Faced with falling oil revenues and rising public spending, the Gulf Cooperation Council decided to introduce value added tax across its six member states: Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Oman and Qatar.
Faced with falling oil revenues and rising public spending, the Gulf Cooperation Council decided to introduce value added tax across its six member states: Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Oman and Qatar.
Foreign companies may be able to recover VAT paid in Saudi Arabia and the UAE on certain business expenses such as hotels, trade fairs, conferences and training.
Rules for recovering expenses like meals and entertainment are still being clarified.
To qualify for a refund, companies generally must:
Be registered for VAT in their home country
Provide original invoices
Meet a minimum annual VAT amount (around AED 2000 or SAR 2000, roughly €450)
File refund applications online by the required deadline, often June 30 of the year following the expenses
After verification, tax authorities aim to issue refunds directly to the company’s bank account within about 60 days.
Bahrain has announced a 5 percent VAT starting January 1, 2019. Kuwait planned to introduce VAT in 2021. The situation in Qatar remains uncertain due to ongoing political tensions in the region.
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