Preparing for Value Added Tax in the GCC

With the progressive implementation of Value Added Tax (VAT) in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), Deloitte is running a regular pulse survey to gauge the level of knowledge of VAT within the GCC marketplace and to understand the preparations already underway to get ready for the introduction.

April Survey results

Whilst awaiting the publication of the Treaty, we conducted our first Indirect Tax Client Survey in April. In order to give our recommendations some context, we also conducted a parallel survey amongst clients of our Malaysian Firm, The Journey to Malaysian Goods and Services Tax (GST), so that we can offer you insights from businesses that have very recently been through a GST implementation process. We have included these Malaysian insights at relevant points throughout this report.

The first survey document disseminates the cross-sector response regarding the VAT introduction in the GCC, the Global respondents regarding the VAT introduction in the GCC, business impacts of VAT introduction in the GCC, attitudes towards the introduction of VAT in the GCC, quotes regarding the VAT introduction in the GCC, key industry findings around the VAT introduction in the GCC and the next steps for businesses in the Gulf.

May Survey results

After launching the results of the first survey we ran in April, we summarize in this one page document the results of our May client survey which demonstrates the updated statistics on where businesses are today. There has been a change in the attitudes of businesses towards the introduction of VAT in the GCC which is summarized in this one pager.

July Survey results

In this one page document we summarize the results of our July client survey which highlights the updated statistics on how prepared businesses are for the VAT in the GCC. There has been a growing sense of certainty that VAT is coming to the Gulf. Businesses also seem to be more informed about the indirect tax which might be due to the recent governments initiatives. We are reaching a critical point in time for businesses to react to the quickly evolving tax environment.