MUMBAI: Many Indians are making a last-ditch attempt to hide their undeclared wealth stashed abroad, with Dubai — often the last resort for many — no longer remaining as friendly a tax haven as it once was.They hope to mask their wealth behind financial structures and special arrangements with professional service providers before January 2018 when the United Arab Emirates UAE ) begins to share information with India on bank accounts.As banks in the UAE turn more demanding, many rich Indians who have not come clean on their secret foreign bank accounts, are using 'insurance wrappers' and the time-tested services of nominee directors to escape tax, penalty, and possible prosecution.For opening accounts of companies, banks in Dubai are insisting on tax ID of the home country, copies of passport, and, occasionally, the presence of Indian shareholders of these entities. Banks, according to an expert in foreign currency regulations, are taking more than a month to open accounts compared to 3-4 days before.The modus operandi to park undisclosed funds entails buying shares of existing shell companies by using the RBIsanctioned liberalised remittance route — which allows a resident individual to invest up to $2,50,000 a year in properties and securities abroad — and later using the company’s bank account to hold untaxed money.According to three senior finance professionals ET spoke to, more and more nominee directors are being used to camouflage the true ownership of such companies.“You buy a company remitting say $1,00,000. Later, you transfer funds lying in other destination like Switzerland and Jersey to the bank account of a Dubai company.Now, if you are holding 90% shares in such a company, it may be more difficult for you to wriggle out when questioned by the Indian IT department, which collects information from the UAE authorities. But if you are holding just 10% shares of the company and do not occupy any board seat, you can claim that the funds are business income and belongs to the company and not you. Here, nominee directors hold shares on behalf of you against a nominee shareholding agreement, which may not be disclosed to banks,” said one of them.The other possible structure that is being tried out are insurance wrappers — life insurance policies similar to trusts but that can be formed and dismantled easily. “The arrangement is simple. The nominee or the 'technical owner' invests in insurance wrappers and the ultimate real owner is the beneficiary. The beneficiary then receives the amounts after a certain time period, say five years, as endowment; or, the family gets the benefit in the event of death or if they find themselves in unforeseen circumstances,” said another person.“Traditionally, Dubai has been used by Indians and NRIs to park their unaccounted money through different structures. But, now, banks are more agile and enquiring about the ultimate beneficial owners. This is possibly forcing many to think of innovative structures,” said senior chartered accountant Dilip Lakhani.Since early 2016, banks are looking into remittances to and from entities in the UAE Free Trade Zone, while the UAE central bank is questioning so-called pass through transactions. Banks and regulatory authorities are being extra vigilant when they come across Indian names.According to Mitil Chokshi, senior partner at Chokshi and Chokshi, and a cross-border business advisor, “Common reporting standards, or CRS, will have different deadlines of participating countries from Sept 2017 to Sept 2018… one will see modifications in bank application forms, several procedures are being changed even in countries like Mauritius where they require tax ID of Indians, Chinese, etc. An individual is becoming one transparent entity whose data and information is linked to home country tax ID. This will enhance reporting and compliance. The credit goes to the US as the CRS follows the FATCA.”But, Chokshi and others interviewed by ET believe that while clever structures can help buy time, it will not hold back IT and ED from questioning transactions and the source of funds.