The network covers Qatar within the Near and Middle East region. Payslips there are drawn up in QAR, and dealings with a local firm are conducted in Arabic.
The business centres where the network is looking for a correspondent as a priority are Doha, Al Rayyan, Al Wakrah, Lusail.
The country lies outside the European Union and outside the European Economic Area: the A1 certificate has no standing there. Whether the employee remains in the scheme of origin then depends on the bilateral social security agreement, if any, concluded with the sending country; where no such agreement exists, dual affiliation must be expected and budgeted into the assignment.
The answer to this question changes everything: it determines to whom you may entrust your payslips locally, and what you must ask for before signing. It has been verified country by country with the local authorities.
In Qatar, running payroll on behalf of third parties is reserved by law to no registered profession: any company may take it on. The absence of a legal barrier shifts the checking onto you, and that is why the network itself verifies the registration, the tax and social security standing and the insurance cover of every firm before listing it.
Au Qatar, seul l'audit légal est une profession réglementée, encadrée par la loi n° 30 de 2004 et un registre tenu par le ministère du Commerce et de l'Industrie. La comptabilité et la paie pour compte de tiers ne font l'objet d'aucune licence professionnelle : la seule condition est que l'activité soit inscrite au registre de commerce (CR) de la société. Les cabinets établis dans le Qatar Financial Centre relèvent d'un régime distinct, sous licence de la QFC Authority et supervision de la QFCRA.
Qatar presents a foreign employer with an unusual equation: payroll is light on deductions and demanding on permissions. No personal income tax applies, hence no withholding on salaries, and foreign workers fall under no social contribution scheme, the pension administered by the general retirement and social insurance authority being reserved for nationals and Gulf Cooperation Council citizens. Coordination with a French scheme therefore does not arise in the familiar European terms.
The counterpart to that lightness is dense administrative formalism. Payroll is settled in Qatari riyals (QAR) and must travel by transfer through the local banking circuit governed by the wage protection system. Contractual documents themselves are drawn up in Arabic. Neither accounting nor payroll is a regulated profession: only statutory audit is, under a register held by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry. The Arabic contract filed with the labour ministry remains the reference document in the event of any dispute.
Recruiting a foreign national requires a work visa, a residence permit and a medical examination, followed by a contract drafted in Arabic and filed with the Ministry of Labour. The contract sets base pay, housing and transport allowances, and the treatment of leave and the return ticket.
Those steps presuppose a stack of authorisations. Commercial registration, the municipal trade licence and the establishment card issued by the Ministry of Interior are three separate items; it is the last of these that gives a company the capacity to sponsor and employ staff. No hiring is possible without it.
The establishment regime is settled before any of that, through a question met nowhere else. The onshore regime, licensed by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, and the Qatar Financial Centre regime rest on different bodies of rules, employment law included. Choosing between them determines the documents, the regulator and the model contracts.
Salaries are paid at a set frequency through a Qatari bank account within the wage protection system circuit. A payslip is given to the employee. Working hours and leave follow the labour law rather than the parent company's handbook.
On exit, the end of service gratuity and the cancellation of the residence permit are organised together rather than sequentially.
The network asks 10 documents of any firm wishing to represent it in Qatar. The table gives, for each of them, the exact wording in use locally, the body that issues it and the period during which it remains admissible. These are the terms to use in an application to the local administration.
Of these 10 documents, 5 are required of every applicant and 8 have a limited period of validity, the shortest being 3 months. 2 of these documents exist only in Qatar and have no equivalent in the common core of the network.
| Local wording | Issuing body | Validity | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| السجل التجاري — Commercial Registration (CR)Commercial Registration certificate Pièce maîtresse au Qatar : le CR porte le numéro d'entreprise, l'objet social autorisé, les associés et les signataires habilités. Il se renouvelle chaque année — exiger un CR en cours de validité, pas seulement l'original de création. | وزارة التجارة والصناعة — Ministry of Commerce and Industry (MOCI) | 12 months Required | Official website |
| الرخصة التجارية — Trade Licence (Commercial Licence)Trade licence Distincte du CR : elle autorise l'exploitation à une adresse donnée et se renouvelle annuellement. La licence d'enseigne (الرخصة الإعلانية / signage licence) l'accompagne souvent. | وزارة البلدية — Ministry of Municipality (municipalité du lieu d'établissement), en coordination avec le MOCI | 12 months Required | Official website |
| البطاقة الإلكترونية للمنشأة — Establishment Card (« Computer Card »)Establishment card Sans elle, une société qatarie ne peut ni parrainer ni employer de salarié : c'est donc la pièce qui prouve qu'un cabinet est réellement en mesure de gérer du personnel. Elle nomme le « signataire autorisé » (authorised signatory) auprès de l'administration. | وزارة الداخلية — Ministry of Interior (MOI) | 12 months Required | Official website |
| البطاقة الضريبية — Tax Card et Tax Identification Number (TIN)Tax Card and Tax Identification Number L'enregistrement auprès de la GTA via le portail Dhareeba est obligatoire pour toute entité titulaire d'un CR, y compris exonérée. La carte fiscale se renouvelle périodiquement — vérifier la date d'expiration portée dessus. | الهيئة العامة للضرائب — General Tax Authority (GTA), portail Dhareeba | 12 months Required | Official website |
