The Zakat, Tax, and Customs Authority (ZATCA) has announced that it conducted 3,748 field inspections to the markets and shops across the Kingdom's cities last week. The inspections detected 751 tax violations.

Such inspections reflect ZATCA's strenuous efforts to enforce tax compliance and eliminate businesses that violate the rules and regulations under ZATCA's authority.

The inspections covered multiple industries, including restaurants, retail and general trade. The detected violations included failing to record the tax number on the invoice, failing to collect VAT from consumers, and failing to stamp tax seals on tobacco products.

ZATCA owed a large percentage of the detected violations to consumer reports on tax violations in commercial stores, as ZATCA's Control and Inspection Department received 205 reports during the same period.

The Authority has since reiterated its calls to business owners to apply the 15% VAT, and stressed that it intends to continue inspecting markets and shops to ensure taxpayers comply with the Saudi tax laws.

ZATCA urges consumers to report any business that does not apply the 15% VAT, offering several reporting channels such as its official website (zatca.gov.sa), its hotline (19993 – operating daily from 8:00 am to midnight), and VAT smart phone App. The Authority also offers incentive rewards to people who report tax violations, estimated at 2.5% of the fine value (minimum SAR 1000 and capped at SAR 1 million).