IRC HR SERVICES

Employer of Record (EOR) in Jordan

Currency

Jordanian Dinar Riyal

Ease Of Doing Business

75

Population

10,455,936

Capital

Amman

Language

Arabic

GDP Growth

2.2%

Summary

Jordan, officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, is an Arab country in Western Asia’s Levant region, on the Jordan River’s East Bank.

Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Syria, Israel, and Palestine all border Jordan. The Dead Sea runs along its western boundaries, and in the extreme south-west, the nation has a 26-kilometer coastline on the Red Sea.

Jordan is strategically located at the intersection of Asia, Africa, and Europe. Jordan’s capital, Amman, is the country’s most populous city as well as its economic, political, and cultural hub.

Humans have lived in Jordan since the Paleolithic period. At the end of the Bronze Age, three prosperous kingdoms emerged: Ammon, Moab, and Edom.

The Nabataean Kingdom, the Persian Empire, the Roman Empire, the Rashidun, Umayyad, and Abbasid Caliphates, and the Ottoman Empire were among the later rulers.

The Ottoman Empire was partitioned by Britain and France after the Great Arab Revolt against the Ottomans in 1916 during World War I.

The Hashemite, then Emir, Abdullah I created the Emirate of Transjordan in 1921, and the emirate became a British protectorate. Jordan became an independent state in 1946, formally known as the Hashemite Kingdom of Transjordan, but after capturing the West Bank during the 1948 Arab Israeli War and annexed it until 1967, it was renamed the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan in 1949.

Jordan gave up its claim to the land in 1988, and in 1994, it became the second Arab country to sign a peace treaty with Israel. Jordan was one of the founding members of the Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation. Although the sovereign state is a constitutional monarchy, the king wields extensive executive and legislative authority.

Jordan is a semi-arid country with an area of 89,342 km2 and a population of 10 million people, making it the Arab country with the 11th largest population.

The dominant religion is Sunni Islam, which is practiced by approximately 95% of the population and coexists with an indigenous Christian minority.

Jordan has been referred to as an “oasis of peace” in a volatile area on several occasions. It has largely escaped the unrest that erupted in the aftermath of the Arab Spring in 2010.

Jordan has been accepting refugees from a variety of conflict-torn neighbouring countries since 1948. According to a 2015 census, Jordan has 2.1 million Palestinian refugees and 1.4 million Syrian refugees.

Thousands of Iraqi Christians fleeing ISIL persecution have sought asylum in the kingdom. Jordan continues to welcome refugees, but the recent massive influx from Syria has put significant pressure on the country’s finances and infrastructure.

Jordan is rated as a “high human growth” country with an “upper middle income” economy. Jordan’s economy, despite being one of the smallest in the country, is attractive to foreign investors due to its skilled workforce.

Public holidays

DateHoliday name
January 1New years day
April 9  & 10Easter
April 21 to 23Eid al- Fitr
May 1Labor Day
May 25Independence day
June 27 till July 1Eid al-Adha
July 19Islamic new year
September 27Birthday of Prophet Muhammed
December 25Christmas day

Type of leave

Annual Leave

Employees are given 14 to 21 days of paid annual leave each year.

Public holidays

Jordan recognizes 18 public holidays.

Sick days

Every worker is entitled to fourteen days a year of sick leave with full pay on the basis of a report by the medical practitioner approved by the establishment.

Sick leave may be extended to a further fourteen days with full pay if the worker is hospitalized and with half pay if the worker is not hospitalized but provides a report from a medical commission approved by the establishment.

Maternity leave

Women workers are entitled to maternity leave with full pay for ten weeks including rest before and after delivery. Leave after delivery shall be no less than six weeks long and employment before the expiry of such a period shall be prohibited.

After expiry of the maternity leave period every woman worker is entitled, within one year of delivery, to take time off with pay for the purpose of nursing her newborn baby, provided that total time off does not exceed one hour a day.

Paternity leave

Employees who are fathers are entitled to up to three days of  paid paternity leave.

Employment termination

Termination process

The employment contract may be terminated by either the  employer or the employee. It may be ended if all parties  agree, the contract has expired, the task has been finished,  or the employee has died or become incapacitated, as  documented by a medical report.

Employers are exempt from the foregoing restrictions,  however, if it is discovered that the employee was hired by  another company during any of these breaks. Employers are  obligated to provide terminated employees with an end of  service certificate that includes the employee’s name, job  description, and start/end dates of employment.

The party initiating the termination must present the other  party with a written termination notice at least 30 days before  to the exit date, which cannot be retracted unless all parties  agree. The contract shall remain valid and the employee shall  be entitled to their salary during this notice period.

Employers who terminate an employee may either exempt the  employee from work throughout the notice period or require  the employee to work during the notice period except for the  final seven days. Regardless of whether the employee is  excluded from work or not, the employer is required to pay  the employee’s wage throughout the notice period.

In certain circumstances, an employee may resign without  giving notice and still be entitled to end of service  remuneration.

