We need to protect ourselves and do this now. Eventually he came around and we started looking at the Bahamas, Cayman Islands, Paraguay, all these different places. Initially my mentality was, I don’t care where I go, I just want to pay 0% in tax.
But after doing research, that changed. I went from 0% tax to 0% tax and quality of life. Why are you making money? So you can have a good life.
We moved to Dubai in May of 2022 – around three and a half, four years ago. Back then it was full 0% tax. Corporate, personal, don’t even worry about it. The good old days, right? Now it’s still technically the golden days where there’s no tax for most businesses, but some businesses like ours actually have to pay tax and I just paid my first tax bill.
Peter: Corporation tax.
Kevin: Correct. Corporation tax. Yeah.
From Zero to 800+ Companies in Four Years
Peter: So to go from zero clients to over 800 businesses now in four years, that’s huge business growth, right?
Kevin: Yes.
Peter: How old are you to do this within a 4-year period?
Kevin: When we first moved here in 2022, I would have been 21, turning 22.
Peter: Wow. Okay.
Kevin: But even back then, for the first year, we were not doing relocation as a service. We were just helping our friends do it for free. I kept helping people for free and I thought, why am I doing this? Number one, I went through an experience that I don’t want anyone else to experience. So I was like, I’ll just do it for you. And I had enough time where I could do this for free.
Number two, I actually saw myself enjoying it. After we did the initial setup, I thought, oh, this is actually really interesting. I love it. Back in Canada, I wanted to be a tax auditor for the CRA. I’ve always had a passion for tax. After we helped people, I thought, oh my gosh, I actually love doing this.
We were still running the marketing company back then, but since the crypto market was going into a bear market, our clients were not running as many campaigns. So we were like, okay, let’s just do this and see where it goes. And it went from 10 clients to 20 clients. On a monthly basis, we were maybe doing one, two, three, four clients to the point where now we can do around 50 to 60 in a month.
The real growth has come from the last two and a half years where we went full-time and shut down the other business. Once we went full on into this, that’s where the real scale happened.
It’s a really competitive industry. When we first started, a lot of people in our network saw us doing it and were like, “Oh, if this guy can do it, I can do it, too.” No, you genuinely can’t. It takes a different type of beast to help people relocate their lives to Dubai. It’s not just take the money, apply for a license. You have to give them a perfect service from start to finish and always be there for them in the following years.
And 800 clients, that’s companies. It’s way more people than companies. I would estimate around 1,500 people, maybe even more. I have some clients with four or five people on their licenses. Even people close to me, like my girlfriend, she’s like, “How do you even manage all that?” And I’m like, honestly, you build up to it and you make it your life. You don’t just start off at 800 companies. You start at one for 6 months and then two and then three and it slowly builds up over time.
The One Rule That Built Everything
Peter: Okay. Now, this is amazing because I think for people watching this, a lot of people want to move to Dubai to build a better life and build a business here. So in those first one or two years what were some of the biggest lessons and challenges that you faced that put you in good stead to be here today at the volume that you’re doing?
Kevin: Yeah, honestly, I put all of our success on one simple rule that I have. Get better every single day. If you’re not getting better every single day, someone else will and they’ll take your clients. Genuinely, you have to get better every day, at least by 1%.
It doesn’t matter what you do, but it’s incredible to see how much that can actually help you. If I have a client who had a negative experience for whatever reason, make sure you never have another client have that same experience.
I think the reason why we grew so fast was because of this. Of course, we’re working hard, putting money into advertising, giving people a good service, but how did we get to give them the best service? By getting better every day.
When we first started, we had no specific guidelines. It was just, take a client, help them, play by ear essentially. The moment I had my first negative experience – a client’s e-visa expired and they wanted to enter after the e-visa and they told me, “Oh, Kevin, you didn’t tell me.”
And I was like, “You know what? You’re right. I didn’t tell you. It does say it on the e-visa that it’s only valid for 60 days, but I didn’t go to you personally and tell you.” So we covered the cost of a totally new residency visa for them and I then created my detailed process guideline which exists today. Right now, it’s I think 36 pages.
Peter: Oh, wow.
