Saudi Arabia’s Zakat, Tax and Customs Authority (ZATCA) has extended the cancellation of fines and exemption of penalties initiative for six months until December 31, 2024.
ZATCA stated that the extension of the initiative is motivated by its desire to help taxpayers recover from the adverse economic impact on businesses of the COVID-19 pandemic. In order to obtain an exemption, the taxpayer must be registered at the tax law and submit all previously non-submitted returns to ZATCA.
The fines covered by the exemption decision include those related to late registration, late payment, late filing of returns, corrections to VAT returns and violations of field control related to applying the e-invoicing regulations and other general VAT provisions. However, the initiative excludes penalties related to tax evasion violations and fines paid before the initiative’s effective date.
Taxpayers can request an instalment payment plan from ZATCA as long as the application is submitted while the initiative is still in effect and all due instalments are paid by the due dates specified in the Authority-approved instalment plan.
The initiative was earlier extended to June 30, 2024, from December 31, 2023.
