Updated on: 2025/08/04 14:35 (UTC)
Overview
Qatar, which officially is known as the State of Qatar, is a country located in the Asian part of the Middle East. Qatar consists of eight baladiyat, or muncipalities. They are Ad Dawhah, Al Khawr wa adh Dhakhirah, Al Wakrah, Ar Rayyan, Ash Shamal, Ash Shihaniyah, Az Za’ayin, and Umm Salal. The vast majority of Qatar is a peninsula that extends off of the broader Arabian Peninsula, with Saudi Arabia bordering Qatar to its south. Qatar is a member of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).
Qatar’s currency is the Qatari riyal.
There is no income tax on employment in Qatar, but employers are required to uphold labor law standards regarding compensation and benefits and to comply with retirement contribution provisions for nationals of GCC countries.
Foreign workers account for approximately 90% of the workforce and generally are covered by the same workplace laws as Qatari citizens, although there is a preference under law for hiring Qatari workers.
Qatari citizens working in the United States must comply with the appropriate visa requirements, labor and tax laws.
CURRENCY DETAILS
The currency of Qatar is the Qatari riyal (ر.ق), also known simply in Qatar as the riyal. The word riyal also is spelled as rial. The internationally recognized three-letter currency code for the Qatari riyal is QAR, which also is one of the currency’s commonly used currency symbols. The plural form of Qatari riyal is Qatari riyals, and with regard to the alternative spelling Qatari rial, the plural form is Qatari rials.
When an amount of Qatari riyals is written using the currency symbol ر.ق, the symbol generally follows the numerical value with a space between the numerical value and symbol. The manifestation of the aforementioned placement treatment in Modern Standard Arabic, which is the primary written language used in Qatar and involves a right-to-left writing system, is that the currency symbol appears to the left of the numerical value with a space between the numerical value and symbol. Despite the aforementioned general placement treatment of the currency symbol ر.ق, the currency symbol sometimes in Arabic as used in Qatar precedes the numerical value and as per the right-to-left nature of the language appears to the right of the numerical value.
Another currency symbol, QR, often is used for writing amounts of Qatari riyals in English, which is one of the commonly used languages in Qatar. When an amount of Qatari riyals is written using the currency symbol QR (or the variants QR., Qr, and Qr.), the symbol precedes the numerical value with either a space or no space between the numerical value and symbol. When an amount of Qatari riyals is written using the currency symbol QAR, the symbol precedes the numerical value with a space between the numerical value and symbol.
One hundredth ( 1 ⁄ 100 ) of a Qatari riyal is referred to as a dirham, with the plural form of dirhams. While this currency subdivision has the name of dirham, the name dirham is not exclusively used as a currency subdivision name, as some currencies other than the Qatari riyal, such as the Moroccan dirham, use the name dirham to refer to whole units of the currency and not subdivisions of one whole unit of the currency.
When amounts of Qatari riyals are written in Modern Standard Arabic, the numerals are arranged in a left-to-right convention instead of Modern Standard Arabic’s general right-to-left convention, and the comma that in English separates the thousands place from the hundreds place generally is not rendered, with the numbers in the thousands place and hundreds place having no symbol or space between them and instead adjacent to each other. However, with regard to Arabic as used in Qatar, a comma, dot (.), or space, or an Arabic-language symbol (٬) known as the Arabic thousands separator, sometimes is present between the thousands place and hundreds place.
TAXES
There is no national personal income tax applicable to employment income, but Qatar has social tax provisions.
Income Taxes
Qatar does not tax employment income.
Social Taxes
In general, there are no social security contribution payments in Qatar. However, for each employee who is a Qatari national, government employers and other designated private-sector employers are required to contribute a portion of the employee’s basic gross salary to a retirement scheme on a monthly basis, while such employees must also pay a portion of salary on a monthly basis. Qatar’s retirement scheme is overseen by the General Retirement and Social Insurance Authority (GRSIA). The scheme includes 10% employer and 5% employee contribution rates for Qatari nationals working in Qatar, but contribution rates vary for Qatari nationals working in other GCC countries.