Kevin: Of expensive lessons. So it cost me a lot of money to make that document. It started off with half a page explaining the process step by step to then explaining the process in detail from literally the day they start with us. Not only do clients have to trust us, but they actually know exactly what’s going on.
When they land at the airport, they look at their document and it says when you get to the airport do this, do this, and here’s where you do it. There’s photos showing them everything, where to go, what to do. I don’t think anyone else does it like we do. And more importantly, all of the lessons are on that document.
How to Handle Negative Feedback
Peter: I’m interested to know because a lot of the time people don’t take negative feedback in the right way. It’s hard to receive negative feedback, especially if someone’s paid you to do something. How did you take it when the client rings you and goes, “My e-visa is expired. You didn’t tell me. What’s going on, Kev?”
Kevin: Yeah. Honestly, right from the beginning, my mindset was put yourself in their shoes. Actually, put your mother or your father in their shoes. That’s even better because sometimes we forget that older people don’t know technology as much as younger people. So I put my parents in their shoes and think, okay, what would I want someone to do for them? How would I like someone to treat them? That’s literally how it is.
So even if the client is totally wrong or being rude, I put my parents in their shoes and act like that. If they’re ringing me all angry, I’ll say, “Listen, I totally understand. I definitely don’t want this to happen to you. What I’ll do in this case, because we didn’t explain it to you well enough, we’ll cover the cost of your new residency visa. Just bear with us. It’ll take around one or two days and then we’ll get going from there.”
That’s literally what happened. I just did that for them and they were super happy. Of course, there’s going to be some times where the client is just totally wrong. You fully explain it to them properly and they’re still being rude. It happens. But even then, I try my best to still make it right for them. Like Apple service. Apple has the best service. I kind of want to do that.
Peter: Yeah. I mean, the thing is now we don’t really have that happen.
Kevin: I think it’s very rare for that to happen now. And if it does, it’s for something very minimal because we don’t just tell them once, we follow up multiple times. We’ll say something once, then again later and then later so they can protect themselves and we protect ourselves from getting that negative feedback.
Last thing I want is negative feedback. In a month, let’s say we have 50 clients, and then next month another 50. During the process, you have 100 people that could be ringing angry. So now I’d say we honestly don’t have any issues. Our Google reviews are so flawless for now. Of course, as we scale, maybe that will change, but I will do my best for that to never happen. We always put the procedures in place.
Quality Over Profits: Building for the Long Term
Peter: And I think one thing as well is as we scaled, what did you always put an emphasis on?
Kevin: We always put an emphasis on the quality of service and not profits. Genuinely, if someone messages me and says, “Kevin, I want to do this” and I cannot do it for them or I don’t want to do it based on what they need, I’ll tell them it’s not a good fit for us.
Money is not everything. We’re blessed and in the position where we don’t need more money to be honest. We just need the best clients and we want to give them the best service.
So what we’ve done is hired people and trained them extremely well. I still personally train our employees. They’ll call me at 8, 9, 10 p.m. and ask me questions. Happy to answer because the people who work for you are the direct reflection of you and your business.
First Impressions: Landing in Dubai
Peter: So I want to go back a little bit. You decided you need to pay less tax and have a good lifestyle alongside that. When you first landed in Dubai, what was the first thing that hit you? Was there anything you underestimated emotionally or practically in that first week or two?
Kevin: I still remember clearly landing here. First thing that hit me was the heat. I was shocked because I’d never been to Dubai before.
Peter: What month did you land?
Kevin: May.
Peter: Oh my god. Okay, cool.
Kevin: May 22nd around that time.
Peter: Yeah. So you’re hitting into the summer months and it just gets worse from there.
Kevin: Yeah. So it was around May 22nd or 30th. I landed in the airport. It was not that hot looking back, but for a Canadian from a cold country, I felt it. I genuinely did not get used to it on my first day.
But when I landed, we went to Downtown Views. We stayed downtown, beautiful two-bedroom apartment, me and my business partner, and I could not believe how luxurious and beautiful and how good the service is here in Dubai. Even small things like your cab driver putting your suitcase in the car for you.
