Index of Paying Taxes 2012

Lebanon 41st worldwide, ninth in Arab world in the ease of paying taxes

Lebanon was ranked in 41st place among 183 countries worldwide in the Index of Paying Taxes for 2012.
According to the index prepared by PricewaterhouseCoopers and the World Bank and published in October, Lebanon came in ninth place among 19 Arab countries included in the survey. It ranked ahead of Egypt, and Syria, and behind Jordan and Bahrain.

In the 2011 survey, Lebanon came in 36th place globally and ninth place among Arab countries.

The index is based on three sub-indices that cover the number of tax payments by business, the total tax compliance time, and the total tax rate as a percentage of commercial profits. The sub-indices are divided into corporate, labor, and other tax sub-categories.

The report found that a standard Lebanese firm needs 40 hours per year to prepare, file, and pay its corporate taxes, and 40 hours per year to prepare, file, and pay its consumption taxes. It said a firm needs 100 hours per year to process its labor taxes.

According to the report, corporate tax rate for a standard Lebanese firm represents six percent of its commercial profits, while the labor tax rate accounts for 24 percent of its commercial profits.