The Zakat, Tax and Customs Authority (ZATCA) has extended the period of Cancellation of Fines and Exemption of Penalties Initiative for taxpayers who are subject to all tax systems for additional 6 months as of Thursday December 1, 2022 until May 31, 2023. The authority pointed out that extending the initiative is part of its efforts to enable taxpayers who meet the conditions to benefit from the initiative and its goals, which mainly include alleviating economic burdens arising from the COVID-19 pandemic on businesses. ZATCA said that fines included in the initiative cover exempting taxpayers from late registration in all tax systems, late payment of fines, late filing of tax statements in all tax systems, and tax statement correction fines as set out in the Law of Value Added Tax, and fines for violations of VAT field control related to applying the e-invoicing regulations and other general regulations. The authority has also stated that in order to benefit from the initiative, non-registered taxable persons must register at the tax system. They also must submit all undeclared statements due to ZATCA, declare not clearly declared taxes, and pay the full tax debt related to the statements that should be submitted or amended. Taxpayers may request an installment to the payments, provided that the request be submitted and approved by the authority within the initiative duration. Taxpayers must also pay all due installments on a timely-basis in accordance with the ZATCA-approved installment plan. The Authority has stressed that the initiative does not include fines related to tax evasion violations, and fines paid before the initiative's effective date. ZATCA has urged taxpayers to review the initiative details through the initiative manual at the authority's website (zatca.gov.sa). The manual includes the details of the fine exemption decision. The authority invites any person who has inquiries to reach out via its 24/7 call center hotline (19993), Customer Care Twitter account (@Zatca_Care), via e-mail ([email protected]), or by instant messages on ZATCA's website (zatca.gov.sa). The initiative is an extension of the authority's previous initiatives aimed at mitigating the economic and financial repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic and its consequences. ZATCA re-launched the initiative on June 1, 2022 and was scheduled to end on November 20, 2022.