Peter: Small things like that. I was helping him put it in, but he was like, “No, no, no. Stop.” And I’m like, “Oh, okay. Fine.”
Kevin: You get to the apartment and the people bring in your luggage for you. They check you in. They give you a full tour, tell you all the amenities, walk you around the pool. If you got a spa or sauna, everything, and you’re just there like, “What the hell? This is incredible.”
Then we get into the apartment, I look outside and see the beautiful view of the Burj Khalifa. We got a Burj view for our first day and it just motivated me so much. It motivated me to get more. This is the tallest tower in the world with the biggest mall right here and I want to get more.
I remember just hearing the cars, seeing the Lamborghinis, the Ferraris. Once we left our apartment, we’d walk to the mall. We went through a tunnel and downstairs to Fashion Avenue parking lot. I remember just walking around and seeing cars I’ve never seen in my life before. Even in Canada, when you see a Lamborghini, it’s a very rare occasion.
Peter: It’s the same back in the UK. If you see someone in a Ferrari or Lamborghini, it’s out of the blue. Whereas here, there’s a Lamborghini or a Bentley everywhere. It loses its shock value after a while. But to see it initially, it’s like, wow.
Kevin: Yeah. It’s insane the amount of wealth here, but it’s so motivating. It’s like, wow, these guys have money to buy or even rent this car. It’s not cheap to rent a car. I haven’t even rented a Lamborghini because I’m still in the mindset of not spending recklessly, but I see people renting it and I’m like, “Wow, this is pretty good.”
So for me, seeing these cars was like, “Wow, there’s a ton of wealth here. We can do something to be a part of that wealth.” Then I remember going to the restaurants here. The service here is so good. Even in Canada, the service is good with a 15-20% tip. Once you pay that tip, you’re fine. But you’re in the mindset of like if I don’t tip, I can’t come back here.
So here, no tipping culture. Of course, I suggest people to tip, but it’s not forced. The service was just so good. People were so nice everywhere—restaurants, gym, wherever you go, best service in the world in Dubai. And the food is so good. Canada has decent food, but Dubai is on another level.
Peter: No, no, no. Really, I mean, look, we have some good food. The UK is a melting pot. But I agree with you, the quality of the food here is next level. It really is.
Kevin: I couldn’t believe it. I just came back from Portugal and it really gave me clear insight on how good Dubai is. I’ve been to Italy, Portugal, and I’m sorry if this is blasphemy, but the service in those countries is not good at all. You get to the restaurant, people don’t even greet you. That level of service doesn’t exist here. People will go the extra mile to get you into the restaurant and help you get the best experience.
I spoke to one of my friends from New York who’s traveled to a ton of countries, and she said the only city on par with New York is Dubai. She thinks Dubai has the best food in the world with New York. And New York has some good food there.
What else shocked me? The healthcare here. I remember the first time I wanted to get something checked, a mole on my head. My girlfriend was telling me we got to check that out. I thought I’d have to wait like a week or two. She calls the doctor and they’re like, “Yeah, you can come right now if you want.” And I was like, “What? Right now.”
Peter: My partner had to go to the hospital. She wasn’t feeling well. We checked her into the clinic and she was seen within 10 minutes. Back in the UK on the NHS, you’re going to sit in A&E for two, maybe three, four hours, then someone will come and see you.
Kevin: Yeah. It’s almost shocking because you know your home country can do that but for whatever reason they don’t. They can build more hospitals. They can hire more doctors. I don’t know if it’s like this in the UK but in Canada it’s very difficult to become a nurse or doctor, to qualify to go to school for that.
Competition as Motivation
Peter: That’s the rule of business as well. If you have more competition, you’re going to push to give better service because competition strives for you to be better.
Kevin: Actually, that’s also a really big factor in how we grew so fast. When you come here, there’s just so much competition. Even if they’re not directly in your industry, it’ll motivate you to see what other people do and you’ll be like, “Oh, I want to do this better.”
Whenever I see new competitors pop up—and by the way, every day I see them pop up—it just motivates me even more. We have people copying our ads, our website, social media.
Peter: Yeah. Literally, take it as a compliment. You’re doing something right.
