Does Qatar have VAT, and what do we file instead?

Qatar signed the GCC VAT framework but has not implemented VAT, so there is no VAT return today. What you do file is corporate income tax at 10 per cent on the foreign-owned share of profits through the Dhareeba portal, 5 per cent withholding on certain payments to non-residents, and monthly WPS salary transfers.

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Zoho People · Qatar Free Zones

Zoho People HR for Qatar Free Zone Companies

Name: Zoho People HR for Qatar Free Zone Companies
Brand: Zoho

An HRMS built for free zone teams - employee records, leave, attendance, onboarding and self-service, on web and mobile.

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Zoho Premium & Odoo Partner · Qatar delivery team on Doha hours

Premium Partner

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Tell us your free zone & requirement - we reply within one business day.

The first AI Enabled Zoho Partner in the Middle East and Africa. Accredited by Zoho on 14 October 2026 after the Zoho AI Accelerator Series. Read the announcement

AI Enabled Zoho Partner in Qatar

The West Bay skyline in Doha, Qatar, seen across the bay from MIA Park — Doha's West Bay business district, where most of our Qatar work lands. Photo by Zairon, CC BY 4.0.

CurrencyQatari riyal (QAR), pegged to the US dollar

TaxNo VAT yet; excise tax on selected goods + 10% corporate income tax on foreign-owned profits

FilingGeneral Tax Authority, through the Dhareeba portal

National visionQatar National Vision 2030

Why businesses in Qatar choose Shyphan

Contracting, logistics, energy services, hospitality, retail and professional services firms make up the bulk of the Qatari private sector, and a great many of them still run on spreadsheets and disconnected tools. We put a single system in place - quotes, orders, invoices, stock and collections - without asking the team to change how they actually work.

Qatar applies no VAT today. A GCC-wide VAT has been agreed in principle but is not yet in force, so what matters now is excise tax on tobacco, energy and soft drinks, and corporate income tax at 10% on the foreign-owned share of profits - Qatari and GCC-owned entities are largely exempt. Returns are filed with the General Tax Authority through its Dhareeba portal. We configure your finance system for Dhareeba-ready records, riyal and multi-currency working, WPS payroll files and bilingual Arabic and English documents.

Cities we serve in Qatar

DohaAl RayyanAl WakrahLusailAl KhorUmm SalalAl DaayenMesaieed

Free zones & business hubs

QFZA at Ras Bufontas and Umm Alhoul, the Qatar Financial Centre, Qatar Science & Technology Park, and onshore registration through the Ministry of Commerce and Industry. Groups often hold entities in more than one.

Key sectors we serve in Qatar

Trading & distributionReal estate & constructionLogisticsHospitality & tourismFinancial servicesRetail & e-commerce

At a glance

Zoho People HR for Qatar Free Zone Companies: the short answer

What it is: An HRMS built for free zone teams - employee records, leave, attendance, onboarding and self-service, on web and mobile.
Best suited to: Zoho People HR for Qatar Free Zone Companies suits HR teams tracking headcount, leave and contracts across more than one entity.
Typical timeline: A single-app rollout for a small team typically goes live in three to five weeks including data migration and training.
What it costs: We quote a fixed price after a free discovery call and can present it in QAR or USD, whichever matches how you budget - the riyal is pegged to the dollar, so the two move together.
Local specifics: No VAT in Qatar yet - excise tax on selected goods, and corporate income tax at 10% on the foreign-owned share of profits, filed with the General Tax Authority through Dhareeba. Riyal and multi-currency working, WPS payroll files, Arabic and English documents.
Delivered by: Shyphan AI Solutions, a Zoho Premium Partner listed on Zoho's official partner directory. Support on Qatar hours (AST), Sunday to Thursday. Call +91 95651 53545.
Last reviewed: 10 September 2026

Zoho products

The full Zoho suite we implement in Qatar

From CRM and Books to a complete Zoho One rollout, with 30+ apps configured for Qatari teams.

