7/2/2018
‘The Impact of VAT Compliance on Businesses in Qatar” workshop highly recommended that companies prepare early to apply this tax, to process all necessary financial and technological matters, in order to avoid any errors in institutions and companies when the VAT is applied on goods and services later.
The workshop is organized by the International Chamber of Commerce Qatar (ICC Qatar) in collaboration with Thomson Reuters and supported by Qatar Chamber.
Pierre Arman, the Market Development Lead for the Tax & Accounting Division at Thomson Reuters MENA, addressed the seminar which was well attended by representatives of businesses, account officials as well as audit firms at the Qatar Chamber’s venue on Wednesday 7 February.
He said ten percent of the institutions and companies in the countries that applied VAT in the region, were entirely prepared to implement the new law. They included VAT on every invoice and prepared their VAT returns. Whereas the other 90 percent of the companies adopted solutions and delayed measures in preparation for applying the tax, where despite of using outsourced help, they were not able to apply the tax successfully.
“Institutions managed to prepare for the tax before coming into force by 9 -15 months, while 90% of companies depended on late solutions and actions for the preparation which led to unsuccessful implementation of the tax,” he noted.
Arman urged the companies to prepare for the VAT application from now and not wait for the issuance of the law and then prepare for the impact.
There is no need to wait for the issuance of the law because all provisions and procedures in all countries are similar, he added, saying:” The VAT covers not only commercial companies and institutions but also financial institutions which require more complicated steps to be prepared for the tax”
He noted that the VAT is not only a financial matter, yet it has an impact of all the company’s divisions and sections including sales, marketing and legal departments as well.
Stressing the importance of coordination between financial and IT departments in the company, he said that companies shall start a VAT impact assessment and implementation of a VAT framework to support the operations and IT before coming into force.
Once implemented in Qatar, businesses will be required to issue VAT-compliant invoices for every single sale and purchase details of goods and services to be recorded in the system to file VAT returns.
Organizing this seminar coincides with the upcoming introduction to VAT in Qatar, in aim to increase the awareness of the ICC members and the community on this important financial reform, and the challenges that may result in businesses
