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Oman is expected to join the league of GCC countries KSA, BAHRAIN and UAE after the implementation of VAT, which is expected to come into effect from April 2021. 

High oil prices have always played vital role in GCC countries economy. One of the main reasons for the introduction of VAT in GCC was the plunge in oil prices back in 2018 which affected their revenues. The crude il prices per barrel are now half the price it was a decade ago, which made the GCC countries economic growth difficult and now the pandemic has resulted in contraction of GDP in Oman and other countries. Also, Oman’s debt to GDP ratio is the worst among the six GCC countries and that is expected to climb in the coming days which makes substantial tax reforms necessary.

The Oman government had tweeted that implementation of VAT could strengthen the country’s financial sustainability and improve the business environment. Experts say that implementation of VAT is important for Oman’s fiscal reform.

The main conditions for introduction of VAT are: Increase in gross domestic product (GDP), effect of VAT should be only on those whose income is above OMR 900 and to support low income groups.

What is VAT?

VAT (value added tax) is a consumption tax that is levied on business products to the consumer at every stage of supply chain. Consider example, a product costs 50 OMR and 5% VAT levied on it, then the product will be sold to the consumer at 52.5 OMR. Then merchant will keep 50 OMR and 2.5 OMR goes to the government.
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VAT rate in Oman will be 5%. Vat Registration in OMAN will start from beginning of January 2021, all organizations above threshold 19,250 OMR required to do compulsory VAT enrolment in OMAN. Whereas organizations with OMR 19,250 can volunteer for VAT registration Oman.

Sectors that are zero-rated or exempt from VAT in Oman: Health care services, educational services, real estate, local public transportation, crude oil derivatives, basic food products, financial services, exports of goods and services.

VAT is determined on the estimation of provisions made by a business toward the finish of any month.

It is mandatory for a non-resident entity in Oman to do registration of VAT.

To understand which is better, swing trading or day trading, it is pertinent to understand what both the terms stand for and what is involved in it.

Day trade involves the person who is trading to exit the day they enter into the trading process. In the case of swing trade, the same trade can be held from a single day to many months together.

For instance, the stock market opens at 9 30 IST, then you need to allot a fixed time of the day you intend to trade. In the case of swing trading, you can swing trade part-time as well.

What are the benefits associated with swing trading? 

If you want to assess something, then you need to know the bright side of it.

  • The swing trade doesn’t require you to stare at the computer system for hours together.
  • The risks associated with swing trade is far lesser than the risks associated with the day trade provided you don’t invest on a relatively newer stoke.
  • There is no fixed amount on how much you need to swing trade. You can start with a very less amount to a huge amount as well.
  • One can swing trade from any corner of the world
  • It is one of the best ways to make money part-time

What are the benefits associated with day trading? 

These are the following benefits associated with day trading:

For instance, the stock market crashes overnight and you need to sell out all your shares, then it is not possible in the case of other forms of trading. With day trading, you don’t have to have the fear that you might lose your money in no time.

If you know the in and out of stocks, then undoubtedly, swing trading is the best way to make a huge sum of money in no time. Some people make hundreds of dollars in a span of 10 to 20 minutes and move ahead.

One can see that day trading is best suited for quick money provided you have mastered the stock market and you are able to purchase the best stocks on the market.

Automated trading is such a concept that may sound similar to a dream come true for a lot of people. There would certainly be no one who wouldn’t be exhilarated at the thought of such a computer system that is capable of entering and exiting trades automatically and have the potential to make greater profits with low inputs from the user. However, before you think of getting involved with automated trading there are certain things you should know. In the later part of this post, we are going to discuss some commonly asked questions regarding automated trading along with their answers.

How profitable is Automated trading?

Automated trading doesn’t always ensure 100% profits, but they give assurance that the user will get all the advantages from the movements occurring in the market. Automated trading functions in a very coherent and articulate manner.

Can automated trading lead to scams? 

The concept of applying software to trade in the market as a representative of you can sound too easy and good, but people generally end up thinking whether it is a scam. You should know that few federal governments have given their consideration to automated trading as scams.

Which is the best-automated trading system? 

Several automated trading systems are provided free of cost with highly appealing service assurance. Although not all of these programs end up being failures. The drawback is that a lot of these systems are related to scams. Furthermore, the topmost automated trading system can be acquired with the best security with the proper checking and setting of parameters for privacy.

Is it compulsory to hire an automated trading broker? 

Finding an automated trading broker is very important if you are completely new to this field. Although there are certain risks involved in the process once you end up choosing the right broker, they can ease things for you.

Search the website forexrobotexpert.com to get more information on automated trading and everything related. Apart from that, all the generally asked questions along with the basic concept of automated trading have been answered in this post above.

If youThose that have worked hard and saved for your retirement,retirement you deserve to enjoy your retirement their your golden years without having to worry about outliving whether their your savings. will last through your golden years. With the growing inflation, high life expectancy and low yield on stocks, you need to deploying strategies and tactics that will produce constant growth and hedge against market risks are critical in retirement. 

