Gulf Cooperation Council Reaches Final Agreement on VAT

On 16 June 2016, the Finance Ministers of the six members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) reached a final agreement for the introduction of a value added tax regime by January 2018. Of the six members:

• Qatar confirmed on 18 June that it will implement VAT at the rate of 5% in 2018;
• Saudi Arabia's cabinet has approved the adoption of a VAT regime in its the National Transformation Program 2020 ({News-2016-06-10/P/3- previous coverage}); and
• The United Arab Emirates has confirmed it will…