Kevin: Exactly. I’ll go to the website and I’m like, you guys literally, this is our website with your face on it. But there’s one thing you can’t copy—our quality of service. You can never replicate that. And even if someone says, “Oh, I’m going to work as hard as you,” okay, fine. I’ll work even harder than them. I’d rather not sleep than let them do better than us.
Does Relocation Actually Create Freedom?
Peter: You’re in the business of helping people relocate. Do you think relocation actually helps people find freedom or is it something they have to actively search for once they’ve relocated? I’ve moved 4,000 miles from the UK, but the truth is, especially if you run a business, the routine becomes the same just in a different location. So if you’re striving for a better lifestyle and more freedom, the act of just moving isn’t enough. You’ve got to be conscious and intentional about maximizing the freedom you gain.
Kevin: Absolutely. When I first moved here, my routine was definitely changed because I wasn’t used to the surroundings. It took probably around one year to get fully used to it. And of course you lose your friend group, but you have great communities.
But once you’re fully established and past the initial culture shock—even though it’s a positive culture shock—then you can build towards what the tax savings is giving you.
So yes, just moving here won’t give you freedom. What will give you freedom? It depends on your definition. For some people, freedom is being able to wake up five minutes later. For someone else, it’s not working at all. Money will absolutely help you get there.
In my personal case, my freedom is just being able to wake up, work, and be happy. That’s freedom for me. I’m free of negative emotions. But for more people, freedom is not worrying about money, being able to buy things.
Some key things you can do is reinvest your profits right away. The initial profits, don’t spend it on your lifestyle because if you do, you’re just paying for a lifestyle with tax savings. For the first one to three years reinvest as much as you can, especially in a growing market like Dubai where in the next 5-10 years we’re going to become a London, a New York and every asset class here will increase.
Whether that’s buying property, investing into your business, buying equities—Dubai based or US market, S&P 500, whatever. Take your money that you’re saving and reinvest it because if you just take the money and spend it, it’s like you’re just in the UK.
Peter: Yeah, 100%. I agree with that. It’s interesting what you talked about there about freedom. I had a conversation with a friend of mine. He would love to make the move here, but he’s got like four kids. We were talking about freedom specifically.
One of the things we landed on was that freedom looks differently to different people. Some people have financial freedom. Some people have time freedom without necessarily having the financial element because just walking your kids to school or picking them up, that’s freedom of its own, right?
And one thing we landed on is that if you’re in business, business can allow you to have time freedom, financial freedom. But what business doesn’t often allow you is freedom of the mind because you’re constantly thinking about the business. And that’s regardless of whether you’re in Dubai, New York, London, wherever. I think it’s really important to identify what that point of freedom is for you and be comfortable within that.
I’ve been here second year now. The first six to nine months is wow, it’s a big shock to the system. I’ve had to reinvent my routine to allow me to structure myself so I can go to the gym more and prioritize that side of things. And if I compare this to two years ago in the UK, this is a much better space that I find myself in.
Kevin: Yeah, for sure. That’s a good point you mentioned, the mind freedom. You’ll always think about business. If your business grows, you’ll think about business. If it doesn’t grow, you’ll think about business. And people think, “Oh, well, you should just hire people to help you.” Okay, you’re hiring people, sure, but you now have to manage these people.
I think if you really want to get true freedom in business is accept that business is a part of your life and find happiness in always having it on your mind. You should find happiness in being able to have the opportunity to think about these things. Genuinely, for me, it’s like a video game. I love having my business. When I’m in the pool, I’m thinking about business. For me, it’s an addiction. I think it’s a very healthy addiction because it’s super stimulating, motivating, and you’re not smoking, you’re not drinking.
Of course, it stresses you sometimes, but I think if you build your business the right way, you shouldn’t have much stress at all. The only stress you should have is in some very rare unique cases where something just happens. There was a Dubai flood like two years ago. I had so many clients that flew here and they couldn’t do any of their appointments because the centers were underwater. I have videos of them literally underwater. People were at their waist in the clinic still trying to get their stuff done while they’re flooded. That’s insane.
