Egyptian’s Minister of Finance Ahmed Kouchouk stressed that the new tax facilitations package, including incentives for the business community, is the first step towards improving the relationship between investors and the Tax Authority.
Kouchouk said that this package is among the priorities of financial policies, which aim to overcome tax obstacles facing economic activities and raise productivity rates, with the ultimate objective of strengthening the structure of the overall economy to rely more on production and export.
The minister made these remarks during a press conference at the Cabinet yesterday, in the presence of Prime Minister Moustafa Madbouli.
“We announce the beginning of a new chapter between the Tax Authority and the business community based on ‘partnership, support and certainty’. We affirm that the basis of partnership is trust between all parties, and that we will focus on the future, not the past. We will provide fair and distinguished services to investors and financiers,” Kouchouk said.
“Our decisions aim to meet the needs of our partners in the tax community, and we will continue to introduce other packages of tax facilitations to stimulate the business community, with a focus on clarifying the procedures and executive rules so that we do not leave matters to personal estimates in the tax offices. We target a tangible improvement in the quality of tax services provided by the tax offices to the business community,” the minister added.
He noted that there will be a special focus on expanding the tax base to ensure the interests of the state and investors.
Kouchouk said that there will be a simplified and integrated tax system for those whose annual business volume does not exceed LE15 million from SMEs, freelancers, and professionals as well.
A package of tax facilitations will also be introduced to encourage the integration of informal economy into the formal one. Taxpayers will be allowed to submit or amend tax returns for the period from 2021/2023 without fines, he added.
The minister confirmed that tax returns will be simplified, and that the sample inspection system will be expanded to include all tax centres.
He added that the tax inspection will be operating with the risk management system for all taxpayers in all tax offices to facilitate the process for the tax community.
“The delay fee was several times the value of the original tax, and we set a maximum limit that does not exceed the original tax in any case. We will work to quickly complete the dispute settlement and accumulated tax files to stimulate economic activity. We will also raise the exemption limit from ‘submitting a transaction pricing study’ for international companies to LE30 million,” the minister said
The new tax facilitations package also includes approving the principle of gradual legal dealings in the event of failure to submit a tax return and linking it to the annual business volume for the benefit of taxpayers, the minister further noted.
Kouchouk further elaborated that a modern and integrated system will be established to evaluate the Egyptian Tax Authority’s employees according to the performance and the quality of services provided to taxpayers.
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