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Gulam Ali Khan
With new amendments in Oman’s income tax law in place, accounting and finance professionals as well as new graduates in these fields are expected to be in high demand in the near future.
Experts believe that a fast growth in hiring of accounting and finance executives and commerce graduates can be expected from this year as a vast population of smaller enterprises will come under tax net. “The recent changes in the tax law are evidence of increasing sophistication in the tax environment. We believe this will contribute to job growth in the field (government, private and public accounting). We believe the introduction of value-added tax (VAT) in January 2018 will continue this trend,” Omar al Sharif, Oman country senior partner at PwC, said.
Apart from generating additional revenues for the government, the changes in tax law will also create thousands of job opportunities for accounting, finance and tax professionals within the government and private sectors, said Davis Kallukaran, managing partner at Crowe Horwath Oman.
As per the amendments in income tax law, the standard corporate tax rate has increased from 12 per cent to 15 per cent and the statutory exempt threshold of RO30,000 has been removed. Potentially, thousands of small enterprises that were exempted from any corporate income tax are now liable to pay tax, albeit at a modest rate of three per cent.
Kallukaran said small businesses which earn less than RO30,000 profit will now have to pay a three per cent tax and the number of such enterprises is so large that it will require thousands of additional professionals to meet the demand.
Experts also believe that the demand for accounting and finance executives is expected to get a further boost next year as the GCC states plan to introduce VAT regime from January 2018.
Dr Ahmed al Ghassani, dean of the College of Banking and Financial Studies (CBFS), said the new changes in Omani taxation law will require more Omanis working in taxation or taxation-related areas.
He said, “To respond to such new regulations, higher educational institutions are responsible for providing the job market with well-prepared graduates. Higher education needs to be more futuristic through identifying jobs that would be required even after ten or 15 years. Therefore, it is necessary for universities and colleges to be both proactive and reactive.”
Mubeen Khan, chairman of the Muscat Chapter of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, expects increased government focus on taxation as a revenue diversification strategy to move away from oil revenue. He said, “This will create more demand for accounting and taxation professionals to assist businesses meeting the legal and regulatory requirements.”
Kallukaran believes new university graduates will have more job opportunities but they will need training in accounting and taxation. “There could be a shortage of requisite skills in taxation initially, but the demand can be met once appropriate training opportunities are provided. I believe it is a good opportunity for higher educational and training institutions and it should be utilised in a better way.”
Khan said the taxation reforms, which also include introduction of VAT, would require all the establishments to maintain comprehensive accounting records. “This will generate enormous job opportunities for accountants. The universities and colleges should cater to this need by suitable amendments in their course structures by imparting practical accounting training as part of graduate degrees so that Omani accounting graduates can capitalise on this career opportunity,” he said.
Echoing similar views, Ghassani added that higher education institutes need to review their programmes to ensure that they are contextualised to address the new tax rules and regulation. “This also unfolds a need for training tens of thousands of accountants working in the government and private sector organisations on the changes in the Omani taxation law to ensure that these changes are well understood and appropriately implemented,” he added.
© Muscat Daily 2017
