VAT violators in Saudi face SAR10,000 fine

Saudi Arabia’s General Authority of Zakat and Tax (GAZT) has announced that organisations that fail to register with the VAT system before the January 1 deadline will face a fine of SAR10,000 ($2,667).

The fines will be applicable to institutions with an annual revenue exceeding SAR1m ($266,666), as will a number of other penalties highlighted by the GAZT.

Among these, the penalty for not settling the payable tax before the deadline will be equal to 5 per cent of the value of the unpaid tax for each month or part of a month, and the fine for not presenting the tax declaration before the deadline is between 5 and 25 per cent of the value of the tax, which should have been declared. Organisations may also face the suspension of government services, or risk paying a fine of up to three times the value of the relevant goods or services.

Saudi’s VAT is due to be initiated on January 1, 2018 – the same date as the UAE’s value added tax, with the remaining GCC countries obliged to introduce their own VAT systems within the following 12 months.