Business

UAE rolls out 9 pct business tax to boost non-oil revenue

The UAE began rolling out a 9 percent business tax on Thursday, with relief for small firms and likely exemptions for export-focused free zone activities, as the formerly tax-free oil producer seeks to boost non-oil revenue and remain a regional commercial hub.

The business tax follows a 5 percent value added tax (VAT) introduced in 2018, gradually eroding the United Arab Emirates’ tax-free status that helped it carve out a role as an international trade and tourism hub and magnet for the ultra-rich.

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Some tax regulations have not yet been published, including details on how income earned by entities in the UAE’s more than 30 free zones – which export tens of billions of dollars of goods to neighboring states – will be taxed.

The government has said it introduced the tax to align with international efforts to combat tax avoidance, as well as to address challenges arising from the digitalization of the global economy. The UAE does not levy personal income taxes.

Tax reform is gradually appearing across the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) which has historically funded budgets from hydrocarbon revenues. In 2017 GCC states agreed to introduce VAT.

S&P ratings agency estimates the tax could add 1.5 percent-1.8 percent of gross domestic product from 2025 to the annual revenues of the UAE’s seven emirates based on the VAT model, which gives 70 percent of receipts to the collecting emirate and the rest to the federal government.

“The tax will help diversify the UAE government’s revenue away from the oil sector. However, the full impact is unclear because it has not yet been announced exactly how the tax will be distributed amongst the individual emirates,” S&P’s Trevor Cullinan said.

OECD Tax Form

The UAE’s 9 percent rate on taxable income above 375,000 dirhams – around $100,000 – is the lowest in the GCC, apart from Bahrain which does not impose a general corporate tax.

Saudi Arabia levies 20 percent, Qatar 10 percent and Kuwait 15 percent on foreign-owned firms, and Oman has a corporate rate of 15 percent, according to consultancy PwC.

Muhammad Rasoul CEO of amana, a mid-sized UAE-based financial services company, said the corporate tax is a natural step to bring the UAE in line with best practices globally.

“The key will be to ensure the economy stays competitive, at both the regional and global level … But let’s be clear – the tax rate doesn’t seem to be overly high, especially compared with what businesses must manage elsewhere in the world,” he said.

Firms from Thursday will become liable for corporate tax when their financial years start, meaning tax returns will not fall due until 2025.

The UAE tax coincides with a new global minimum corporate tax from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), signed by 136 signatories including the UAE, to ensure big companies pay a minimum 15 percent and make tax avoidance harder.

The UAE has not yet published regulation on the OECD tax, but without its own corporate tax system, another country could collect the 15 percent, tax experts say.

The UAE legislation levies 0 percent or 9 percent, but with caveats for smaller earners and excluding personal income from employment, investment, and real estate.

Individuals only must register with revenues over 1 billion dirhams and a small business relief scheme means revenues under 3 million dirhams will have no taxable income.

“They wanted to make it as friendly as possible to small and medium enterprises and startups. And at the same time, they don’t want to encourage companies shifting from the UAE” said Wassim Chahine, head of corporate tax for KPMG Lower Gulf.

The UAE Federal Tax Authority and the Ministry of Finance declined to comment.

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Business

Almarai signs multiple agreements to localize jobs through training and recruitment programs

Almarai signed a cooperation memorandum with the Food Industries Polytechnic, the
Transport General Authority, and the Saudi Logistics Academy to localize jobs in the
food and beverages sector through training and rehabilitation programs ending in
employment. This came within the first international conference on the labor market,
organized by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development on 13 – 14
December 2023 at the King Abdulaziz Convention Center in Riyadh.

‘These agreements are part of Almarai’s corporate program for the social responsibility
to achieve localization in the food industry sector, which is one of the top priorities of the
comprehensive strategic plans in Almarai, especially since the company is one of the
largest working environments in the kingdom, with more than 9,000 Saudi employees,
including more than 900 Saudi female employees.”Fahad Aldrees, Chief Human
Resources Officer of Almarai, said.

He added that the agreements signed to train and qualify young people are part of the
integrated initiatives and training and rehabilitation programs for national human
resources in Almarai. He pointed out that the company provided about half a million
employee training hours during 2022, raising its retention rate to 90% during 2022.

It is worth mentioning that Almarai is the world’s largest vertically integrated dairy
company, and the largest food and beverage producer and distributor in the Middle
East. Almarai was ranked among LinkedIn’s top 15 Saudi companies for professional
career development for 2022.

