A Saudi-resident company's fiscal year ends on 31 December 2025. Under the Zakat Implementing Regulations and the Saudi Income Tax Law's return-filing rules, by when must the company generally submit its annual Zakat and/or income tax declaration to ZATCA and settle any amount due?
- Within 120 days of the end of the fiscal year, i.e. by 30 April 2026
- Within 90 days of the end of the fiscal year, i.e. by 31 March 2026
- By the same 10-day-after-month-end deadline that applies to monthly withholding tax remittances
- There is no fixed statutory deadline; ZATCA sets a new filing date individually for each taxpayer every year
Why A? And why not the others?
Correct answer: A. Within 120 days of the end of the fiscal year, i.e. by 30 April 2026
Under Article 102 of the Zakat Implementing Regulations (and the parallel rule ZATCA applies to income tax filers), a taxpayer must submit its annual Zakat/tax declaration, along with any amount due, within 120 days from the end of its fiscal year, so a calendar-year filer whose year ends 31 December 2025 has until 30 April 2026. The option proposing a 90-day window understates the actual statutory period, which the regulations fix at 120 days, not 90. The option borrowing the monthly withholding tax remittance deadline confuses two different obligations: tax withheld on payments to non-residents must be remitted on a short, recurring monthly cycle unrelated to the once-a-year declaration deadline. The option suggesting ZATCA assigns an individualized date to each taxpayer is wrong because the 120-day period is a fixed statutory rule applied uniformly, based only on each taxpayer's own fiscal year-end, not a discretionary date chosen case by case.
Source: Zakat Implementing Regulations (Ministerial Resolution No. 2216 of 1440H), Article 102; ZATCA guidance on annual Zakat/CIT declaration deadlines