History of Income Tax in Jordan
International Taxation (ACC 343)
.
By: Dimah Al-Assadi
History of Taxes in Jordan
Introduction
In 1933, the Legislation and Opinion Bureau issued the first income tax law when at that time
the income tax department was a division under the Ministry of Finance. The income tax law no. (108)
for the year, 1933 had fifteen articles and two tables.
Apparent changes to the income tax department
The income tax department became an independent department in 1951 where it operated
under the law no. (50) For the year 1950. Since then, the tax legislation has undergone several
amendments aimed at developing it and keeping pace with economic and social changes, and fill the
gaps arising because of application. Afterwards, on August 2004, the Income Tax Department and the
General Sales Tax were merged in one department under the name of Income and Sales Tax
Department by the amended law of each the Income tax law and Sales tax law published in official
Gazette no.4672.
The sales tax started on a small scale as a tax in 1926 and ended in the current form of sales
tax, which became effective on 1/1/2001 under Law No. (36) Of 2000.
Amendments to the Income tax law
The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan is one of the first countries in the region to introduce the
concept of self-assessment, in accordance with the provisions of the Interim Income Tax Law No. 34
of 1982 and the Income Tax Law No. 57 of 1985, which remained in effect until the issuance of the
provisional law No. 28 of 2009. Then in 2014 the Income Tax Law No. 34 was issued.
The Tax law was amended 8 times:
• Income Tax Law no. (108) for the 1933
• Income Tax Law no. (50) for the year 1950
• Income Tax Law no. (12) for the year 1954
• Income Tax Law no. (25) for the year 1964
• Income Tax Law no. (57) for the year 1985
• Income Tax Law no. (28) for the year 2009
• Income Tax Law no. (34) for the year 2014
• Income Tax Law no. (38) for the year 2018
Self –assessment
It is one of the tax assessment methods where taxpayers provide a statement of the results of
their business as described in their books and supporting documents. While taxpayer data are not
