VAT in Oman

VAT for a company in Oman that is owned from abroad starts with registration. The Tax Authority’s registration page makes it mandatory once annual revenues from taxable supplies reach or are expected to reach 38,500 OMR, and allows a business to register by choice from 19,250 OMR. Ask your adviser to confirm your position in writing before the first invoice goes out.

Once registered, the work is regular and detailed. Each invoice has to carry the right information, input tax on purchases has to be supported by valid invoices, and the VAT account has to agree with the ledger at the end of every period. Under the VAT Law, the return is due within 30 days after the end of each tax period, which leaves little time if the books are closed late. Imports, exports and services bought from suppliers outside Oman each have their own treatment, and these are where errors tend to appear for a new company.

Ask a firm whether it will register the company and file each return itself, how it checks your sales invoices before they are issued, and how it reconciles the VAT return to the books. Ask how it treats goods that pass through a special economic zone and services billed by your parent company. Find out who answers a query from the tax authority and whether that work is inside the fee.

Twenty-four firms on Accountanty handle VAT in Oman: 21 accounting firms and three corporate service providers. Seventeen are small, five medium-sized and two in large networks, and 11 say they focus on foreign clients. All are in Muscat. For income tax returns, see tax compliance in Oman.