Global Daily Tax News, Egypt To Ease Business Tax Compliance Burden, (Sep 19, 2024)

Egypt has announced a series of initiatives aimed at improving the tax environment for businesses.

The Government has said the threshold for the preparation and submission of a transfer pricing study for international companies will be raised to EGP30m. Presently a local file is required where the value of related-party transactions for the period exceeds EGP8m, while there is no threshold for the transfer pricing master file.

Further, the Government has announced a simplified tax regime will be introduced for businesses with a turnover not exceeding EGP15m, including small businesses, sole traders, freelancers, and professionals. In a bid to promote voluntary tax compliance, the Government has said it will adopt a forward-looking approach to those taxpayers who begin to comply with their affairs, with no penalties to apply to returns late filed or amended for the periods 2021 through 2023.

Egypt has also committed to simplifying tax returns, revising penalties, improving tax dispute resolution, and improving the internal processes for the processing of value-added tax refunds.