Today will likely be a busy day for the United States Postal Services as many individuals scurry to get their taxes sent to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) before midnight. Yes, April 15th is the deadline for U.S. taxpayers to send in their taxes. However, except for the American expats who are in Saudi Arabia but still bound by U.S. law to include filing income tax returns, it will be just another typical day in the Kingdom. Citizens of Saudi Arabia do not have to worry or fear or wonder about filing out those myriad of tax forms for there is no such thing as income taxes in the Kingdom.
As further explained in this link individuals are only taxed on their business income in Saudi Arabia but even then there are distinctions. Non-Saudi and non-GCC citizens are taxed on their Saudi sourced income. However for Saudi nationals and GCC nationals, instead of taxing there is zakat. Zakat is an Islamic direct tax on property and income. Zakat is payable by citizens of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) in lieu of the income tax. It is levied on the taxpayer’s total capital resources and income that are not invested in real estate.Zakat is levied at a flat rate of 2.5% on the estimated net profit of 15% the gross income.
Filed under: America, Saudi Arabia, Saudi Living | Tagged: America, customs, KSA, Saudi, Saudi Arabia, travel | 23 Comments »