Here are five smart tactics rules of thumb to help protect your investments and income in retirement with the help of Conservative Investing Mobile Apps:

Buy long-term care insurance

Advances in medicine and patient care are making it easier for people to live longer, but as lifespan increases so too is the cost of health care, especially the cost of long-term care. One study found that an average couple retiring in 20187 will need more than $270, 000 to cover the cost of health care in retirement — whichthis does not include the cost of long-term care (and people with longer lifespans should expect to spend more).

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services estimates that 70% of people aged 65 and above will need some form of Long-term care in retirement. A survey conducted by Genworth in 2017 found that average home health care services cost about $130 per day and assisted living facilities can cost upwards of $40,000 per year.

To mitigate the risks of high long-term care costs you should consider buying long-term care insurance (LTC). Since most insurers based the cost of premiums on age, it’s advisable to enroll in athe health insurance program when you’re younger — whichthat will help reduce the cost of your premiums. Another way to reduce health care costs is to make use of a health savings account (HSA) if your employer offers oneit. An HSA allows you to save pretax dollars, which you can withdraw tax-free if you’re in retirement or if you plan to useuse it for qualifyied medical expenses.

Restructure your investment

Most experts agree that investing in high yield, risky securities is dangerous, but so too is investing conservatively or holding your money in cash. High yield securities can produce strong returns in bull markets but can hurt your portfolio if the market crashes. On the other hand, conservative securities such as bonds can offer fixed-income returns and favorable tax treatment, but with an all-time low yield on bonds, putting too much money into bond markets can have a devastating effect on your portfolio if inflation were too skyrocketed. 

The answer to protecting your investments against market volatility and high inflation lie in rebalancing your portfolio to better reflect your risk tolerance and what you hope to achieve with your investments. With retirement that may last two decades or longer, you need to invest in securities that offer significant growth potential and yield opportunities.

Plan for longevity

With the growing lifespans and a health-conscious society, a 60-year old today can expect to live to 80 or 90. So it’s important to you need to plan build a for savings that will last for at least 20 or 30 years in retirement. You can easily outlive your savings if you don’t take longevity into account and you will have to relying on family or social security for sustenance can be a risky proposition at best. With the current social security benefit at a little over $1,300 a month, it can be very hard to get by with social security alone. To avoid running out of money in your golden years due to high life expectancy you should consider buying an annuity. An annuity can help you cover some of the costs that may arise as a result of longevity. Some Annuities also offer guaranteed income for life, which provides is an additional peace of mind if something goes wrong.

Tackle inflation

Inflation can significantly reduce your ability to pay for future goods and services if you don’t deal with itaccount for it properly. An annual inflation rate of just 1% can severely reduce your purchasing power if your investments yield lower returns. By investing in the right mix of stocks, bonds and inflation-protected securities, you can mitigate the risks of inflation. If you’re willing to put in the time and effort to monitor your investments, you should be able to contain the impact of inflation while growing your income.

Employ the bucket strategy

The bucket strategy, if structured properly, can help reduce longevity and financial market risks. The strategy entails allocating assets between risky buckets for high returns and safe buckets for liquidity and safety needs.

To make the most of your bucket strategy you need to set it up sooner rather than later. The first buckets should contain assets for your immediate cash-flow needs, say one or two yearsyear’s expenditures. Since this bucket will provide for your immediate cash requirements, it should be invested in low-risk securities where you can gain quick access to your money with little or no chance of depreciation.

The second bucket usually contains assets for long-term living costs, typically 3 to 10 years. The assets should be invested in high quality, low-risk securities such as bonds to meet your annual spending needs. This helps protect your portfolio against downturns and provide you with stable income over the course of 10 years. Note that this strategy works best when bonds are held to maturity.

The third bucket should contain assets for your long-term needs or legacy funds. This should be invested in 100% equities for a long period of time. The purpose of this bucket is to generate high returns — but that doesn’t mean you should invest recklessly, rather it’s an opportunity to spread your funds to a diverse mix of asset classes that are safe and high yielding. Keeping costs low while investing in asset classes that offer high returns is a recipe for success when investing for long-term goals. Employing the bucket strategy is a great way to increase your retirement portfolio and to ensure you don’t run out money in your golden years.Employ the four percent rule bucket strategys

The bucket approach is an effective way to mitigate sequence and longevity risk. The general idea is to set up three or more distribution “buckets,” with different asset classes and different time horizons for liquidation. These should be in place well before retirement, when an investor is more detached from distribution issues. The first bucket is all the cash needed to live for the next one to two years. It should include monthly expenses as well as a cushion for unexpected events. If a bear market hits at the beginning of withdrawals, the investor usually will be more comfortable using the cash distribution bucket and sleep better on the expectation that the bear market will not lead to ill-advised investment liquidations.

The second bucket should cover the costs of living years three through 10. Ideally this money would be invested in high-quality, individual bonds customized to match your annual expense needs. This bond strategy helps protect an eight-year time horizon; your portfolio will be able to generate the income that you need even if there’s a market collapse. The premise of this strategy is that the bonds are held to maturity.