All apps in one suite

Sales pipeline & customers

Accounting & Qatari tax

Stock & order management

Recurring billing & invoicing

Subscription revenue

Expense reports & claims

Pay runs, taxes & stubs

HR, attendance & reviews

Applicant tracking & hiring

Tasks, milestones & timesheets

Agile planning & scrum

Help desk & support tickets

Remote support & screen share

Live chat & visitor tracking

Email marketing & automation

Unified marketing platform

Social media management

Online forms & data capture

Surveys & questionnaires

No-code website builder

Online store & eCommerce

Appointment scheduling

Low-code app builder

BI dashboards & reports

Integrations & automation

Team files & sharing

Secure business email

Team chat & messaging

Video meetings & webinars

How we implement Zoho People for free zone companies

Free discovery call

We map your free zone processes, licence type and compliance needs, then recommend the right setup.

Configuration & Qatari compliance

We configure the product around your workflow and set up excise tax on selected goods and corporate-tax-ready reporting.

Data migration

We import your customers, products and history - cleansed and validated before go-live.

Training & go-live

Your team is trained, the system goes live, and we stay on for support and refinements.

Why free zone companies choose Shyphan

Fixed, transparent pricing

Know the full cost after a free scoping call - clear scope, no hidden fees.

Qatari compliance built in

Dhareeba filing, 10% corporate income tax on foreign-owned profits and excise tax on selected goods, configured from day one.

Local Qatar presence

A dedicated Qatar delivery team working Sunday to Thursday on Doha hours, serving free zone companies across all eight municipalities.

Support that stays

Training, documentation and ongoing support after go-live - not just a handover.

Every Qatar free zone we support

Licensed in Doha, Al Rayyan, Al Wakrah, Al Khor or anywhere else in Qatar? We cover companies across all of them:

Doha

Qatar Free Zones Authority (QFZA)Qatar Financial Centre (QFC)Media City QatarWest BayMsheireb Downtown DohaLusail CityOld Doha PortDoha Industrial Area

Al Rayyan

Qatar Science & Technology Park (QSTP)Education CityAspire ZoneAl Rayyan Industrial Area

Al Wakrah

Umm Alhoul Free ZoneHamad PortBirkat Al Awamer Industrial ZoneAl Wukair Logistics Park

Al Khor

Ras Laffan Industrial CityAl Khor Industrial AreaAl Khor Community

Other Qatar

Ras Bufontas Free ZoneMesaieed Industrial CityDukhanAba Saleel Industrial ZoneAl Karaana Logistics Park

We also serve free zone and onshore Qatari companies across Doha, Al Rayyan, Al Wakrah, Lusail, Al Khor, Umm Salal, Al Daayen and Mesaieed - onboarding and support are delivered remotely on Qatar (Arabian Standard) time.

Certifications & awards

Our certified Zoho team

Namira Khan - Zoho CRM Certified Administrator (Zoho certification)

Sushant Singh - Zoho CRM Certified Administrator (Zoho certification)

Hyacinth Kadri - Zoho People Certified Associate (Zoho certification)

Fazal Mahfooz - Zoho Creator Developer (Professional) (Zoho certification)

Fazal Mahfooz - Zoho Creator Developer (Associate) (Zoho certification)

Vikas Saroj - Zoho Creator Developer (Associate) (Zoho certification)

Yashu Mittal - Zoho Creator Developer (Associate) (Zoho certification)

Shreyansh Dubey - Zoho Creator Developer (Associate) (Zoho certification)

Lubna Nizar - Zoho Creator Developer (Associate) (Zoho certification)

Praveen Kumar Sonkar - Zoho Creator Developer (Associate) (Zoho certification)

Shamly P - Zoho Creator Developer (Associate) (Zoho certification)

Zoho People HR for Qatar Free Zone Companies: questions answered

Does Zoho People suit a small free zone company?

Yes - it scales from a handful of employees to large teams and is affordable for lean free zone businesses.

Can employees use it on mobile?

Yes, with a self-service mobile app for leave, attendance and documents.

Does it handle payroll?

Zoho People manages HR and payroll inputs; actual payroll can run in Zoho Payroll or your provider.

Can it manage multi-municipality teams?

Yes, including staff across different free zones and municipalities.

Which free zones do you cover?

All Qatar free zones across every municipality.

Are prices quoted in riyal or dollars?

We quote a fixed price after a free discovery call and can present it in QAR or USD, whichever matches how you budget - the riyal is pegged to the dollar, so the two move together. Zoho's own licence fees are billed by Zoho directly and kept separate on the quote.

Will you work with our existing accountant?

Yes, and we prefer to. They know your filing position and we know the system. We set the books up so their year-end work is straightforward, and we will sit on a call with them during design rather than handing over a configuration they have never seen.

