(MENAFN- Muscat Daily) The sultanate has been ranked among the top ten countries in the world where paying taxes is most easy.
According to the Paying Taxes 2014 report published by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) in association with the World Bank, the sultanate has been ranked ninth this year globally in ease of paying taxes, climbing one place from last year, when it ranked tenth.
The Paying Taxes 2014 report is a comparison of tax systems in 189 economies worldwide. The ease-of-paying-taxes rankings are compiled through three sub-indicators: The number of tax payments, the time afforded for compliance and the total tax rate.
UAE and Qatar maintained their first and second rankings, respectively, this year. Saudi Arabia and Bahrain ranked third and seventh, respectively, while Kuwait was ranked 11th. Except Oman, all other GCC countries retained their last year's rankings.
According to the report, firms in Oman face less administrative burden in paying taxes. On average, firms in Oman make 14 tax payments per year and spend 68 hours doing so, much below the global average. The total tax rate is at 22 per cent of commercial profit in Oman, the report said.
Speaking to Muscat Daily, Russell Aycock, tax director at PwC in Oman, said Oman's tax rules and tax forms are reasonably very clear and straightforward.
He said, ''The Middle East is the best region in the world in terms of ease in paying taxes. In Oman, there are only a small number of taxes and a relatively small number of tax filings. The tax rate and mechanism for paying taxes are also very favourable and time to comply is also quite low.''
The report said that although none of the Middle East economies introduced significant tax changes or new tax legislation over the past year, most governments are introducing or looking to introduce compliance-simplification measures through electronic filing and e-payment.
It said that Oman has embarked on a series of simplification measures, although the time to comply increased by six hours due to the additional reporting and filing requirements of the new regime.
The report said GCC states have recently taken concrete steps regarding common VAT through the establishment of a common platform for common VAT from-work law, which aims to harmonise the various VAT systems across the GCC.
''No doubt such a measure will constitute a significant source of revenues for most GCC states in line with their objective to decrease their reliance on revenues from hydrocarbons. The introduction of a VAT system would certainly result in an additional compliance burden and governments will need to ensure that simple and efficient VAT systems are implemented which encourage voluntary compliance and which keep the cost of implementation to a minimum for business,'' the report added.<
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