If the employer ends the fixed-term period contract prior to its  expiration, or if the employee terminates it for any of the  reasons listed above, the employee retains all contractualr rights, benefits, and earnings until the termination notice  period expires.

Notice period

The party who initiates the termination must give the other  party a written termination notice at least 30 days prior to the  exit date, which cannot be retracted unless all parties agree.  The contract remains in effect during the termination notice  period, and the employee is entitled to their salary during this  time.

Severance pay

Employers in Jordan are not required to provide bonuses.

Probation period

Jordan’s legislator has established a two-year probation  period for public employees, during which time the public  administration must make a hiring decision.

Working hours

General working hours

The standard workweek consists of 48 hours spread across five days and eight hours per day. Fridays and  Saturdays have traditionally been considered Jordan’s  official weekends. The total number of work and rest  hours per day cannot exceed 11 hours.

Overtime

Overtime is paid on a percentage of the employee’s wage rate and is limited to 30 days per year.

Employee benefits

General employee benefits

Mandatory benefits postulated by law include a probationary period, pay on annual leaves, public holidays, sick leaves,  maternity leave, paternity leave, and overtime pay. Statutory benefits also include social security benefits.

Taxes

Corporate Tax

In Jordan, CIT rates are imposed depending on the industry/business  activities from which the taxpayer derives revenue.

The CIT rates are as fol-  lows, according to the income tax law:

For banks, the percentage is 35%.

Telecommunications, insurance and reinsurance businesses, financial  intermediation companies (including exchange and financing leasing  companies), organizations that produce and distribute energy, and  enterprises that engage in mining raw material operations are all imposed a 24 percent tax rate.

Other businesses are subject to a 20 percent tax rate.

Jordanian resident companies are not subject to CIT on their global revenue  unless such money is derived from Jordanian deposits and funds, in which  case the income is taxed at a rate of 10%.

All net revenue earned by  overseas branches of Jordanian resident companies is taxed at a set rate of  10%.

Non-resident companies are subject to withholding tax (WHT).

Individual Income tax

30 %

VAT / GST

A general sales tax, comparable to a value-added tax (VAT), is levied at a rate of 16% on the following transactions:
Sales of products, services, or a combination of the two.
Importing any service or products from outside Jordan or from Jordan’s free zone regions and marketplaces.
Certain goods are taxed at a higher rate. Export sales of products and services outside Jordan, free zone regions and marketplaces, the Aqaba Special Economic Zone (ASEZ), and development zones are taxed at zero percent.
Bread, water in less than five liters, tea, sugar, gold, money, and electricity are all free from sales tax.

VISA

Jordan visa policy details which nations do not need a visa to visit the Hashemite  Kingdom of Jordan and who may enter the country without one. Whether or not  a visa is necessary for Jordan, foreign residents must produce a passport valid  for at least 6 months beyond the desired stay, with at least 2 blank pages, in  order to enter the Kingdom. There is currently no restriction on Jordan visas for  nationals of other nations.

Residents of Lebanon and inhabitants of the European Union (excluding Croatia)  arriving by direct aircraft to Aqaba Airport may display their national identity  cards.

The sole exemption is for foreigners travelling from Jordan to Iraq, who  must have a round-trip non-refundable ticket.

Currently, nationals of up to ten countries, including citizens of all Gulf Cooperation Council members, may visit Jordan without a visa for periods ranging from  one month to three months, depending on their nationality (GCC).

All other foreign residents, in addition to an eVisa, must get a visa before to  arrival in Jordan, whether it is a visa on arrival at an immigration booth at the  border or an embassy visa from a Jordanian diplomatic post.

The Jordan Pass is a streamlined online tourist package that includes the Jordan  electronic visa, which eliminates lengthy waits at Jordanian border crossings for  visa on arrival applications. It is also intended to enable for faster entrance into  Jordan through Jordanian immigration checkpoints.

To travel to Jordan for reasons other than tourism, a visa must be obtained from  the closest Jordanian embassy or consulate. Furthermore, foreign citizens who  are not eligible for Jordan visas online, up to around 80 countries, must apply for Jordan visas at Jordan’s embassy, regardless of their reason of visit or  planned length of stay.

More than 230 nations, including those who enter the Kingdom

a electronic visas, visas on arrival, or embassy visas, need an authorized  tourist visa to enter the Kingdom. For anyone planning a tourist trip to Jordan, an  accelerated electronic application for Jordan Pass, which enables 140 nations to  receive an electronic visa, is now available.

The Jordan Pass is a travel package  that waives visa costs for tourists visiting at least three nights in Jordan. It also  offers free admission to over 40 of Jordan’s most popular tourist destinations.

A Jordanian tourist visa may be acquired in just a few minutes using the  computerized system, and the application procedure is fast and simple. After  completing the application, the applicant will get his Jordan Pass through email,  both as a PDF and as a QR code, which he may use to obtain access at  immigration checkpoints.

Around 80 nations are unable to apply for Jordanian tourist evisas and must get  embassy visas for tourism in advance from the Jordanian diplomatic post closest  to them.