Business activity (ISIC code)

Meaning

A business activity (نشاط تجاري) is what the commercial registration says the business does, chosen from the Ministry of Commerce's list of activities coded under the International Standard Industrial Classification. A registration can carry several activities. The code matters beyond the register: some activities need a licence from another authority before they can be added (health, education, transport, contracting), the activity sets the Nitaqat category that fixes the Saudisation ratio in Qiwa, and the VAT treatment of a supply follows what is actually supplied, with some activities zero-rated or exempt.

Trading outside the registered activities is a violation, and an invoice for a service the CR does not cover invites questions from a bank or an auditor. Adding an activity is an amendment to the registration, done on the Ministry's portal.

Also called: commercial activity · activity code · ISIC · النشاط التجاري

Example

Al Noor's CR lists "wholesale of office furniture" (ISIC 4649). When it starts fitting out offices as well, it adds "interior fit-out works", which requires a contracting classification, and from then its fit-out invoices are covered. Its Nitaqat band moves from wholesale to construction for the new activity's workers.