OCCI, Horwath hold seminar on amendments made to Income Tax law

MUSCAT: Oman Chamber of Commerce and Industry (OCCI) in cooperation with Horwath Mak Ghazali organised on Thursday a seminar on the latest amendments made to Income Tax Law.

The seminar, which was held under the auspices of Saud bin Nasser al Shakily, Secretary General of Taxation, aims at explaining to businessmen the new taxes and fees levied on the private sector.

“The major amendments made to the Income Tax Law is raising the tax from 12 per cent to 15 per cent. The decision to increase the tax to 15 per cent takes into consideration that the average global tax rate is 27 per cent,” said the Secretary General of Taxation to reporters.

“The other amendment is cancelling the exemption limit which was set at RO 30,000 at the previous legislations as there has been a manipulation of this exemption by some companies which used to divide its business on very small companies to benefit from the under taxable income, he added.

The Secretary General of Taxation also pointed out that the temporary exemption of tax has been amended as it is now restricted to industry activity instead of covering a number of economic activities, such as agriculture, education, health and manufacturing. The validity has been also restricted to five years only instead of five years’ renewable.

Hamood bin Sangour al Zadjali, Executive President of the Central Bank of Oman, said that the CBO’s capital has been raised to about RO 1 billion with effect from April 1 in a bid to enhance confidence in the national economy and the reserves for covering the circulated money.

He pointed out that the CBO’s capital has become now in a level that enhances the confidence not only in the Omani banking and monetary system but also in the national economy and local currency.

Redha bin Juma al Saleh, Deputy Chairman of OCCI for Administrative and Financial Affairs, in his speech said that regular updating of the laws is extremely important and good.

The amendments made to the tax law aims at addressing the challenges facing the proper implementation of the tax system, keeping pace with the developments made during the past years by the business sector and ensuring that the Omani tax system is consistent with international tax practices.

M K Sridhar, tax adviser presented a working paper on the Omani Income Tax Law. Ramya Annadurai, Director tax advisory delivered a working paper on assessing taxes in the Sultanate. — ONA