Business

SEBA Bank rebrands to AMINA Bank and continues to write its success story

a fully licensed Swiss crypto bank, announced today its new brand identity: AMINA Bank AG. The group operates
globally from its regulated hubs in Zug, Abu Dhabi and Hong Kong, offering its clients traditional and crypto banking services.
SEBA Bank made history in 2019 by becoming one of the first FINMA-regulated institutions to provide crypto banking services. This rebrand marks a new chapter for the company, which has proudly been in operation for more than four years. AMINA Bank is inspired by the same trailblazing ambition to lead the way for its clients and to write its own future as a Swiss-
regulated crypto bank offering services to its traditional and crypto savvy clients around the globe. The name ‘AMINA’ stems from the term ‘transAMINAtion’, meaning transference of one compound to another. AMINA is a brand driven by perpetual change, bringing together the various ‘compounds’ of traditional, digital, and crypto banking to unlock new potential and
growth for our clients. This vision of change represents the transformation of our clients’ financial future. Franz Bergmueller, CEO of AMINA, said: “We are delighted to introduce the world to our new brand identity. While we say goodbye to the SEBA name, we remain forever proud of the achievements made by the group under the former brand. “Our brand signifies a new era in the company’s growth and strategy; we are a key player in crypto banking and are here to define the future of finance. With our client-focused approach, our years of traversing traditional and crypto finance, we offer a platform for investors to build
wealth safely and under the highest regulatory standards.” “We are grateful to be encouraged by our supportive and committed investors who have been very helpful, supporting the growth of the company. We thank our employees in all the regions
for their dedication and client focus. As we look forward to 2024, our ambition is to accelerate the growth of our strategic hubs in Switzerland, Hong Kong, and Abu Dhabi, and to continue our global expansion, building on all the successes we have laid down over the past years.” Current clients of AMINA Bank (formerly SEBA Bank) will be unaffected by the rebrand other than encountering the new name; all operations will be business as usual across the board. The branch office based in Abu Dhabi and the subsidiaries in Hong Kong and Singapore will subsequently apply for a name change to align with the head office in Zug.

Business

Uptime Appoints Mustapha Louni Chief Business Officer

Uptime Institute is pleased to announce the appointment of Mustapha Louni to the position of Chief Business Officer, a role specifically created to drive strategic leadership and client success. In this new role, Mr. Louni will assume responsibility for the global Uptime sales and marketing organizations and drive overall business value for all Uptime clients. He will retain his existing responsibilities overseeing operations in the Middle East, India, Africa, and the Asia Pacific regions. In this elevated capacity, Mr. Louni is poised to play a pivotal role in driving Uptime’s next phase of global expansion through strategic initiatives to enhance market awareness of the dramatically expanding global service lines and delivery capabilities of Uptime that uniquely support the global data center industry in its pursuit of ever higher performance through elevated availability, resiliency, sustainability, and cyber-security of digital infrastructure. Louni’s appointment renews and expands Uptime

Institute 39;s 30-year commitment to advancing excellence in the data center sector on a global scale. “Today we are experiencing the next phase of the one-time, planetary transformation from analog to digital. This unprecedented, once-in-a-generation growth in data center demand is primarily driven by continuing cloud adoption, the new promise of AI, and the demonstrable fact
that hybrid digital infrastructure is here to stay for the foreseeable future,” said Martin McCarthy, CEO, Uptime Institute. “These complex and nuanced market demands require a visionary talent like Mustapha Louni. He is someone who cannot only deftly manage specific aspects of the business but also remain ahead of accelerating changes and trends. He continues to earn client
trust and respect by timely delivery on demanding commitments while he also inspires and energizes colleagues and clients alike. I am delighted to announce Mr. Louni’s new position and know that he will continue to expand the impact that he has already brought to Uptime since his arrival.” In 2014, Mr. Louni joined the Uptime organization in the United Arab Emirates, leveraging his extensive experience from roles at Panduit and Schneider Electric in Paris and Dubai. As the company’s first commercial resource in the Middle East and Africa region, Mr. Louni played a pivotal role in expanding Uptime’s presence. Within a year, he successfully established what became and remains Uptime’s fastest growing regional office. Under his leadership, Uptime has
extended his impressive trajectory of growth in MEA to the Asia-Pacific regions, augmenting the Uptime workforce with dedicated team members spanning more than a dozen countries across these regions. A new Uptime office has been inaugurated in Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) this year, further fortifying the company’s ability to meet its commitment to sustained
growth and excellence and serve clients in critical, accelerating markets for digital infrastructure.

Uptime Institute began development of its proprietary and now globally recognized Tier Standards and its Tier Certifications 30 years ago to ensure that the mission critical computing needs of all organizations could be met with confidence and understood by executive management. Since that time, Uptime Tier Certification as well as other Uptime offerings including assessments and awards in digital infrastructure for ensuring business performance in areas of management and operations, risk and resilience, sustainability, and more recently cyber- security have gained global adoption. Uptime’s expanding success is based on delivering a
unique business service that is based upon unparalleled engineering excellence and technical mastery, while remaining vendor independent and technology agnostic.