The General Tax Authority (GTA) announced the implementation of the "simplified tax return" which must be submitted by corporates and permanent establishments that are exempt from tax, owned by Qatari and GCC citizens, whose share capital is less than QR 1 million and annual revenue is less than QR 5 million.

Based on circular no. 2 of 2021 issued by the GTA, with regards to the submission of the tax return for the corporates owned by Qatari and GCC citizens that are exempt from tax, corporates whose capital equal to or more than QR 1 million or its annual revenues are equal to or more than QR 5 million, have to submit the tax return and audited financial statements based on the "approved tax return form."

In order to facilitate the process on companies owned by Qatari and GCC citizens, the GTA announced an extension for this category to submit their tax returns for the year 2020 by an additional four months.

The GTA states that this extension applies to all companies, owned by Qatari and GCC citizens, which are required to submit a tax return, simplified or approved. The extension applies for the fiscal year ended 31/12/2020. This extension also applied to companies who follow a different accounting period approved by the GTA. All companies must take into consideration the dates for submitting of tax returns and financial statements stipulated by law during the upcoming years.

The GTA's circular included that in case of non-compliance with the procedures related to submitting tax returns and financial statements, a financial penalty of QR 500 will be imposed for each day of delay, with a maximum of QR 180,000, according to Article 24 of the Income Tax Law.

All taxpayers are requested to submit tax returns of both types of taxes, simplified and approved, through the Dhareeba tax portal (www.dhareeba.gov.qa), and attach all financial accounting statements when submitting tax returns.

QNA