If Qatari employees subject to Qatar’s retirement scheme work in other GCC countries, their assessment rate for Qatar’s retirement scheme may be higher than the standard rate of 5% and may range from 5.5% to 8%.
Gulf Cooperation Council Insurance Protection Extension Program: Private sector and public sector employers in Qatar are required under the GCC Insurance Protection Extension Program to register employees from other GCC countries who are working in Qatar in the applicable pension or retirement insurance system of their home country, and this is done for the purpose of helping them fulfill retirement plan requirements. The other GCC countries are Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.
Registration of an employee from another GCC country who is working in Qatar in the pension or retirement insurance system of their home country involves coordination with the Qatar General Retirement and Social Insurance Authority, which functions as a liaison to the social insurance agencies of other GCC countries.
Employers in Qatar are required, for each of their employees working in Qatar whose home country is another GCC country, to deduct any applicable contributions from the employee’s wages and make any applicable employer-provided contributions based on requirements of the pension or retirement insurance program of the employee’s home country, and must remit those contributions to a bank account designated by the applicable social insurance agency of the employee’s home country. Contribution rates vary for nationals of each GCC country working in Qatar.
An employer in Qatar generally cannot be assessed a higher rate of contribution to the pension or retirement insurance program of another GCC country than would apply under Qatar’s provisions. An employee from another GCC country whose employer in Qatar is not assessed the full employer contribution amount that normally would be required under the other GCC country’s provisions generally is required to be assessed the difference between the amount the Qatar employer was required to pay and the amount that the employer would have been required to pay had it been based in the other GCC country, and this additional amount would be deducted from the employee’s wages. Contribution payments under the GCC Insurance Protection Extension Program generally must be made on a monthly basis.
Other Taxes
Qatar’s national government does not assess any taxes on employment income other than those covered in the Income Taxes and Social Taxes sections of this primer.
State/Jurisdiction Taxes
Taxes on employment income are not assessed by any of Qatar’s baladiyat or local jurisdictions.
COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS
Qatar’s Labor Law governs employment in Qatar. The Labor Law covers overtime, hours of work, holidays, leave, wage payment, termination pay, and workers’ compensation.
Minimum Wage
Effective since March 20, 2021, as part of the country’s new labor reforms, Qatar’s minimum wage is 1,000 ر.ق per month for workers provided food and accommodations.
For workers who are not provided food or accommodation, the employer should provide additional amounts as follows:
- 300 ر.ق per month, for workers receiving food stipends; and
- 800 ر.ق per month, for workers receiving stipends for food and accommodations.
When the minimum wage, which was established through Law 17 of 2020 on Setting the Minimum Wage for Workers and Domestic Workers, came into force, it applied to current employment contracts even if they differed.
The law also establishes that pay may not be lowered if a current contract pays more than the new minimum wage, and overtime must be based off at least the new minimum wage.
Instituting the new minimum wage will not require a new contract and is nondiscriminatory, thus applying to all employees, including domestic workers, regardless of nationality or gender.
Effective until March 19, 2021, Qatar’s minimum wage was 750 ر.ق per month.
Overtime
Employees generally are entitled to overtime at statutory rates for any additional hours worked beyond eight hours in a day or 48 hours in a week. During the Islamic calendar month of Ramadan, employees are entitled to overtime at statutory rates for any additional hours worked beyond six hours in a day or 36 hours in a week.
The standard overtime premium is 25% of the regular rate of pay. Employees who are required to work on a public holiday are entitled to an overtime premium of 50% of their regular rate of pay.
Daily overtime cannot exceed two hours a day. Managers are ineligible for overtime premium pay unless acquisition of such pay is stipulated in their contracts.
Hours of Work
Regular working hours in Qatar generally should not exceed 48 hours per week over six days, but during the month of Ramadan should not exceed 36 hours per week.
Employees must receive at least one rest day a week, usually Friday, and many companies provide a weekend consisting of Friday and Saturday. Some exemptions from maximum working hours are provided for certain types of work and for shift workers.
The maximum number of consecutive hours an employee may work without a break is five. At least one break of one to three hours must be granted each workday to employees for the purpose of meals, rest, and prayer.
Employees who are not regularly required to work during the period of 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. are required to receive a premium of 50% of their regular rate of pay for hours worked during this period.
