On 16 June 2019, Qatar’s General Tax Authority (GTA) has issued a notice prescribing further updates and clarifications for the Country-by-Country (CbC) reporting obligations in Qatar. Key points of CbC reporting obligations are as follows:

CbC reporting

The notice includes mandatory submission of CbCR for ultimate parent entities (UPEs) of MNE groups which consolidated revenue is equal or more than QAR 3 Billion in previous year. The entities must be resident in Qatar. Entities resident in Qatar for tax purposes where the ultimate parent entity is resident outside Qatar, shall not be required to file the CbC report or CbC notification to the GTA until further notice.

CbCR notification

The resident ultimate parent entities (UPEs) in Qatar are required to submit a notification to the General Tax Authority (GTA) that they are the UPE of the MNE group to which they belong no later than the last day of the reporting fiscal year. For the fiscal years 2018 and 2019, the deadline for notification is set by the GTA at 31 December 2019. Failure to submit the notification on time or false or incomplete information in the notification subject to a financial sanction of QAR 100 per day of delay.

Filing requirement

CbC report must be filed no later than 12 months after the last day of the reporting fiscal year. For the financial year ending 31 December 2018, the due date will be 31 December 2019.The report can be filed in English and Qatar has adopted the OECD’s XML Schema standardized electronic format.

Penalties

Any person who violates the provisions of the decisions issued with regard to the exchange of information for tax purposes or for the purpose of combating international tax evasion shall be liable to a financial penalty up to QAR 500,000.

Effective date

Generally CbC reporting applies in Qatar from fiscal year beginning on or after 1 January 2017. The new notice for CbCR will be effective for fiscal year beginning on or after 1 January 2018.