Kuwait: Income Tax on Multinational Companies on the Horizon
Emarat Al Youm, 26 October 2024: The Finance Ministry has accelerated steps to diversify sources of income by replenishing the state’s public finances with non-oil revenues.
The first of which is taxes on the income of local multinational companies, which are expected to be implemented next year after completing the executive formulas, as shown by the Ministry’s activities in external meetings or at the level of internal circulars addressed to companies within the country, a copy of which was obtained by “Al-Siyasa”.
On the international front, the Ministry has revealed that it had passed the first stage of the international assessment to which Kuwait was subjected for the Exchange of Tax Information on Request (EOIR) by the Peer Review Group (PRG), which it described as a “great achievement” to move to the second stage of the assessment.
Simultaneously, the Finance Ministry has issued an executive circular to companies operating in Kuwait regarding the mechanism of “destruction of fixed assets” for companies, considering that the text of Kuwait Decree No. 3/1955, as amended by Kuwait Law No. 2/2008 and its executive regulations, stipulates that capital gains resulting from the disposal of assets must be treated as ordinary commercial profits and subject to tax to prevent any future tax evasion operations.
The circular has included notifying the Ministry of any destruction of assets 30 days before their destruction and the presence of the Ministry’s inspectors during the destruction process, otherwise, it will not be counted, amid expectations that these companies, whether local or foreign, will be subject to the income tax umbrella within 24 months.
Expectations suggest that there will be 30 local multinational companies, while it is likely that the tax revenue from these companies, in addition to the companies listed on the Kuwait Stock Exchange with income exceeding 750 million euros, will be around 405 million dinars.
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