So accept that there will be some stress, but learn to rewrap it and change it to something you appreciate.
Why You Need Expert Help: Real Examples
Peter: So for people thinking about moving to Dubai, setting up a business to give them the license and ability to be here, how important is it to have someone to help you navigate the complexities? For some people who may be looking at the process thinking, I can do this on my own. Trading license, residence visa. Hey, easy. How important is it to have someone help you?
Kevin: I think it’s extremely important. People will often get the wrong setup or the right setup in the wrong way, which does happen. They come back to us all the time and say, “Kevin or Cheyenne, this happened to me. Can you please help me?”
I think it’s extremely important to get it done right the first time with the right group of people because otherwise you’ll go through so many things that are just not worth your time. If you’re an entrepreneur that needs to save money in taxes, trust me, it’s not worth your time to worry about this. There’s companies that do it for you. You go to the mechanic, you’re not fixing the car yourself. You go to the doctor, you’re not doing your own surgery. Hire the right people to help you.
And I want to show you something because people think, “Oh, I’m Canadian, I’m going to set up in a Dubai free zone. I’m not going to have any issues.” Trust me, that’s not what you expect. I won’t show this to the camera, but you can read through this.
Peter: Yeah.
Kevin: This is a screenshot of a Canadian client who got their residency visa application rejected in one free zone—not from us by the way. They worked with another group, a major company bigger than us in terms of clients. Rejected.
After that, they said, “I’ll stay with you. Let me just register another one in the Dubai free zone.” They did that, rejected again. Why? Because there was a brand new regulation change last week where now if you have an investor visa, you also need to provide bank statements. And if your bank statements don’t have a sufficient balance, you’re going to get rejected because they can’t prove your name.
Peter: Which makes sense. I mean, it’s an investor visa, so you need to show you’ve got the capital and probably they want anti-money laundering as well. So that makes sense.
Kevin: Yeah, exactly. So this is a brand new change, but one of the biggest companies, they’re not on the ball like we are because we’re more boutique style. To be honest we do as many companies as these huge companies but we implement a ton of automation so we’re way more effective. Our team has 10 or 11 people. We’re technically like a group of 50 because of the automations and AI we implemented.
But that could have been easily avoided if they just came to us. I would have told him first of all maybe that’s not the best one for you. If it is, then do you have this available for us to do this application? If he told me no, then I wouldn’t do that application.
This is where it’s important to work with people who are not just good but also nimble on their feet and understand what’s happening in the market. We’re not a mega huge company where it takes months for news to pass through the organization. The moment that information came across my desk I sent it to our whole team right away.
And to be honest, I don’t always recommend the investor visa anyway. In most cases, it’s actually not better because the investor visa makes banking harder because you have to show your home country bank statements. Also, if you apply for loans and credit cards in the future, it’s harder because you’re an investor. Investors technically don’t have salaries. They get paid dividends.
Peter: Sure. Yeah. So how are you going to get a credit card?
Kevin: Yeah, exactly. You can do it kind of, but you’ll probably have to get a collateralized credit card. And another reason why I don’t love it is if you have the investor visa, it costs more. And it comes with a different set of compliance and rules. And if you’re an investor, you don’t have a salary. So when it comes time to write off your expenses against your bill to lower your corporate tax, you can’t do that. It’s a dividend. Dividends are paid post corporate tax.
Peter: Yeah.
Kevin: So you’re illegally avoiding taxes if you’re doing that. There’s so many different things and that’s where we come in and give people the full clear picture. Ideally I explain it to them but also we’ll just be like Batman and just do it for you without you even knowing.
Choosing the Right Free Zone and Activity
Peter: Just explain the whole thing around picking the right free zone for the right business and the right activity. I’ve mentioned this a few times and I don’t think people understand what I mean. Can you give an example to explain why that is so important?
Kevin: Yeah. So it’s super complex because there’s different layers to it. A free zone could have the activity for you, but the activity might have issues when it comes time to banking or compliance down the line. So we choose another one that has that same activity.
Number one, pick the best quality free zone. Number two, pick the best quality free zone that has your activities. Because if you register in an area that doesn’t have your activities, you have to select what activity you have. So you just put the wrong one.