Holidays
There are eight paid public holidays in Qatar, with Islamic holidays being based on a lunar calendar:
- Sports Day (second Tuesday in February)
- Eid Al-Adha (three days)
- Eid Al-Fitr (three days)
- National Day (Dec. 18)
Employers are encouraged but not required to arrange sporting activities for employees on Sports Day.
Employees who are required to work on a public holiday are entitled to 250% of their regular pay.
Leave
All employees who have completed at least one year but less than five years of service with their employer are entitled to a minimum of three weeks of paid vacation a year. This increases to a minimum of four weeks after an employee has worked for a company for at least five years.
Employers also are required to designate three additional days per year during which employees are entitled to paid leave. These days often are established for periods when a parent company may be closed, such as New Year’s day or non-Islamic religious festivals.
Sick Leave: The first two weeks of sick leave in any year are paid at full pay, and the next four weeks are payable at half pay. A maximum of 12 weeks of sick leave may be taken during a year, including six weeks of unpaid leave.
Sick leave is required to be available to an employees after the employee’s completion of three months of work from the commencement of work for the first time.
Maternity Leave: The Labor Law provides for paid maternity leave of 50 days for women who have been employed for a year at the beginning of the maternity leave.
There is no provision for maternity leave for women who have been employed for less than a year on delivery, although unpaid leave often is provided. Leave can be taken both before and following delivery, but a woman must take at least 35 days of leave post-delivery.
If the period of maternity leave available after delivery is less than 30 days, the employee must use annual or unpaid leave to make up the difference.
Other Leave: The Labor Law provides that all Muslim workers are entitled to 20 days of unpaid special leave to engage in a Hajj pilgrimage once during their service with the employer. The employer can determine the number of employees who can be permitted to take this leave annually. Priority for leave should be based on length of service.
Wage Payment
Employees must be paid in Qatari currency at least once a month, or in the case of some workers, at least once every two weeks.
Employees subject to Qatar’s Labor Law must be paid the salary specified in their employment contract in Qatari riyals, and the payment must be made into a Qatari bank account. Employers are required to pay employees using the online Wages Protection System (WPS), through which employees are paid with direct bank transfers. The WPS was established under an arrangement among Qatari banks, the Qatari Central Bank and Qatar’s Ministry of Labor.
No part of an employee’s salary may be seized except in implementation of a court order.
Employers cannot require employees to purchase food or goods sold in specified shops or produced by the employer.
Bonuses and Special Benefits
The labor law does not contain any provisions governing bonuses for employees.
Termination Pay
Under the Labor Law, an employee can be dismissed on notice at any point during an indefinite-term contract. No reason for termination is required, although the following minimum notice periods must be adhered to for experienced employees:
- one month if the employee has five years of service or less; and
- two months if the employee has more than five years of service.
The Labor Law states that an employee who has been employed for more than a year is entitled at the end of employment to an end-of-service benefit that equals the number of years worked by the employee for the employer multiplied by the value of three weeks of regular pay at the most recent payment rate. The end-of-service benefit includes proration for partial years. This benefit is payable in all circumstances unless the employee is dismissed for gross misconduct, and must be paid within seven days of the employee’s last day of work for the employer.
Effective starting March 8, 2021, workers will no longer need an employer’s permission to change jobs subject to a notice period of one month in the first year of a contract or two months beyond the second year, according to Decree-Law No. 18 of 2020.
Workers’ Compensation
Under the Labor Law, an employee who becomes injured or ill in the course of employment is entitled to medical treatment at the employer’s expense and to his or her full wage during the treatment period or for six months, whichever is shorter. If the treatment continues for a period exceeding six months, the employee must be paid half wages until recovery or proof of permanent disability or death.
Recordkeeping
Employers must keep a register of employee details including names, nationalities, type of work, wages, start date, address, marital status, work qualifications, leave, and any penalties. All employee-related files must be kept for one year after the end of the employee’s service.
FOREIGN WORKERS
Foreign workers are entitled to the same rights as Qatari citizens and generally are covered by the same tax and workplace laws.
