Finance Ministry to exempt taxpayers of tax due fine

CAIRO - 15 August 2018: Minister of Finance announced the issuance of a draft law exempting taxpayers from the fine of delay in payment of tax due, whether income tax or stamp or development fee.

The minister clarified that the rates of exemptions range between 90 percent as the highest segment and 50 percent as the lowest segment in the framework of facilitating the industrial and investment sector.

This came during the minister's meeting, with deputy minister of finance for financial policies and institutional development, Ahmed Kajuk, and Deputy Minister of Finance for Public Treasury Affairs Ihab Abu Aish with the Board of Directors of the Federation of Investors Associations headed by Chairman of the Federation of Investors Associations Mohamed Farid Khamis and members of the Egyptian Federation.

Mai’t pointed out that the House of Representatives recently approved the law prepared by the Ministry of Finance to ease the burden on the tax community, which coincides with the initiative of the Central Bank to drop the benefits of loans to troubled projects, especially small and medium.

The minister explained that the law exempts the taxpayer from 90 percent of the delay penalties if he/she pays the main tax within 90 days and exempts the taxpayer from 70 percent if he/she pays the main debt within 45 days.

As for the person who paid the debt during the last 45 days of the six-month period allowed by the law, he will be exempted from his fine delay by 50 percent, he said.
The minister said that the ministry is working on the issuance of important legislative amendments, including a draft law to simplify and standardize the tax procedures, whether in income or value added.

He added that there is a new draft law sent to the Ministry of Commerce and Industry and the Federation of Industries and Chambers of Commerce and that they are waiting for their comments.

As per the electronic bill, the minister said that there is a draft law that stipultes to apply the valud added taxes accurately and immediately to the electronic bills, adding that it will be applied in the chains of shops and supermarkets.

Ma’it said that the new act will be executed by the beginning of the year.

As of Jan. 1, 2019, all customers with government agencies will be required to pay amounts exceeding LE 100,000 using one of the electronic payment methods, with the application of a fine of 10 percent of the value of the amounts due in the case of cash payment or check, according to the minister.

Ma’it stressed that the government is seeking to develop tax and customs procedures to ensure uniformity of treatment in all ports and customs as well as the governance of these procedures.

“We are currently cooperating with Ernst & Young for the re-engineering of tax procedures as we will launch next September a general tender for the mechanization of these procedures and standardization, especially in income taxes and value added taxes.”

The minister pointed out that the Ministry of Finance is implementing the treasury single account (TSA) and the Government Fiscal Management Information System (GFMIS), which contributes to the greatest financial discipline.