The Qatar General Tax Authority (“GTA”) has clarified that a draft law amending some provisions of the Income Tax Law in Qatar applies exclusively to international multinational companies with foreign branches whose annual revenues exceed QR 3 billion, whether they are Qatari companies with branches outside the country, or global companies with branches in Qatar.
Recently, the Shura (Advisory) Council approved the draft amendments to the income tax law and referred them to the government. The draft amendments aim to ensure tax fairness between local and international companies operating in the country by approving a minimum corporate tax rate of 15 per cent for such international companies. The GTA also added that the amendments do not apply to individuals or to local companies operating in Qatar, which are currently subject to a 10 per cent corporate income tax.
The amendments follow the initiatives presented by the G20 and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to implement the provisions of the global rules in the first and second pillars to address tax challenges arising from economic digitization by imposing a global minimum tax on global companies.
