Originally Posted by
VoxPopuli
Also, if one retires you have a set time to depart the UAE. Should the situation arise where I pay tax to fund a pension plan, will that pension be payed out to me irrespective of my location after retirement?
That is exactly what was mooted last year when they were talking about scrapping the EOSB in favour of a pension - although given that most expats in the UAE come from small rural villages in India/Pakistan etc. I dont see how it would work in practice.
Like any normal society (and I use this term loosely), any person who pays tax to a legitimate government expects to have a say in how that tax is distributed. And there is absolutely no way on God's green earth that I foresee expats having a say in how their tax is applied.
When you pay tax in Hong Kong or Singapore or even Europe as an expat you dont get any say in how it is distributed. A friend of mine has recently completed a contract in Portugal and he is based in Thailand - the tax he paid in Portugal didn't entitle him to any say in anything or any benefits.