All entities in Qatar having a commercial register or a tax card without any exception must submit income tax returns via the new tax system called Dhareeba, said an expert during an online tax summit.
The summit provided details on recent developments in the tax environment of Qatar, such as practical administrative experiences of a newly introduced tax administration system (Dhareeba).
KPMG in Qatar hosted its Tax Summit 2021 webinar recently sharing insights on the latest news on tax in Qatar. The session covered three main topics, starting with direct tax update about tax filing requirements and deadlines, exemptions, confirmation of conditions for tax exemptions, in addition to some keynotes from Dhareeba and General Tax Authority (GTA), Transfer Pricing regulations and Value Added Tax (VAT).
Barbara Henzen Partner and Head of Tax & Corporate services in KPMG Qatar said, “Finance and Tax professionals had an extremely busy agenda lately, mainly with transitioning from old tax filling system to the new tax system “Dhareeba”, as well as with introduction to new reporting requirements. We were up to date through each step of the process and supported clients in navigating through all the new requirements.”
Khalil Khbabez, Tax Manager, KPMG, started his presentation with income tax obligations and income tax return submission deadlines. He highlighted Dhareeba balance updates, pointing it is key to review Dhareeba balances, to determine if they correspond to the tax and penalties, or if there are any differences or mistakes that may happen during the transition from the old to the new tax system.
He shed light on who must file the income tax in Qatar for the financial year 2020 onwards – all entities in Qatar having a commercial register or a tax card without any exception must submit income tax returns via the new tax system called Dhareeba. He said, circular number 2 for the financial year 2021 issued recently by the GTA has confirmed that statement. However, it is important to differentiate between two categories of taxpayers depending on the Standard Tax Paying model or the Simplified Tax Return model which will be used for filing purposes.
Uma Patankar, Tax Senior Manager, KPMG, covered the Transfer Pricing regulations and updated documentation and briefed on transfer pricing reporting, threshold and timelines, and the impact of transfer pricing regulations.
GTA released Resolution No. 4, which is a transfer pricing-focused resolution signed by the GTA. This resolution covers the TP guidelines and provides the confirmation and stipulations on deadlines, thresholds and the content requirements, and it states that the full TP requirements will be effective from the financial year starting January 2020.”
Nurlan Sadraddinzade, Tax Manager, KPMG, covered the indirect tax updates discussing the VAT implementations in the region and how to know business is ready from VAT point of view and implement VAT successfully in businesses. He shared some lessons learned from the other GCC countries and discussed VAT updates from the region.
He said, “Three member states of the GCC already implemented VAT from 2018 and more recently Oman announced VAT laws and regulations last year and starting from April 16, 2021 it will have the go live date of VAT and implementation.”
“It is always better to start the analysis of the transactions, reviewing contracts and making implementation in the system before the go live date for VAT, and understand the business transactions to avoid any negative impacts on the business,” he added.
“Technical capabilities of the new tax portal Dhareeba which will be helpful for the GTA in order to manage the proper required actions of the VAT. And there are some recent partnerships of the GTA such as signing of MoU with GAC to enhance electronic integration, signing of online payment agreements with some commercial banks in Qatar to provide taxpayers with various payments and recovery methods for taxes.
The upcoming events in Qatar – the Arab Cup, FIFA World Cup 2022, tourists spending can be a source of additional VAT income for the government,” he said. Due to the ongoing pandemic and measures taken by the government of Qatar to limit the spread of the virus and keep everyone safe, the annual gathering was hosted virtually with more than 220 attendees, to give clients the latest need-toknow information.
The Q&A session was led by Imran Ayub, Tax Director, and Abhishek Jain, Tax Senior Manager.
