Egyptian Minister of Finance Mohamed Maait.
Egypt’s Ministry of Finance said it will not impose more taxes on stock market operations, adding that the move requires new legislation that should be approved by the House of Representatives.
Minister of Finance Mohamed Maait said on Monday that the recently released guidance manual 428/2021 includes the rules regarding taxes on capital gains made from disposing securities, shares, and treasury bills (T-bills), as well as stamp taxes related to trading on securities in the stock market.
The manual is meant to clarify the procedures of imposing taxes on trading securities to facilitate the process for taxpayers and traders and to promote transparency, according to the minister.
He added that the manual contains the timeline of the amendments to income tax law 91/2005 and stamp tax law 111/1980 down to law 199/2020, in addition to the process, date, and value of income taxes imposed on capital gains for listed and non-listed security transactions.
In response to the COVID-19 crisis and its aftermath, Egypt has taken several procedures regarding its taxing system, including suspending the collection of taxes on capital gains made from disposing of securities that are listed on the Egyptian Stock Exchange until 31 December 2021.
The Egyptian Tax Authority also allowed taxpayers to remit tax payments either electronically or through bank cheques.
In June, the finance ministry issued the bylaws of the unified tax procedures law that aims at streamlining and automating the procedure setting and collecting all kinds of taxes in Egypt, including the income tax, income earning tax, value-added tax, state development tax, and stamp tax.
The ministry is also set to launch a unified platform for electronic tax collection in September, which is designed to collect and document the taxes of all entities online.
The platform is anticipated to cover all tax types to scale up the state’s efforts to merge the informal and formal economies to achieve tax justice, level the playing field among taxpayers in the local market, and increase the state’s public treasury revenues.
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