And in terms of getting the right setup, I was speaking to someone the other day who’s like a ChatGPT warrior. Love this client. Really nice guy. I call them ChatGPT warriors where they just ChatGPT and then boom.
Peter: ChatGPT and all these platforms will tell you good information but it doesn’t understand the business setup properly and then—
Kevin: Exactly. It doesn’t understand it. It could tell you register here in this free zone with this activity. Great. You can go do that on your own. You’ll set it up. But when it comes time to banking, you’re not getting your account open. Or when it comes time to open a brokerage account, you’re not getting it open. It’s important to work with the right people who know everything.
Peter: Yeah.
Kevin: Otherwise, even though it looks like the right setup, it could end up wrong. And I have a lot of people who say, “Oh, well, it went well for me.” Great. I’m happy it went well for you. But you need to understand there’s a lot of people it did not go well for. And trust me, they’re not coming to you and bragging about how bad it went.
Peter: Yeah, trust me. I think as well there’s the element of that if you are thinking of doing the process on your own, it’s completely fine. But sometimes even when you go on government websites, because there’s a translation from Arabic to English, it’s not as clear as you would expect. The information often doesn’t read naturally. So you’ve got to be prepared for losses in translation. You read something like, what does that mean exactly?
Kevin: There’s so many details about the process that just is not online. And by the way, even government websites have a lot of old information or stuff that’s not even applicable anymore. They have residency visas that don’t even exist on there.
It’s important to keep in mind that there’s so many different nuances for a setup to be done properly. Trust me, don’t take the gamble. It’s not worth it. I did it myself for our own business and we wasted so much money and that’s how GenZone came to be because I had such a negative experience.
But even to this day, we learn every day. We learn something new or improve our process by one or two percent every day. And that document actually just recently got so big that in our automation to give it to our clients in their onboarding, it didn’t upload because it was so big. So I had to make another workaround for that.
But that’s the thing, we always learn more. Although we are experts, we keep learning more and things change all the time. Regulations change, rules change. Even one year ago, if a client came to me and said, “Kevin, I want to get a crypto account for my business,” I’d tell them, “Forget about it. It’s not happening.”
Now I can do that for people. And I’m so happy because I’m doing this for so many people and they’re super happy. You can legally accept crypto. Easy. Because before people were doing it kind of under the table. Now it’s fully compliant, fully legal.
Peter: Yeah.
Kevin: All clear. So yeah, I’d say of course you can fix your car yourself. I personally would not fix my car myself and then go and drive in it. And even cheaping out, right? Even if you don’t want to do it yourself, but you found an agency with decent Google reviews that’s a little bit cheaper—it’s like a set of tires. You’re driving on the highway.
Peter: Yeah.
Kevin: If you need to brake really hard and someone’s in front of you, which tires do you want?
Peter: You want the more expensive ones for sure because it’s safety at the end of the day.
Kevin: Exactly. And that comes pretty obvious to anyone. But before you get into that situation, you don’t really care in some cases. But the good news for anyone watching this, genuinely our pricing is not expensive. There are many people who charge two, three times more than us on a total basis. Let’s say our package is $9,000. There’s some people who charge 25,000, 30, $35,000 or more.
I think that’s nonsense to charge that much, but they do. And people pay for it because they want that quality experience. And even in those cases, I don’t know if it’s a quality experience. I know what we provide is. And I have some people from those big companies that charge that much that come to us later for management because they don’t have a good experience.
And same thing for even other people on social media. I won’t call out anyone specifically but some of your favorite influencers, trust me, they’re maybe reselling a GenZone service or their clients come to us later for management.
Peter: Yeah, 100%.
Kevin: I could call everyone out, but I won’t. I will not do that because I still like those people. But yeah, it does happen a lot.
So I think it’s important to choose the right group of people. And we don’t just set up your company. We help our clients with everything. We help them find a rental when they come here. We help them get car rentals. We even have special discount codes and promotions. Even if you’re watching this and you’re not a GenZone client and you rent supercars in Dubai, go to renty.ae, use code genzone.
