KPMG in Bahrain recently held a seminar session bringing together over 80 representatives from local enterprises to discuss leadership and implementation of the second phase of value-added tax (VAT) in Bahrain.

KPMG is a leading provider of audit, tax and advisory services.

Effective from July 1, enterprises with annual supplies’ threshold of BD500,000 ($1.32 million) and above will need to register for VAT, said a statement.

The same will apply to smaller entities with annual supplies’ threshold of less than BD500,000, starting from January 1, 2020.

Jamal Fakhro, managing partner at KPMG in Bahrain, welcomed the participants and the key guest speaker, Tim Murray, CEO of Aluminium Bahrain (Alba) at the beginning of his speech and said: “Building leadership is important for any businesses success; including SMEs, whereby entrepreneurs need to know how to lead their organisations effectively to overcome market challenges.”

Fakhro added: “We are lucky to have Murray at our event today, to shed light on his leadership success story.”

During his presentation, Murray showcased his career timeline and leadership journey with Alba. He also provided Words of Wisdom with entrepreneurs to help them improve their prospect and business growth regardless of the size of their organisations. 

“The only way to achieve great things is to love what you do – being a business owner or an employee. Dreams alone don’t work unless you do.” he elaborated.

According to Philippe Norré, partner and head of Tax at KPMG in Bahrain, the second wave of VAT implementation is one of the main concerns for business owners this year.

“Change is the most constant thing in life. VAT is new to Bahrain and it brings compliance obligations and challenges. However, with challenges come opportunities. SMEs need to embrace such challenges and turn them to valuable changes. This can include the introduction of technology to reoccurring processes/transaction to manage tax effectively and optimise operations.” Norré added.

Towards the end of the session, Harish Gopinath, partner and head of KPMG Enterprise at KPMG in Bahrain, explained the benefits of the Entrepreneurship Forum and encouraged entrepreneurs to play an active role in this forum to stay up-to-date with the latest market developments.

KPMG in Bahrain’s Entrepreneurship Forum was established in 2015 to mentor and train owners of small to medium sized businesses, helping them to grow their business and increase their positive impact on the local economy, it stated. – TradeArabia News Service