Free Zones, Foreign Ownership and Tax Incentives for Foreign Direct Investment in Qatar

Abstract

Qatar offers specific Free Zones in order to encourage Foreign Direct Investment, as Free Zones Enterprises can be fully owned by non-Qataris, which is not the case of companies located in Non-Free Zones areas in Qatar. In fact, Free Zones offer huge tax incentives and do not provide any regulatory or legal restrictions to repatriate profits and investments. As Non-Free Zones are governed by a different law than the one applicable in Free Zones areas, taxation is slightly less favorable (corporate income taxes of 10% apply for ordinary companies) even if lots of activities are still tax exempted. The most significant difference lies in the ownership restrictions of Qataris companies. The present contribution is aiming at presenting the main tax and legal aspects of these two different options in Qatar, notably given the growing importance of Free Zones in this region.