Tax compliance in Oman

Tax compliance for a foreign-owned company in Oman means registering with the tax authority, keeping records that support each return, filing on time and answering the authority’s questions when they come. The Tax Authority’s registration page says any establishment engaged in economic activity in Oman must register for income tax within 60 days of starting the activity or of its registration with the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Investment Promotion. VAT is a separate registration with its own deadlines, so the calendar has to cover both.

Ask a firm which returns it will prepare and file itself, and whether it will hold the company’s online tax account or work through yours. Ask how it treats payments to a parent company or other related parties abroad, since those are the items a tax officer is most likely to question, and whether it applies the 10% that the Tax Authority’s tax rates page says is deducted from payments to non-residents for services, interest or royalties. Find out who answers a query from the authority, in which language, and whether that time is inside the annual fee. If your group already has a tax adviser at home, ask how the Omani firm will share working papers with them. For indirect tax, see VAT in Oman.

Thirty firms on Accountanty handle tax compliance in Oman: 27 accounting firms and three corporate service providers. Twenty are small, seven medium-sized and three part of large networks. Thirteen say they focus on foreign clients, all 30 work in English and nine in Arabic. All of them are based in Muscat and all also offer audit, so the statements behind your return and the return itself can be quoted together.