The General Authority for Zakat and Income revealed that the number of registered businesses has now reached more than 80,000, and the Authority renewed its call to all businesses engaged in economic activity in the Kingdom with annual revenues exceeding one million Saudi riyals to promptly register for value-added tax (VAT) before December 20, 2017.
The Authority expressed its thanks and appreciation to the businesses that have registered for VAT, urging those that have not yet registered to do so promptly through the website vat.gov.sa.The General Authority for Zakat and Income Tax emphasized that failure to register for VAT by the specified deadline will subject the business to a fine of 10,000 riyals, in addition to other penalties related to failure to file a tax return and failure to pay the tax on time.
The Authority confirmed that businesses with annual revenues ranging from 375,000 to 1,000,000 Saudi riyals have been granted an extension until December 20, 2018, to register for the tax, while registration is optional for businesses with annual revenues between 187,500 and 375,000 Saudi riyals, while businesses with annual revenues of less than 187,500 Saudi riyals are exempt from registration.
The Authority clarified that most businesses are now ready to implement the value-added tax (VAT) on January 1, 2018, in terms of employee training, compliance with the VAT system and its implementing regulations, and the alignment of accounting and information technology systems related to tax operations, in addition to record-keeping to preserve documents in the specified format.
In preparation for the tax’s implementation, Customs added a field specifically for value-added tax on the customs declaration form (set at 0 percent for a trial period), to inform importers and exporters of the new procedures and to prepare for the 5% tax effective January 1, 2018.
In a related development, the General Authority for Zakat and Income announced its readiness to implement the tax in terms of regulations and human resources, noting that it has implemented numerous initiatives to facilitate businesses“ compliance with the tax requirements, including dozens of educational workshops in collaboration with chambers of commerce across all regions and provinces of the Kingdom.
In this regard, the Authority has signed several agreements with various government agencies, as well as an agreement with the Saudi Organization for Certified Public Accountants to audit a number of large businesses to verify their level of readiness and the preparedness of their accounting systems for the implementation of value-added tax (VAT). It also launched the VAT.GOV.SA, which features advanced technical capabilities, offers a wide range of tools and information on VAT to serve as a supportive resource for taxable businesses. In addition, it has launched a ”Guidance Manual” that provides a simplified explanation of the basic concepts of the tax. The Authority noted that the website has garnered significant interest from businesses and the public, with the number of weekly visitors recently exceeding 200,000.
In this context, the Authority launched the Unified VAT Call Center (19993), to answer all inquiries related to the implementation of the tax, in addition to the VAT account on social media @SaudiVat, as part of the Authority’s integrated approach to ensure the highest level of readiness among businesses and individuals alike.