Can you help a company still running on spreadsheets?

That is the usual starting point and it is not a problem. We migrate customers, suppliers, open balances and stock from Excel, clean the duplicates on the way in, and run the old sheet alongside the new system for the first cycle so nobody has to trust it blindly.

How long does implementation take?

A single-app rollout for a small team typically goes live in three to five weeks including data migration and training. Multi-entity, multi-currency or heavily automated builds run six to twelve weeks and we phase them, so the first group is working while the next is being configured. You get the timeline in writing with the fixed quote, before any work starts.

Get started

Ready to set up Zoho People for your free zone company?

Tell us your free zone and requirement - we’ll reply within one business day with scope, timeline and a fixed quote. Shyphan is a Zoho Premium Partner with a Qatari presence in Al Khor.

Zoho Premium & Odoo Partner
Qatari tax, corporate income tax & Dhareeba filing ready
Qatar delivery team on Doha hours
Fixed-quote pricing

Also worth reading: Zoho Payroll for Qatar Free Zone Companies.

Who this is for

Is Zoho People HR for Qatar Free Zone Companies the right fit for you?

Zoho People HR for Qatar Free Zone Companies suits HR teams tracking headcount, leave and contracts across more than one entity. If that is you, the licence usually pays for itself inside the first quarter. We will say so on the discovery call if it will not.

It is a poor fit if you need a heavily bespoke system with no commercial off-the-shelf equivalent, or if nobody internally can own the data. In either case we will tell you on the first call rather than after the invoice.

Also in Qatar

The rest of what we build for Qatari businesses

Custom Software Development in Qatar

When the process does not fit an off-the-shelf platform: bespoke systems, web and mobile apps, MVPs.

AI Development in Qatar

Chatbots, agents, document processing and automation, grounded on your own data with a human in the loop.

Every Zoho page for Qatar

The full directory: services, applications, migrations, comparisons, industries and city consultants.

What Qatar compliance means in practice

Qatar has not introduced VAT, so the tax work is corporate income tax on the foreign-owned share of profits, filed through Dhareeba, plus withholding tax on payments abroad. The workforce obligations - WPS and social insurance - are where most of the monthly effort actually goes.

Obligation	What the rule is	What has to be configured
Value added tax	Qatar signed the GCC VAT framework but has not implemented VAT. Excise tax applies to tobacco, energy drinks, carbonated drinks and special purpose goods.	The system configured so VAT can be switched on without re-implementing: tax codes, tax-inclusive pricing and invoice layouts ready rather than retrofitted.
Corporate income tax and Dhareeba	10 per cent on the foreign-owned share of profits. Registration, returns and payment all run through the Dhareeba portal, with returns due within four months of the financial year end.	Ownership split reflected in the reporting structure, and a chart of accounts that produces the Dhareeba return rather than feeding a separate schedule.
Withholding tax	5 per cent withholding applies to certain payments to non-residents for services used in Qatar, payable by the 16th of the following month.	Withholding applied at the point of supplier payment, with the certificate produced automatically, so it is not discovered at year end.
Global minimum tax	A 15 per cent global minimum tax applies to in-scope multinational groups from 2025.	Group reporting that supports the computation without a parallel ledger.
Social insurance and WPS	Social insurance contributions apply to Qatari nationals through the General Retirement and Social Insurance Authority. All employees must be paid through the Wage Protection System within seven days of the due date.	Nationality-based contribution rules, and a WPS file generated from the payroll run and reconciled to the bank.
Establishment and licensing	Commercial registration, trade licence and, in the free zones, QFZA or QFC requirements, each renewed on its own cycle.	Licence and permit expiry tracked against the entity and the employees who depend on them.

The filing calendar

Monthly, by the 16thWithholding tax on payments to non-residents
MonthlyWPS salary transfer and social insurance
Within four months of year endCorporate income tax return through Dhareeba
AnnuallyCommercial registration and trade licence renewal

Who you file with

Corporate and withholding taxGeneral Tax Authority, Dhareeba
Wage protection systemMinistry of Labour
Free-zone licensingQatar Free Zones Authority

We configure the system to produce what these returns ask for, and we test it against your own transactions before go-live. We are not tax agents: your accountant or tax adviser signs the return, and rates and thresholds change, so treat this as the shape of the work rather than advice. Last reviewed 15 September 2026.

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