Tax
Ten per cent corporate tax, no personal income tax, no VAT yet
Corporate income tax is ten per cent on foreign-owned profit. There is no personal income tax, and VAT has been legislated for in the GCC framework but not yet implemented.
Key rules
- Jurisdiction — General Tax Authority. Objections go to the Tax Appeal Committee and then to the courts.
- Deadline — 4 months after the end of the accounting period to file the income tax return
- Deadline — Withholding tax payable by the 16th of the month following payment
Governing law
- Income Tax Law, Law 24 of 2018
- Executive Regulations to the Income Tax Law 2019
- GCC VAT Framework Agreement — not yet implemented in Qatar
In practice
Wholly Qatari and GCC-owned entities are generally exempt from corporate tax, so the ten per cent rate falls in practice on the foreign-owned share of profit, making ownership structure the primary determinant of liability. QFC entities are taxed under the QFC's own regime at ten per cent on local source profits with its own rules. Withholding tax of five per cent applies to a range of payments to non-residents and is a routine compliance gap. Qatar remains one of the last GCC states without VAT despite having signed the framework agreement, so any statement that GCC VAT applies uniformly is wrong.