Saudi Arabia to Impose Expat Levy

The Saudi Ministry of Finance said on Sunday that it will introduce a monthly expat levy as of 2018. The monthly tax will range between 300 and 400 Saudi riyal ($80 and 106), the ministry said on Twitter, adding that the levy will be paid by private sector companies and it aims to replace foreign laborers with locals, Yahoo reported. The ministry said last year that the levy will increase to 600 SAR in 2019 and to 800 SAR in 2020 in private companies which hire more foreigners than locals. However, in companies where the number of foreign employees is less than that of locals, the levy will be 300 SAR in 2018 and it will gradually increase until it reaches 700 SAR in 2020. Introduction of expat dependent tax, higher expat levies, sin taxes and expected introduction of VAT from 2018 are all measures being taken to boost its declining non-oil revenues.