Saudi Arabia delays VAT payments by 3 months on COVID-19 crisis

29 Jan - fines or penalties on late VAT returns have been waived until June 2021.

6 Oct - fourth quarter VAT filings and payments until 31 December 2020 have been postponed without penalties. This is an extension of the last amnesty which ran up to 30 September.

5 Oct - home sales have been exempted from the 15% VAT levy. Instead, there will be a 5% real estate sales tax.

28 Aug - postponements to 30 Sept of returns and payment plans, including import VAT on customs. Audits on VAT credits postponed. No fines or interest. Failure to VAT register will not incur penalties.

25 July - Q1 and Q2 Value Added Tax returns should be filed by 31 July 2020.

9 July - the deadline for repayment of VAT by businesses which have been granted payment extensions has been moved to 30 September 2020. This is backed with a further suspension of payment collections.

4 July update - there will be accelerated VAT credit repayments to taxpayers

1 July update - Saudi VAT rise to 15% comes into effect.

Saudi Arabia has offered Value Added Tax payment deferments for businesses for three months.

Monthly returns due for February to May will all be delayed to the last days of June to Septemer, respectively. Quarterly returns for Q1 are delayed until 31 July 2020.

There also reliefs from a range of government charges and customs. The measures were announced on 20 March 2020. Follow Avalara’s live global coronavirus Covid-19 VAT measures tracker.

The relief is part of a packages for measures to help cope with the coronavirus epidemic. Saudi Arabia has been hit hard economically with the collapse of oil prices in the past month on general recession worries. Brent crude has fallen from $59 to $27 per barrel in the last 30 days. The Kingdom’s budget is based on an assumption of $82 per barrel.