Accounting and tax compliance for Doha businesses

Qatar has not implemented VAT, which changes the compliance question in Doha rather than removing it. What applies instead is corporate income tax at 10% on the foreign-owned share of profits, withholding tax at 5% on royalties, technical fees and services paid to non-residents, and mandatory filing through the Dhareeba portal — including for entities that are wholly Qatari-owned and pay no tax.

The Doha specifics that catch companies out are the deadlines and the audit requirement. Income tax returns are due within four months of the financial year end, and companies above the capital and revenue thresholds must file audited financial statements with the return. Withholding tax is remitted by the 16th of the month following payment, which means the accounts payable process — not the year-end close — is where compliance is actually won or lost.

Doha's contracting, energy-services and professional-services firms typically bill in QAR and USD against long-running projects for Qatar Energy, Ashghal and the free zones. Multi-currency ledgers, per-project margin tracking and clean withholding-tax records on every foreign supplier payment are the three things that make the Dhareeba filing straightforward.