Syria Investment Law Incentives 2025: 100% Ownership, 80% Tax Cuts

Syria's investment framework, as of November 2026, is Investment Law No. 18 of 2021, as amended by Law No. 2 of 2023 and by Decree No. 114 of 2025. The decree is dated 24 June 2025, was published by SANA on 9 July 2025 and took effect on its date of issue. It rewrote the definitions, guarantees, incentives, licensing deadlines, land rules and dispute settlement.

Five points frame everything else:

• Who runs it. The Syrian Investment Authority now reports to the Presidency of the Republic, and a new Supreme Council for Economic Development, chaired by the President or his delegate, approves investment strategy and creates investment zones. The Council announced the executive instructions on 16 November 2025, covering sector classification, incentives, licence procedures and dispute settlement.
• Who counts as an investor. Any natural or legal person, Syrian or not.
• What counts as foreign capital. Money that arrives from abroad through proper channels, from Syrians or non-Syrians alike. Savings a Syrian abroad brings in through a bank count the same as a foreign investor's.
• One licence. The investment licence is a single document the Authority issues after obtaining every licence and approval needed to start work from the bodies involved.
• The investment law wins. If it conflicts with another law, the investment law applies.

What is still changing:

• The same decree tasks the Authority with preparing the necessary draft law, so expect a new text.
• On 7 November 2026, the Authority's website still listed the online licence application and project tracking as coming soon, so apply in Damascus or at a governorate branch.
• Sector lists and procedures guides come from implementing decisions that can be updated.

This guide reads the decree text itself, and the 2021 law where the decree left it unchanged. It is not legal advice: confirm your sector, incentives and contracts with a Syrian lawyer and with the Authority before you transfer funds.

The decree made income-tax incentives permanent and narrowed the sectors that get them. The amended Articles 20 and 21 grant licensed projects the following, as of November 2026:

• Incentive | Who gets it | Versus the original 2021 text
• 100% income-tax exemption, permanent | Agricultural and animal production | Unchanged
• 80% income-tax reduction, permanent | Development-zone projects in sectors the Council targets when creating the zone | Was 75% for 10 years
• 80% income-tax reduction, permanent, from the start of operation | Outside development and specialised zones: industrial projects exporting more than 50% of their capacity; medical industries and human, veterinary and agricultural medicines; agricultural and animal manufacturing; waste recycling with environmentally friendly technology; sorting and packing farm produce; handicrafts | Was 75% or 50% for 10 years
• Full exemption from customs duties and financial and non-customs add-ons | Machinery and industrial production lines imported for, and registered to, the project | Narrowed: the 2021 text also covered equipment and non-tourist service vehicles
• The same customs exemption | Machinery and equipment for real estate development projects | New
• The same customs exemption | New, unused medical equipment for hospitals and health centres | New

In practice: if a year's income tax on your project's profit would be 1,000,000 new Syrian pounds, an 80% reduction leaves 200,000 to pay. The rate comes from the income tax law, so ask your accountant which applies to your legal form.

Three cautions:

• Tourism, renewable energy and high-tech projects had incentives in the original 2021 text but are not on the amended lists. Ask the Authority how the executive instructions treat your sector before you count on a tax cut.
• The customs exemption follows the licensed project and the machines registered in its name, so ask before you sell, lease or move one.
• Licensed before 24 June 2025? Compare your terms with Law No. 18 of 2021 as first issued, and ask your lawyer which text applies.

Licensing runs through one counter. The Investors Services Center, in the Authority and in development and specialised zones, gathers representatives of every public body involved in investment, with delegated powers, as a one-stop shop. The procedures guide, issued by the Authority, sets the conditions, technical standards, fees and licensing procedures, within a binding timeframe.

The timeline in the amended Articles 18 and 19:

• Up to 30 working days to decide on the licence, including all licences and approvals, counted from the day after you complete the documents in the procedures guide and pay the fees.
• A refusal must give reasons. You can object to the Authority's board within 30 days of being notified, or of the deadline passing without a decision, and the board decides within 15 days.

