Spent most of his professional life with Big Four firms
Worked in the U.K. for nine years prior to immigrating to Dubai
Specializes in international tax and M&A matters
Dubai
@alvarezmarsal
LinkedIn
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Vishal Sharma is a Managing Director with Alvarez & Marsal Tax, LLP in Dubai. He brings more than 16 years of experience in international and M&A tax.
Mr. Sharma’s expertise lies in providing inbound and outbound tax advisory services, tax due diligence, tax structuring, financial modeling and transaction document reviews. His additional skills include cross border tax advisory, tax accounting, audit of tax work and management of direct tax compliance obligations.
Mr. Sharma’s notable assignments include providing transactional tax advice across the Middle East and other markets to regional/global sovereign wealth funds, state owned entities, national oil companies, private equity firms, large global multinationals and family offices.
Prior to joining A&M, Mr. Sharma spent nine years in Deloitte’s Middle East International Tax Services (ITS) group in Dubai, where he most recently served as an M&A Tax Partner.
In addition to his M&A Partner role, Mr. Sharma was the lead tax partner in charge of two large global multinationals in providing regional global compliance and reporting services.
Mr. Sharma earned an LLB from Northampton University in the U.K. He is a Certified Tax Advisor (CTA) and a member of The Association of Taxation Technicians (ATT).
On 9 October 2022, the UAE Ministry of Finance (MoF) published Federal Decree Law No. 47 of 2022 (UAE Corporate Tax Law). The UAE Corporate Tax Law applies to Taxable Persons operating in the UAE and is effective for financial years beginning on or after 1 June 2023.
In June 2025, the UAE Federal Tax Authority issued updated guidance (CTGFF1 and FTA Decision No. 5 of 2025) clarifying Corporate Tax rules for Family Foundations.
In many M&A share transactions, tax losses may represent significant hidden value. But that value depends particularly on two key questions: Can the tax losses survive the transaction and can the parties mutually agree on a business plan substantiating the future usage of the potentially surviving tax losses? Our article outlines how jurisdiction-specific rules — especially Germany’s strict change-in-ownership regime — affect the usability of tax losses post-closing, whether tax losses can provide a shelter for historic tax risks and why tax losses impact purchase price negotiations.
