On 20 March 2020, the Ministry of Finance of Saudi Arabia issued a statement on its website regarding postponement of Zakat returns filing, paying taxes among other procedures for the fiscal year 2019 in response to COVID-19. Main measures of the statement are the following:
- the payment and filing of corporate income tax, Zakat and mixed returns extended by 3 months to 30 July 2020;
- the payment and filing of withholding tax returns relating to the period March, April and May 2020 have been extended by 3 months from the original due dates;
- filing of controlled transaction disclosure form and maintenance of the Transfer Pricing Local file and Master file has also been extended by 3 months for the year that ended on 31 December 2019;
- the payment and filing of Value added tax (VAT) return relating to the period February, March, April and May 2020 has been extended by 3 months from the original due dates;
- the payment and filing of quarterly Value added tax (VAT) return relating to Quarter 1 for the year 2020 has been extended by 3 months from the original due dates (new deadline: 31 July 2020);
- the payment and filing of excise tax return relating to the period March and April 2020 has been extended by 3 months from the original due dates ( new deadline: 15 August 2020);
- the tax authority will temporarily suspend fines for late payment of installments, amendment of returns of taxpayers and non-cooperation of taxpayers until 30 June 2020;
- penalties will not apply for payments of tax that are suspended;
- corporate income tax and Zakat certificates will be issued without restrictions for the year 2019.
