Crucial GCC Market Research Insights for 2026

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We are a worldwide strategy consulting company ready to deliver your best future. For us, whatever begins with our people. Our people create winning strategies for our clients every day and assist them achieve their next huge idea. Our reach is global, however our home is the Middle East. As the longest-serving management consulting organization, we have a proud history in the area built on a 100-year legacy.

Discover how Strategy & can help your organization modification today and develop your perfect tomorrow. Industry Organization Consulting and Solutions Company size 501-1,000 staff members Headquarters Middle East, - Type Privately Held Established 1914 Specialties agriculture and food, aviation, construction, customer markets, energy, resources and sustainability, financial services, government and public sector, health industries, media and entertainment, movement, property, innovation, telecommunications, travel and tourism, maritime, aerospace, space and defence, and multisector financial investment.

Remote work has moved from novelty to necessity. What started as an emergency response during the pandemic is now embedded in how international enterprises hire, maintain, and secure talent. For Middle East-based organizations, particularly those running in an environment of increased geopolitical unpredictability, the capability to decouple work from a repaired area is no longer just an HR perk; it's a core resilience method.

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Some Middle Eastern groups have reacted to current conflicts by moving whole teams to Asia, with initial short-term moves ending up being long-lasting for some employees, who now are reluctant to return and consider moving in other places. This new patternrapid group movings, followed by specific onward movesis testing tax and regulative structures that were never ever created for it.

Crucial Middle East Market Research Trends in 2026

Tax treaties, social security coordination guidelines and corporate tax ideas such as permanent facility were developed around that paradigm. Middle Eastern international business are now handling something very different: Groups moved at brief notice from the Gulf to Asia or Europe "for a couple of months"People who then select to remain on or move again, typically without a formal assignmentCore functions such as finance, IT, trading, and danger all of a sudden being carried out outside the area, in some cases without a clear proof.

Existing guidelines often assume cross-border work is intentional and handled, but that's progressively not the case. The recent experience of Middle Eastheadquartered groups illustrates the issue in extremely useful terms and exposes the limitations of the current OECD Model Tax Convention structure. In action to the local instability and armed conflict, some companies moved a big portion of their workforce to "safe harbor" countries in Asia or Europe, frequently under casual internal guidance rather than formal assignment letters.

With unpredictability on the ground, temporary work arrangements were extended. Some staff members picked not to return and explored relocating to other centers or employers without clear timelines or tax planning. Business tax and movement groups need to then retroactively assess tax residence modifications, possible long-term establishment creation under local guidelines, income sourcing across jurisdictions, and appropriate social security systems.

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Core choice making or revenue producing activities performed from a host country can support a long-term establishment claim by local tax authorities, particularly where entire functions have been moved. The MTC Commentary, while clarifying when an office or remote working arrangement might constitute a long-term establishment, still leaves considerable judgment calls where "momentary" movings become semi permanent.

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Staff members who prepared short stays may unintentionally satisfy residency rules abroad, risking double house and complex treaty tiebreaker tests. The MTC Commentary supplies guidance, but applying "center of important interests" throughout emergency movings stays unclear. Benefits, incentives, and equity made during movings often need allotment across countries, with payroll and reporting responsibilities in each.

Regional or cross-border transfers can leave workers between systems when pension and benefits do not match their work pattern. Given that social security depends on separate bilateral contracts, the MTC does not use direct solutions. KPMG's study programs that tax authorities translate the modified MTC Commentary on home-office irreversible facility in a different way. In AsiaPacific and the Middle East, decisions typically depend upon specific scenarios instead of the formal guidance, with little uniformity.

From a policy viewpoint, Middle Eastexposed multinationals increasingly should have: Clearer guardrails for remote and relocated teamsincluding explicit "low threat" activities that won't, on their own, produce a taxable presence, and practical examples in the MTC Commentary that show emergency movings rather than only planned remote work. More efficient residence tie breakers for workers who spend extended periods in numerous countries due to security or geopolitical concerns, instead of career-driven relocations.