GCC and Egyptian developments and implementation considerations
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Stay abreast of latest developments in the region
On 13 June 2018, the UAE Government circulated a series of announcements proposing sweeping, and widespread, changes to the existing UAE visa regime and landscape (the “Proposed Changes”).
Last week saw further announcements from both Abu Dhabi and Dubai on their respective initiatives aimed at continuing to boost economic growth and ease the cost of doing business in each Emirate.
The Egyptian Minister of Finance has recently issued a Ministerial Decree published in the official Gazette on May 22 nd 2018, amending some provisions of the Executive Regulations of the Income Tax Law (2005) that relate to the Egyptian Transfer Pricing Regulations.
The OECD recently released the first peer reviews of the Country-by-Country (CbC) reporting initiative (“Phase One”). The peer reviews indicates significant transfer pricing and tax transparency developments are expected in 2018 for Egypt, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. The next annual peer reviews (“Phase Two”) will be conducted later in 2018 and aim to review all the jurisdictions of the Inclusive Framework. It is expected that Bahrain, Oman and the UAE will be covered in Phase Two.
The Ministry of Finance (MOF) has published a Cabinet Decision No. (25) of 2018 (‘the decision’) on the mechanism of applying VAT when gold, diamonds or any products made out of gold or diamonds as a principal component (‘goods’) are traded between taxable persons in the UAE. The decision does not apply to transactions in investment gold and is implemented from 1 st June 2018.
We are pleased to share with you our May edition of the PwC GCC VAT Newsletter on the latest VAT developments in the GCC Region.
The United Arab Emirates (“UAE”) joined the OECD Inclusive Framework on Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (“BEPS”) on 16 May 2018, bringing the total number of participating jurisdictions to 116.
On 22 May, the Jordanian Cabinet approved a new draft law (“Proposed Law”) amending the Income Tax Law no. (34) for the year 2014 (“Current Law”). The Proposed Law is subject to further debate, review and amendment after Ramadan.
Dean Kern
Tax and Legal Services Leader, PwC Middle East
Tel: +971 4 304 3575
Email