We do holiday home management. We help people buy their properties here. We do it the right way. So we’re really a full-on partner from start to finish. And more importantly, in the following year, when we renew their license, we don’t charge them a service fee. We give people genuinely an offer they cannot refuse. That’s how I like to do it.
Crypto, HMRC, and the UK Exit Tax Opportunity
Peter: Really quick question for you on the back of what you’ve said about crypto before we wrap up. The HMRC in the UK has now finally caught up with crypto. They’ve started to send out letters to 65,000 wallet holders who have not declared crypto returns. What’s your take on that? Because I think I know probably two or three people that did very well on crypto, are in Dubai right now, bought properties and I’m sure they are very nervous.
Kevin: So here’s the good news for people from the UK which I cannot believe is even real. If you leave the UK and don’t return within 5 years and become a UK non-resident, then all of your crypto gains that you’ve made while you’re in the UK are tax-free if you move to Dubai. So those guys who bought properties just stay, don’t go back. Stay here, make sure you’re a tax resident here and don’t go back for at least 5 years. After that you can sell the properties, go back to the UK 100% legal, 100% compliant.
Now for the people staying in the UK not declaring their taxes and just cashing out, that’s a different story.
Peter: Yeah.
Kevin: I think that the HMRC is just sending out letters in the dark right now. I know they have a list, but it will take a lot of manpower for them to really go over all these people. And I actually think that the number is probably more than 60,000 letters being sent out. I think they’re maybe just making it seem smaller. This is my own opinion. Smaller so that maybe the people that do receive the letters feel more targeted.
Peter: Yeah.
Kevin: This is my thing. Imagine you received the letter and the HMRC says, “Oh, we sent out 300 letters.” You’re going to feel like, “Oh crap, they know me.” So I think it’s actually maybe more than 60,000 and maybe it’s not a physical letter. It could be an email, a compliance thing.
Because I know they’re doing this in Canada, too. And they do have this reporting in Canada, but I’ve heard of some people that don’t declare it and they’re not even targeted. And I’ve had some people call me about that. And I’m like, listen, man, don’t talk to me about that. I don’t want to work with you.
But for Canadians, we have to pay tax when we leave.
Peter: There’s an exit tax.
Kevin: Exit tax. Yeah. You don’t have that. And I think for anyone from the UK—
Peter: They were going to try and bring it in.
Kevin: Oh, they will bring it in. Yeah, absolutely. If they don’t bring it in, it’s a dumb decision on their end. And I hate paying tax, but I think if I was in their shoes, I put myself in anyone’s shoes. If I was in their shoes and I’m losing 10,000 millionaires per year and how many pre-millionaires on top of that? Maybe 20 more thousand. Your country is going down the drain. You’re losing all this tax money. And people say, “Oh, millionaires don’t pay tax.” Trust me, they pay tax. It might not be directly from them. It could be their employees or hundreds of employees paying income tax. It’s getting paid somewhere.
So I think they will implement it. So for anyone from the UK right now, get over here now.
Peter: Yeah.
Kevin: Before it’s too late because the door will close.
Peter: Yeah.
Kevin: The golden days are here right now still.
Final Thoughts
Peter: Oh, yeah. And I think that’s a great way to conclude this episode. As I always say, one of the best things you can do if you’re in this mindset at the moment where you’re doing research, thinking about coming to Dubai and registering a business is your main vehicle to do so, book a free call with Kevin and the team. There’s no obligation whatsoever. But have a conversation, pick their brains, ask questions, and see what the process is like. You’ve got nothing to lose and everything to gain. And I think that’s probably the most optimal thing you could do for yourself today. There will be a link in the description and pinned in the comments. Thank you so much for watching. It’s been really good catching up with you as well.
Kevin: Likewise. Really good to speak with you. It doesn’t feel like a podcast. I forgot. I didn’t even look at the cameras once this time.
Peter: Yeah, I forgot. So yeah. And I’ll catch you in the next video and we’ll do more with Kevin in more months to come. Cheers.
Ready to start your Dubai relocation journey? Book a free consultation with the GenZone team to discuss your specific needs and get expert guidance on the right setup for your business.
