On 8 October 2018, Bahrain's Consultative Council (upper house of parliament) approved Decree-Law No. 48 of 2018 for the implementation of a value added tax (VAT) regime, which was approved by the Council of Representatives (lower house of parliament) a day earlier. As previously reported, the VAT regime is to apply from 1 January 2019, with a standard rate of 5% in line with the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) VAT agreement. Additional details will be published once available.