Saudi Arabia’s Shura council was expected on Wednesday to discuss plans to impose a 2 to 6 percent tax on expat workers’ remittances.
Former Shura council member Husam Al Angari, who submitted the proposal, suggested a 6 percent tax in the first year of living in the kingdom, reported Arabic newspaper Akhbar24.
He said the tax would then drop to 2 percent following five years of the expat’s residency in Saudi Arabia.
Al Angari was quoted as saying that expats’ remittances had almost tripled since 2004, having increased from $15.1 billion(SR57 billion) to over $36 billion (SR135 billion) in 2013. The World Bank claims Saudi Arabia accounts for the second highest volume of remittances after the US, with $37 billion in 2015.
The kingdom first mooted a tax on expat remittances in June. At around the same time, the UAE was also reported to be considering the imposition of such a tax.
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