Saudi Arabia: Tax amnesty

As a part of the mitigation of the COVID-19 pandemic impact on Saudi economic activities, the minister of finance circulated a new resolution no. 2303 dated 21/01/2021 extending the tax amnesty for another six months until June 2021 (effective from the release date). The relief scheme was introduced earlier in 2020, providing taxpayers with the opportunity to regularise their tax positions and historic tax exposure regarding KSA corporate income tax, withholding tax and VAT and is limited to tax penalties imposed on late payment, late filing and VAT declaration amendments. In addition, payment of the full amount of the original tax liability due is a must in order to benefit from the aforementioned waiver.

The resolution introduced a scale of benefits as a percentage based on the period in which the tax liability has been paid:

The amnesty also applies to penalties imposed due to tax assessments raised by the GAZT on tax returns submitted before 21 January 2021.

It should be noted that the following penalties are excluded from the tax amnesty scope:

• Penalties imposed by the GAZT for other than late filing, late payment and VAT declaration amendments
• Penalties imposed due to tax evasion breaches
• Penalties already paid before the release date (21 January 2012)

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