Visas: Foreign employees require employer sponsorship to work in Qatar. With limited exceptions for formally registered secondments and part-time jobs, employees can only work for the sponsoring employer. An expatriate who wants to bring family members to Qatar must act as their sponsor.
Under Law No. 21 of 2015, known as the New Immigration Law, employees may terminate employment with an employer, leave Qatar, and then reenter as the employee of another company, whereas under the Old Immigration Law, there was a two-year ban on reentry in these circumstances.
Foreign employees may temporarily enter Qatar using a 72-hour business visa that would be issued upon arrival in the country and which may be extended for up to an additional 72 hours. A standard business visa permits an expatriate employee working in Qatar to do so for up to three months, and an individual may acquire such a visa if a business operating in Qatar successfully arranges for one to be acquired. Residents of other countries in the Gulf Cooperation Council who are in some types of professions approved by the Qatar Ministry of Interior may acquire a GCC resident visa that allows them to work in Qatar for one month, with the potential for an extension of up to three additional months.
On Sept. 5, 2018, the government said it would begin granting permanent residency to up to 100 expatriates each year. To be eligible to apply, residents born abroad must have lived in Qatar for 20 years, while residents born in Qatar need to have lived there 10 years. Applicants must also have a passing command of the Arabic language, sound legal standing and proof of sufficient income.
Expatriates who become permanent residents, as well as their spouse and children up to age 18, are to be entitled to the same social security benefits as Qatar’s citizens, including free healthcare and education in government schools.
Effective Oct. 28, 2018, foreign workers and their employers, in most cases, are no longer required to file for exit visas and seek government permission before employees leave Qatar. However, employers may still require up to 5% of their employees to obtain permission before leaving the country because of the nature of their work.
Taxes: Nonresident individuals can be taxed on their Qatari-sourced income derived from business activity when they are deemed to have a permanent establishment in Qatar for which corporate tax registration is required. In those circumstances, they are subject to the Income Tax Law on the same basis as a corporation.
Wages/Payments: Employers are required to pay foreign employees in Qatari currency at least once a month, or in the case of some workers, at least once every two weeks.
Foreign employees must be paid through direct bank transfers via the country’s online Wages Protection System (WPS).
WORKING IN THE UNITED STATES
Foreign workers from Qatar must meet general visa requirements and be certified to be employed in the U.S. General visa requirements for the U.S. are included in the separate
U.S. employers also must check the names of all new-hires and employees against the Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List, administered by the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). Because OFAC prohibits financial transactions with individuals on the list, employers cannot employ them and may face fines for failing to comply.
For tax purposes, Qatari citizens are subject to U.S. employment-based taxation on income earned in the U.S. unless they work under specific visa types that exempt earnings from taxes.
State and local taxation of Qatari workers also can apply.
The U.S. labor laws apply to all workers employed and providing services in the country.
Work eligibility as an employee is contingent upon Department of Homeland Security and Labor Department approval and the employee receiving a U.S. Social Security number from the Social Security Administration.
Tax Residency: In general, employees working in the U.S. on a temporary basis are considered nonresidents for tax purposes unless they qualify for resident status. Employees can be granted permanent resident status through the so-called green card test or if they meet the substantial presence test under the U.S. tax code. More information on these requirements is in the
Permanent residents are subject to U.S. tax requirements the same as U.S. citizens and are taxed under the U.S. system on their worldwide earnings.
Income Taxes: Generally, nonresidents in the U.S. who are from Qatar and are working in the U.S. are subject to U.S. taxes based on their U.S.-sourced income. Income is taxed differently based on whether it is categorized as wage income or nonwage income, which includes interest and dividends.
A Form W-4, Employee’s Withholding Certificate, must be filed by each employee with their employer. All nonresidents in the U.S. who are from Qatar and are working in the U.S. must claim “single” in Step 1c, regardless of marital status; write “Nonresident Alien” or “NRA” in the space under Step 4c of the form; and may not claim “exempt” in the space under Step 4c.
