Oman · Tax regime
Oman Personal Income Tax (Royal Decree 56/2025)
This is enacted law, not a proposal. Royal Decree No. 56/2025 was issued by HM Sultan Haitham bin Tarik on 22 June 2025 and published in the Official Gazette on 30 June 2025. It is often described as proposed only because it does not take effect until 1 January 2028, and the Executive Regulations, due by roughly 30 June 2026, appear to be overdue. The law runs to 76 articles across 16 chapters.
This is the most consequential development in the region. Not because 5% moves the needle for a UHNW family's arithmetic, but because it breaks the Gulf's long-standing taboo on zero income tax. Oman went first. The precedent now exists for every other GCC state under fiscal pressure, and Bahrain is already levying 15% DMTT. Any structure whose entire case rests on permanent zero personal tax is now carrying unpriced risk.
Qualifying routes
5% applies only to the amount above OMR 42,000 (roughly USD 109,000) of annual gross income. The Tax Authority projects that 99% of the population will be unaffected.
The facts
- Minimum
- 42k OMR
- Total landed cost
- 5% of income above OMR 42,000 from 2028. The number itself is immaterial for a UHNW family. The precedent it sets is not.
- Route type
- Tax regime, not a visa
- Timeline
- 1.5 years (Effective 1 January 2028. The Executive Regulations are still pending and appear to be past their due date.)
- Physical presence
- The definition of residence will be set out in the Executive Regulations, which have not yet been published.
- Family
- Not applicable. This is an individual tax regime
- Permanent residency
- Not applicable
- Citizenship
- Not applicable
- Language test
- Not applicable
- Dual citizenship
- Not permitted. You would have to renounce.
- Requirements
- Tax residence in Oman, as defined by the pending Executive Regulations
- The scope is unresolved. It is not yet known whether Oman will tax worldwide income or only Omani-source income for tax residents. That single question determines whether Omani residency remains viable for a UHNW family at all.
- Executive Regulations were due within one year of publication, roughly 30 June 2026, and appear overdue. Planning in the absence of them is planning blind.
- The strategic read matters more than the rate. Clients should underwrite Gulf residency on the assumption that a permanent promise of no income tax is a policy choice, not a constitutional guarantee.
- Deductions and exemptions are provided for education, healthcare, inheritance, zakat, donations and primary housing. The detail, though, sits in the pending regulations.