The third bucket, which covers years 11 and on, should be invested 100% in equities for long-term growth and possible legacy assets for heirs. This doesn’t mean making predictions (bets), trying to pick companies or managers or trying to time the market, but rather getting broad exposure to the global marketplace at a very low cost. A recommended approach is to own 10,000-12,000 companies across the globe and across various asset classes. Harnessing the returns of capitalism in tax-efficient funds while keeping costs low and staying disciplined is a recipe for investment success. An investment time horizon exceeding 10 years is a good amount of time for a well-diversified equity approach to generate a respectable return, and the idea is to harvest gains from this bucket over time and to extend the income portfolio’s time horizon with the proceeds.

Were here to help Withdrawing from your savings without a well-thought-out plan can easily deplete your nest egg(s). You should only withdraw for your essential expenses and keep discretionary spending at a minimal level. To be on the safer side and to avoid withdrawing too much money from your savings at a time, you should employ the 4 or 5 percent rules — these rules have been around for a while. If you withdraw 4 or 5 percent of your savings annually, your nest egg(s) should be able to last for 20 years or longer before you run out of money. 

Though some experts have warned that due to low yield and average returns on equity, 4 and 5 percent withdrawal rates are no longer sustainable. Many experts have suggested that 2 or 3 percent withdrawal rates are safer and more sustainable over the long term. Whatever you do you shouldn’t draw from your savings recklessly; you need to have a sustainable withdrawal plan if you are going to enjoy your retirement without the risk of running out of money.

Protecting your investments and ensuring that you do not outlive your savings is critical, and getting a second opinion from a fiduciary advisor can positively impact your portfolio for years to come. Feel free to reach out to us for a no pressure complimentary consultation so that we can assess your needs – or consider registering to attend for an upcoming retirement seminar. 

 

To ensure the interoperability of invoices throughout the GST ecosystem, the GST Council proposed e-invoicing in December 2019. Check out how this new electronic invoicing system could impact businesses in India.

Businesses across the country usedifferent types of 3rd party accounting software for generating invoices. Often, software systems are unable to read invoices generated by other systems.

Due to this, the invoices need to be manually translated again, with the help of data entry so that the other software can read it. This whole process leads to invoicing errors and provides businesses with an opportunity to evade taxes.

To eliminate this problem, the GST Council has introduced a new electronic invoicing system. It is a unified invoicing format that applies to B2B taxpayers with a turnover of up to Rs. 500 crores across industries and to all the invoicing and accounting software solutions used by them.

Take a look at how this rollout of the new e-invoicing system is impacting businesses in India-

  1. Additional investment for already struggling businesses

While the e-invoicing system will ultimately help businesses in many ways, its implementation would need additional investment.

Businesses were first required to get their accounting systems integrated with the GSTN portal or e-way bill portal when GST was introduced. They will now be required to re-configure their systems to work with the Invoice Registration Portal (IRP).

Even the invoice printing infrastructure would require significant upgrades for capturing all the additional fields of the electronic invoice. This can be an extra burden on businesses that are already struggling financially due to the COVID pandemic.

  1. Sufficiency of the IRP Invoice

The latest e-invoicing format introduced by the CBIC on 30th July 2020 features 12 different sections, with a total of 138 fields. However, only 5 sections are mandatory, and the rest are optional. It is up to the businesses to select the optional fields that are important for their tax reporting.

For instance, batch date, batch number, and place of manufacture are crucial details in the invoice of a pharmaceutical company. But these details are left in the optional section of the e-invoice. Also, there are no fields for entering bank account details, terms and conditions, or even the logo of the company.

Moreover, there is a different e-invoice format with additional fields compared to the standard e-invoice format for businesses with a turnover of above Rs. 500 crores. Thus currently, a lot of companies are not sure whether or not the electronic invoices that are generated by the IRP are sufficient.

  1. Staff Training

Businesses would also be required to provide additional training to their GST compliance staff members so that they can effectively implement and use the new invoicing system. They need to thoroughly understand what the new invoicing system entails, the steps required for adoption, and a lot more to implement the new system successfully.

Even if a business wants to upgrade to a new e-invoicing software system, they will be required to provide detailed training to the team members involved in tax compliance. Companies will have to spend a significant amount of time and money so that the staff members are equipped with all the knowledge and information about the new invoicing system.

Is your business ready for e-invoice?

Any kind of significant alteration to the taxation system leads to a bit of disruption initially. But the GST Council has always considered suggestions and comments not just from the industry/trade bodies but even the taxpayers to avoid major disruptions.

Even with e-invoicing, the council has consulted various industry and trade bodies, like ASSOCHAM, FICCI, ICAI, and more before introducing the new invoicing system. The proposal of the new system was also kept in the public domain for a considerable duration to collect suggestions from taxpayers and other stakeholders.

With e-invoicing becoming mandatory from 1st October 2020, businesses should look out for a reputed e-invoicing software system to ensure compliance and minimum business disruption.

Reputed tax advisory firms now offer advanced e-invoicing solutions to help you seamlessly comply with the new electronic invoicing system and protect against the consequences of non-compliance.