Cabinet Decision No. 39 of 2019, Article 50, defines tax avoidance as entering arrangements primarily to reduce taxable income, create losses, or exploit double taxation treaties. Tax benefits include reduced tax, exemptions, or refunds. The Authority can withdraw these benefits if it determines that transactions were not undertaken in good faith for legitimate business purposes. In such cases, the value of the withdrawn benefit is added back to taxable income. This anti-avoidance rule targets artificial splitting of income and interconnected arrangements designed solely for tax mitigation.
Document Type: ERS - Executive Regulations Law: Income Tax Law 24 of 2018 Decision Number: executive-regulations-39-article-50 Year: 2019 Country: 🇶🇦 Qatar Official Name: Article 50
Last updated at: 2026-02-23 12:13:40 UTC
Tax avoidance, as defined in Article 33(1) of the Law, involves entering into agreements, operations, or transactions where one of the primary goals is to reduce taxable income, create a loss, increase a loss, or use double taxation agreements for this purpose, including cases where the due tax amount becomes negligible.
"Tax benefit," in applying the provisions of Article 33(1) of the Law, specifically includes:
Reducing the tax due by reducing total income or increasing deductions or losses.
Obtaining a tax exemption.
Refunding tax amounts or financial penalties paid.
The agreements, operations, and transactions referred to in Article 33(1) of the Law, particularly include:
Agreements, operations, and transactions organized and executed through an arrangement or a series of interconnected arrangements aimed at tax avoidance. This provision does not apply to agreements, operations, and transactions undertaken in good faith for legitimate business purposes, where tax avoidance is not a primary goal.
Agreements, operations, and transactions involving the taxpayer splitting and partially or wholly transferring income to another person or persons linked to them for the purpose of avoiding tax fully or partially.
Tax benefits are withdrawn by the Authority in cases stipulated in Article 33 of the Law by a tax assessment decision according to Article 14 of the Law. To determine the tax due in such cases, the value of the benefit obtained by the taxpayer from the withdrawn tax benefit is added to the taxable income.