Egypt's Supreme Council of Military Forces (SCAF) is set to announce a decision to postpone the application of a property tax from January 2012 to January 2013, official sources have told Ahram's Arabic-language portal.
Egypt's Minister of Finance, Hazem El-Beblawi also told Ahram that the one of the main reason for the delay is to fix deficiencies in the law and help accommodate social and economical needs of the Egyptian people.
News reports suggested Egypt’s Cabinet had discussed amendments to be made to the property tax law on 21 September.
An official at the Ministry of Finance said that the changes are related to increasing the tax exemption limit on annual rental income from LE6,000 to LE12,600.
The exemption limit for individual homes will be lifted from LE 500,000 to LE 1 million for single-unit owners and to LE2 million for owners of more than one
residential unit.
The tax was expected to generate some LE1.3 billion for the state, but Beblawi said alternatives were being studied that would not cause damage to the investment climate.
The property law was passed in 2009 but was never applied due to resistance from owners of large properties. It remains frozen until now.
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