The Due Diligence Checklist Every Investor Should Run

Who legally owns the asset today, and what document proves it? How will my capital be held between subscription and deployment? What is the sponsor's track record on similar deals, and can I verify it independently? What does the waterfall look like in the base, downside and stress cases? What is the exact mechanism for me to exit, and what could block it?

If a deal cannot answer all five in writing, it is not a deal — it is a story.

The principle in this article applies everywhere, but the numbers do not. Cross-border investors face an additional set of variables — source-country withholding tax, treaty access, capital-gains treatment by residency, reporting obligations under CRS and FATCA, and the impact of holding structures on net IRR. Two investors taking identical positions can end up with materially different post-tax outcomes purely because of where they are resident and how they hold the asset.

Before committing to any cross-border deal, map the tax stack: corporate tax already paid at the asset level, withholding tax on outbound distributions (and whether a treaty reduces it), and personal or corporate tax in your residency. On Aqmār, the SPV jurisdiction, operating-asset jurisdiction, and standard distribution mechanics are disclosed in the deal pack so your tax adviser can model the post-tax return rather than reconstructing it from emails after the fact.