The guarantees in the amended Article 5 cover every project type, including BOT, BOO and PPP:

• No precautionary seizure or receivership without a court decision.
• No expropriation without a final court judgment and compensation at the project's real value on that date; compensation from foreign capital can go back abroad in a convertible currency.
• No new procedural burdens beyond the procedures guide in force on your application date, except for environment and public health.
• No new financial burdens outside that guide during the establishment phase.
• No cancellation without a warning and six months to fix the breach; the reasoned decision can be challenged in court as urgent.
• Registration and protection of intellectual property.

Disputes go to conciliation and mediation, arbitration under the laws in force and relevant treaties, or the competent courts.

Two habits follow: keep a dated copy of the guide and fee receipts from application day, as your protection is measured against that version, and log every submission and reply, as the 30 days start only once your file is complete.

In July 2026 the Authority said it was automating one-stop-shop procedures and preparing mobile or email notifications on each project's stage.

Full foreign ownership is allowed for licensed projects. The decree defines investment as including owning a project wholly or partly, and the Authority's director general told SANA in January 2026 that it allows 100% ownership and the transfer of profits abroad.

Transfers follow Article 28 of the 2021 law, which Decree 114 left unchanged. You may:

• Open project accounts in Syrian pounds and foreign currency at banks operating in Syria.
• Transfer abroad annual profits, interest and the proceeds of selling your share, for the foreign capital you invested, after paying obligations, taxes and fees and having the statements audited by an accredited external auditor, under Central Bank of Syria instructions.
• Take your foreign capital back out if the licence is not issued within the guide's deadlines, or the project cannot go ahead for reasons beyond your control (Article 29).

Non-Syrian workers, experts and technicians may now transfer all their monthly pay, up from 50% in the original 2021 text, plus end-of-service compensation, through a bank in Syria. A foreign investor gets a one-year renewable temporary residence until the project is operating.

Land: you may own or lease the land the project needs, with Council approval above the ownership ceiling, and the Council may allocate state land on fair economic terms. Real estate development is separate: in a July 2026 circular the Authority said it alone licenses it, inside a zone the Council creates, and that off-plan sales must follow Law No. 25 of 2011.

Confirm with your lawyer:

• The ownership ceiling and the title of your plot.
• Which Central Bank instructions apply to your transfers today.
• How Decree No. 5 of 2024 applies to you: its Article 5 exempts non-resident foreigners and foreign investors from its ban, but price and invoice local customers in new pounds.
• Your partners against OFAC's lists: the US no longer keeps comprehensive Syria sanctions, but list-based ones remain.

Before you transfer the first dollar:

• 1. Match your activity to the incentive lists above, and get the Authority's answer in writing.
• 2. Get the procedures guide for your project type and keep a dated copy.
• 3. Prepare a feasibility study and proof of your company's solvency and experience; the Authority's Aleppo branch says it studies feasibility, solvency and experience.
• 4. Choose the legal form with a Syrian lawyer, and run the commercial register alongside.
• 5. Living abroad? Appoint a legal agent for in-person steps, and confirm which power of attorney the Authority accepts.
• 6. Bring capital through banks operating in Syria and keep every transfer advice: it proves your foreign capital.
• 7. Insure the project with an insurer operating in Syria.
• 8. Plan Syrian contractors and at least 60% local staff: a 50-person plant needs 30 or more.
• 9. Notify the Authority in writing of your start date and actual investment costs.
• 10. Appoint an accredited external auditor before year one closes.

Points 6, 9 and 10 are bookkeeping: the amended Article 32 requires books under international accounting standards, with final statements approved by an accredited external auditor sent to the Ministry of Finance. Odoo has no Syrian fiscal localization, so configure it with your accountant in the first fortnight:

• An analytic plan with accounts for the establishment and operating phases, using Odoo analytic accounting, so actual investment costs come from one report.
• An asset register for imported machinery, with depreciation boards, using the assets feature of Odoo Enterprise's Accounting app.
• Separate USD and new-pound bank journals, and a capital account fed only by documented transfers from abroad, as our multi-currency guide explains.
• Employees tagged local or foreign, to prove the 60% ratio.

Registration steps are in our guide to starting a business in Syria. Then tell us about your project: METCH, an official Odoo partner serving Syria, can set up these books and train your team in Arabic.