Workshops to be held for companies, business owners ahead of VAT implementation

Manama, Nov. 28 (BNA): A series of workshops will be held to ensure companies and business owners are ready for the implementation of the first phase of VAT on January 1, 2019. Rana Ibrahim Faqihi, the Assistant Undersecretary for Development and Revenue Policies, said first phase of VAT implementation will be on companies with sales exceeding BHD 5 million annually. That level of revenues will require firms to register with the National Bureau for Taxation (NBT), the entity in charge of managing the tax. Registration applications will be received until December 20 2018, she added. Faqihi said in order to ensure consumer protection, 5% VAT will not be applied on 94 basic food items and a number of other basic goods and services mentioned in the Law, including education and health services.  She said the executive regulations include a detailed explanation of the operational and procedural aspects of the law, which comes within the framework of the Kingdom of Bahrain's commitment to the unified VAT agreement ratified by the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) at the Riyadh Summit in 2015.  The executive regulations explain the procedures of calculation, payment and collection of VAT as a general consumption tax imposed on buy and sell of taxable goods and services at each stage of its production and distribution, at a basic rate of 5%, unless a special provision in the law was stated to include a tax exemption or a zero-rating taxation.