| شهادة براءة ذمة ضريبية — Tax clearance / no-objection certificateTax clearance certificate Le quitus fiscal qatari est surtout utilisé pour les paiements finaux aux contractants et lors des liquidations, pas comme attestation périodique. À défaut, accepter le certificat d'enregistrement Dhareeba et la preuve de dépôt de la dernière déclaration annuelle. | الهيئة العامة للضرائب — General Tax Authority (GTA) | 3 months Where applicable | Official website |
| نظام حماية الأجور — Wage Protection System (WPS) compliance / ملف المنشأة لدى وزارة العملWage Protection System compliance and Ministry of Labour establishment file Le Qatar n'a pas de cotisations de sécurité sociale pour les travailleurs étrangers (la retraite gérée par la General Retirement and Social Insurance Authority ne concerne que les nationaux et ressortissants du CCG). L'équivalent le plus proche d'une attestation de vigilance est la conformité au Wage Protection System, obligatoire depuis 2015 : demander une confirmation écrite d'absence de blocage WPS. | وزارة العمل — Ministry of Labour | 3 months Where applicable | Official website |
| وثيقة تأمين المسؤولية المهنية — Professional indemnity insuranceProfessional indemnity insurance Pas d'obligation générale sous le régime « onshore ». Elle devient une exigence réglementaire pour les cabinets établis dans le Qatar Financial Centre et agréés par la QFCRA : demander alors l'attestation annuelle. | Assureur agréé par le Qatar Central Bank ; exigence réglementaire pour les cabinets agréés par la QFC Regulatory Authority | 12 months Where applicable | Official website |
| قيد في سجل مراقبي الحسابات — Registration in the register of practising auditors (Law No. 30 of 2004)Registration in the register of practising auditors (Law No. 30 of 2004) La loi n° 30 de 2004 réglemente l'exercice de la profession d'audit et tient un registre des auditeurs agréés. En revanche, la tenue de comptabilité et la paie pour compte de tiers ne relèvent d'aucune licence spécifique : il suffit que l'activité correspondante figure sur le CR. Contrôler donc l'intitulé de l'activité inscrite au CR. | وزارة التجارة والصناعة — Ministry of Commerce and Industry (MOCI) | 12 months Where applicable | Official website |
| البطاقة الشخصية (Qatar ID) أو جواز السفر للمفوض بالتوقيعQatar ID or passport of the authorised signatory À rapprocher du nom du « authorised signatory » figurant sur le CR et sur la carte d'établissement : au Qatar, seul ce signataire engage valablement la société. | وزارة الداخلية — Ministry of Interior (MOI) | No expiry Required | Official website |
| الامتثال للقانون رقم 13 لسنة 2016 بشأن حماية خصوصية البيانات الشخصيةCompliance with Law No. 13 of 2016 on Personal Data Privacy Protection La loi n° 13 de 2016 est le premier texte du Golfe sur la vie privée. Il n'existe pas de registre des responsables de traitement ni d'attestation officielle : se faire remettre une déclaration écrite de conformité et les modalités de transfert transfrontalier des données de paie. | وزارة الاتصالات وتكنولوجيا المعلومات — Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT) | No expiry Where applicable | Official website |
The coexistence of two legal orders carries the heaviest consequences. An onshore company and a Qatar Financial Centre company share neither regulator nor employment obligations nor registration documents. A file assembled without settling that question mixes items that cannot be compared.
The wage protection system, next, makes traceable bank transfer the very condition of an employer's compliance, and a block in that circuit is an immediate warning signal to the labour authorities.
The end of service gratuity here takes the place of retirement saving for expatriates. It is the employer's principal social commitment towards its foreign staff and must be provisioned from the date of hire, since no contribution mechanism builds it up over time. Accruing it monthly from the first payroll run avoids a large one-off charge on departure.
Le Qatar cumule quatre autorisations distinctes qu'il ne faut pas confondre : le Commercial Registration du ministère du Commerce, la licence commerciale de la municipalité, la carte d'établissement du ministère de l'Intérieur (indispensable pour employer du personnel) et la carte fiscale de la General Tax Authority. Toutes se renouvellent annuellement : vérifier les dates d'expiration plutôt que la simple existence des documents. Enfin, distinguer impérativement le régime « onshore » (MOCI) du régime Qatar Financial Centre, dont les cabinets ont des documents et un régulateur entièrement différents.
The network opens 3 partner slots in Qatar, not one more. No firm is listed there yet: all 3 slots therefore remain open to applications.
No listed partner in Qatar has asked to appear in the public directory. The contact details of a firm are passed on to the client only when an assignment is awarded.
Filing an application does not amount to admission: every request is reviewed one by one. There is no minimum turnover requirement, and the partner selected invoices its fees directly.
Submit an application: we review your file, we check the documents required on the ground and we give you an answer, whether it is positive or not.
We first ask a Qatari applicant to state its establishment regime, onshore or Qatar Financial Centre, since that governs which documents we expect.
For an onshore firm we review the current commercial registration, the trade licence, the Ministry of Interior establishment card and the tax card issued by the general tax authority. All renew annually, so we check expiry dates rather than the mere existence of a document. Accounting services must appear expressly among the activities entered on the commercial registration.
Describe your requirement. No firm is listed in Qatar yet: we review the request, then entrust it to a local firm that the network identifies and vets, or to the partner of a neighbouring country covering this territory. Your contact details are passed on to the selected firm alone.
Request a provider in QatarMobility is rarely arranged one country at a time. The neighbouring profiles follow the same outline.
These countries account for most of the requests received: each one has, in addition to its profile, six pages devoted to a single aspect of local payroll.
The information gathered on this page comes from the registers, administrations and bodies listed below, consulted when the reference base was compiled. It is given for guidance and does not replace the advice of a professional established in Qatar.