Aqid ERPThe books the Commercial Law asks for
Article 22 of Law No. 27 of 2006 (the Commercial Law) requires a trader to keep a daily journal, a general ledger and an inventory record. Traders whose capital does not exceed QAR 100,000 are exempt from that article.
Article 27 adds the paper trail: true copies of the letters and telegrams you send about the business, and the letters, telegrams and invoices you receive.
What the Income Tax Law adds
Article 12 of Income Tax Law No. 24 of 2018 requires a taxpayer carrying on an activity in Qatar to keep accounting books and records in line with Qatari law and international accounting standards. This matters even for a company that pays no income tax: every company with a commercial registration files a return with the General Tax Authority, and the return is drawn from these books.
The small-capital exemption in the Commercial Law does not switch this off, so a small company should still keep a proper ledger.
Invoices
Under article 8 of the Consumer Protection Law (Law No. 8 of 2008), a consumer is entitled to a dated invoice showing the type, price and quantity of what was bought. Article 4 of its Executive Regulation (Decision No. 68 of 2012) asks for the invoice in Arabic, with the supplier's name and address, the date, the type of goods, the unit of sale and the quantity.
With no VAT in Qatar, a Qatari invoice is an invoice, not a tax invoice: it carries no VAT line and no VAT number. Number invoices in one unbroken sequence and correct them with a credit note that refers to the original, rather than editing or deleting it; that is what an auditor will look for.
How long to keep them
Because the tax rule covers documents too, the simple policy is ten years for everything that supports the accounts.
- Journal, general ledger and inventory record: ten years (Commercial Law, article 28).
- Correspondence, documents and copies: five years under the Commercial Law.
- Books, records and documents behind the income tax return: ten years after the year they relate to, and longer while a dispute is open.
Where VAT stands in October 2026
Qatar has not introduced VAT. It is party to the GCC common VAT framework, under which Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Oman have brought in their own VAT laws, but Qatar has published no VAT law, no rate and no start date.
The Council of Ministers has approved a draft e-invoicing law and its executive regulations. A draft still has to be issued as law before it binds anyone, and no start date has been published, so there is no e-invoicing mandate in Qatar today. Excise tax, in force since 2019, applies only to specific goods: tobacco, energy drinks, special-purpose goods and, since 6 July 2026, sweetened drinks by their sugar content.
Until a law is published, do not add VAT to an invoice. Watch the General Tax Authority's announcements, and keep the customer and supplier details on your invoices complete, so that a future change starts from clean records.
How Aqid ERP helps
Aqid ERP keeps an append-only ledger: a posted entry is never edited or deleted, corrections are new entries, and every action is logged with who did it and when. The chart of accounts is Qatari, in Arabic and English, with bank reconciliation, multi-currency and consolidation across companies.
A Qatari invoice is titled Invoice, carries no VAT line, and is kept as a bilingual PDF/A-3; credit and debit notes are tied to the invoice they correct. Stock is held per warehouse, with counts and adjustments posted to the ledger. Every list exports to Excel or CSV, so the records you must keep for ten years are not locked in one system.