Tax Free Lunch!

View from our table at the 101 Restaurant in the One & Only The Palm Resort.

One of the best things about living in Dubai is the lack of taxes -- no income tax, no sales tax, really no taxes at all with the exception of booze with has a 30% tax if you shop at the government-sanctioned establishments (we do not). As we all know, however, the good old US of A has massive taxes on everything and especially income. Although Uncle Sam wants a piece of your income no matter where you live in the world, American citizens can avoid paying US income tax while over here if you are able to meet the IRS's foreign resident income exclusion. Meeting the exclusion has been our major objective since we arrived. Unfortunately, we ended up having to pay a TON of taxes (or rather Jared did) our first year here because Jared had been working for his UAE law firm the whole time he lived in Boston from '08-'09 and wasn't paying any taxes, so it all came back to bite him in the ass in the form of an enormous check to the IRS last April. Quite depressing...

This year was a different story though, and despite thinking we would have to pay at least a few thousand in taxes (because there is, of course, a cap on how high your foreign income excluded income can be before Uncle Sam starts getting a piece of it again), our wonderful accountant Carl informed us last week that we are in fact tax-free this year! Woo hoo! So this weekend we decided that a celebration was in order (hey, we were a couple thousand richer) and decided to have a nice lunch out at the One & Only The Palm Resort.

Jared had been before for a business lunch and was dying to go back so I could try it. The One & Only Resort is located on the Palm Jumeirah right on the very tip of one of the fronds and is a typically beautiful and scenic beach resort. 101 Restaurant is located on a pier off the resort and is basically a very posh beach bar with all white furniture with covered terraces and a beachy theme. Just lovely.

And the food was delicious as well. We started with some beef tartare to share and a celebratory toast of beer for Jared and white wine for me. Then we both ordered 101's take on carbonara which was unique and super yummy. Fresh thick tagliatelle pasta in a creamy sauce with huge chunks of pork bacon and a sunnyside egg on top. Absolutely scrumptious and a truly fitting way to celebrate tax-free Dubai living. Ahh, there are some benefits to living in the sandbox.