Finance Minister approves amended executive regulations of real estate transactions tax

Mohammed Al-Jadaan, Minister of Finance and Chairman of the Zakat, Tax and Customs Authority (ZATCA), approved amendments to the executive regulations of the real estate transactions tax, Umm Al-Qura newspaper reported on Aug. 11.

The amendments will be effective as of the publication date.

They include the real estate disposal by natural persons of a company or investment fund established in the Kingdom owning - directly or indirectly - all the company shares or the fund units. This includes the case of matching the full ownership percentage of natural persons in the real estate and the entity disposed of, provided that there is no change in the persons' ownership in the entity disposed of for a period of not less than five years from the real estate disposal date.

The amendments also include a real estate disposal between a company and another two establishments in the Kingdom, one of which owns - directly or indirectly - all the other company shares or stakes, as well as real estate disposal between a company and an investment fund established in the Kingdom, and the company owns - directly or indirectly - all the fund units and real estate disposal between companies or investment funds established in the Kingdom, whose shares, stakes or units are owned - directly or indirectly - by the same persons. In all cases, all shares of the company or units of the fund, to which the disposal is made, remain owned - directly or indirectly - by the same persons for a period of not less than five years from the date of the real estate disposal.

In addition, ZATCA will promote awareness among registrants, strengthen their voluntary commitment and issue the necessary guidelines or tax bulletins to help them fulfill their duties.