Nonresident alien employees may adjust withholding using Step 2b or 2c of the Form W-4; certain employees also may be able to use Steps 3, 4a, or 4b. More information about Form W-4 requirements for nonresident alien employees is available in the
Although the versions of Form W-4 issued in 2020 or later significantly differ from the versions issued in 2019 or earlier, nonresident employees that filed a valid version of Form W-4 from 2019 or earlier with their employer do not need to file another Form W-4 with the employer unless they need to implement a change for their withholding. On Forms W-4 issued in 2019 or earlier, nonresident alien employees were required to check the “single” box on line 3, regardless of marital status; write “Nonresident Alien” or “NRA” above the dotted line on line 6; and were not permitted to claim “exempt” on line 7 of the form.
An additional amount is added to a nonresident alien employee’s wages for calculating federal income tax withholding, with the amount based on pay period frequency and the date of the employee’s most recently filed Form W-4. The table of additional amounts applicable to Forms W-4 from 2020 or later and the table applicable to Forms W-4 issued before 2020 are available in the
Nonwage income and self-employed foreign workers can be subject to income tax withholding at a flat rate of 30%. Additionally, foreign workers may be taxed differently based on the specific type of visa they hold.
Tax Treaties: Qatar and the U.S. do not have an income tax treaty.
Social Taxes: Most foreign workers are subject to paying into the U.S. Social Security system. Foreign nationals who are exempt from paying income tax and who do not have the eligibility to receive a Social Security number may not be required to pay social taxes. Foreign workers contributing to Social Security for a certain time period may be eligible to receive benefits.
Generally, foreign workers in the U.S. that have specific visas as exchange visitors or students or who are temporarily in the U.S. for agricultural work are not subject to social taxes on income that is obtained from the purpose in which they originally entered the U.S.
Totalization Agreements: Qatar and the U.S. do not have a social tax agreement.
Wage Payment: Under certain visas for certain types of employment, employers are required to pay foreign workers the higher of either the prevailing wage or the actual wage that is paid to U.S. workers that have similar skills and qualifications.
There are no particular requirements that employees be paid in U.S. dollars.
TREATY ARRANGEMENTS
Qatar has entered into more than 50 income tax treaties. Even though Qatar does not assess income tax on employment income, the income tax treaties to which it is a party influence taxation of income of employees working in Qatar who are expatriates from countries that tax employment income, and the treaties also affect taxation of other types of income.
The countries with which Qatar has a bilateral income tax treaty in effect are Albania, Algeria, Argentina, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Barbados, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brunei, Bulgaria, China, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Ecuador, France, Georgia, Greece, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lebanon, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Malaysia, Malta, Mauritius, Mexico, Monaco, Nepal, Netherlands, Norway, Pakistan, Panama, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, San Marino, Senegal, Serbia, Seychelles, Singapore, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Switzerland, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom, Venezuela, Vietnam, and Yemen.
Qatar also has an income tax treaty in effect with the special administrative region of Hong Kong.
Additionally, Qatar has income tax treaties in effect with Guernsey, the Isle of Man, and Jersey, the three of which are crown dependencies of the United Kingdom.
Qatar does not have any totalization agreements for social tax purposes in force.
RESOURCES
All resources are in English unless otherwise noted.
General
U.S. State Department: U.S. Relations With Qatar
CIA World Factbook: Qatar
Currency Details
International Organization for Standardization: Currency Codes - ISO 4217
Unicode Consortium: Currency Symbols
United Nations: United Nations Terminology Database: Qatar
Taxes
Qatar Ministry of Finance
Qatar General Retirement and Social Insurance Authority: Insurance Protection (Arabic)
Compensation and Benefits
Qatar-America Institute: Qatar Minimum Wage
Qatar Labor Law (Arabic)
Foreign Workers
Hukoomi - Qatar e-Government:
- Visas
- Residence and Work Permits
Working in the United States
U.S. Department of Labor:
- Foreign Labor Certification
- Hiring Foreign Workers
U.S. Internal Revenue Service:
- IRS Notice 1392, Supplemental Form W-4 Instructions for Nonresident Aliens
- IRS Publication 15, Circular E, Employer’s Tax Guide
- IRS Publication 515, Withholding of Tax on Nonresident Aliens and Foreign Entities
- IRS Publication 519, U.S. Tax Guide for Aliens
- IRS Publication 901, U.S. Tax Treaties
Treaty Arrangements