Qatar cabinet approves draft law on income tax and VAT

Published: 03 May 2017 - 03:43 pm | Last Updated: 02 Nov 2021 - 06:50 pm

Photo by Abdul Basit © The Peninsula

QNA

Doha: The Cabinet in its meeting today approved a draft law on income tax and its draft executive regulation.

The Cabinet also approved a draft law on Value-Added Tax (VAT) and its draft executive regulations.

The Prime Minister H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al-Thani chaired the Cabinet's ordinary meeting at its Emiri Diwan premises today.

Following the meeting, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs H E Ahmed bin Abdullah bin Zaid Al Mahmoud said that the Cabinet reviewed topics on the meeting's agenda.

The income tax draft law will replace the Income Tax Law promulgated by Law No. (21) of 2009 and Law No. (17) of 2014 that exempt the share of non-Qatari investors in the profits of some companies and investment funds from the income tax.

It also comes within the development framework of Tax legislation to ensure the strengthening of the revenues of the tax sector, the simplification of procedures and the facilitation of examination, connection and collection procedures which in turn will promote tax compliance. The Ministry of Finance has prepared the draft law on Value-Added Tax (VAT) in accordance with the unified GCC VAT agreement, which obligates each member state to take domestic procedures for the issuance of local law and procedural policies for the implementation of the tax with a view to implementing the provisions of the agreement.

The six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council are aiming to introduce a 5 percent value-added tax at the start of next year. The GCC has long planned to adopt the tax in 2018 as a way to increase non-oil revenues.
The Cabinet so approved draft decision of the Council of Ministers to issue the executive regulation of the selective tax law.

The draft executive regulation include the provisions concerning tax entitlement, the declaration of the loss or damage of selective goods, inspection of damaged goods, registration, tax declaration, rules of payment of tax in the case of local production, maintaining of accounting systems, the language of accounting records, and control and inspection ruler.

The Cabinet also approved draft decision of the Council of Ministers to amend some provisions of decision No. (18) of 2011 to nominate the Chairman and members of the Tax Exemption Committee, organize its work and determine its rewards.

The Committee is competent to receive and examine requests for exemption from taxation and to study the cancellation of previous exemptions granted due to breach of legal obligations or deviation from their purposes, and to prepare recommendations on them.

The Cabinet approved a draft law amending some provisions of Decree Law No. (14) of 1993 concerning passports and decided to refer it to the Advisory Council.

The amendment requires to be replaced by Article (12) of Decree Law No. (14) of 1993 indicated in the following text: "The amount of the fees to be paid for the issuance of regular passports and travel documents and tickets shall be determined by a decision of the Minister of Interior. The amount of the fees to be paid for diplomatic, special and important passports and their renewal and modification shall be determined by a decision of the Foreign Minister".

Meanwhile, the Cabinet approved:
1. A draft agreement on economic cooperation between Qatar and Poland.
2. A draft agreement on cultural cooperation between Qatar and Poland.
3. A draft air services agreement between Qatar and Uganda.
4. A draft memorandum of understanding for cooperation in the field of combating terrorism between Qatar and Australia.
5. A draft memorandum of understanding for cooperation in the field of sport between Qatar and Moldova.
6. A draft memorandum of understanding between Qatar Central Bank and Bangladesh Bank.
The Cabinet reviewed a memo by the Minister of Education and Higher Education on the proposed dates of study and holidays in schools for the academic years 2017/2018 to 2019/2020 and adopted the appropriate decision thereon.