The Egyptian Minister of Finance, Mohamed Maait, confirmed that tax disputes amounting to more than 65,000 cases have been settled in the administrative stage, away from the courts. to fulfill the right of the state.
The minister said in a statement today, Saturday, that these disputes took place over a period of approximately 7 years, from September 2016 to May 2023, with an agreed tax value exceeding 51.5 billion pounds.
The minister added that a draft law has been prepared to end all the circulating disputes related to the old accumulated tax files, based in essence on approving a simplified peremptory tax such as the Medium, Small and Micro Enterprises Development Law, and covers 60% of the old cases, and there is another scenario for tax treatment of 40%. remaining.
The minister indicated that dispute resolution committees are doing their best to settle all open and old tax files. In a way that helps speed up the settlement of accumulated disputes, collects dues to the state’s public treasury, facilitates the taxpayers’ needs, contributes to the stability of their tax positions, and encourages investors to expand their investment activities in Egypt, in a manner consistent with the efforts made by the state to attract domestic and foreign investments, to benefit from The promising opportunities offered by major national and development projects; In order to achieve the goals of comprehensive and sustainable development; In order to improve the lives of citizens and raise the level of services provided to them.
The minister explained that requests to end tax disputes were received, until last February, before courts, tax appeal committees, and grievance committees between tax authorities and financiers or taxpayers arising from the application of the provisions of tax laws that tax authorities apply, regardless of the case in which the lawsuit or appeal is, pointing out Noting that the tax appeal committees have succeeded in establishing many legal principles that contribute to facilitating the adjudication of tax disputes, and protecting the rights of each party in accordance with the law, without prejudice to the confidentiality of tax data for financiers.
The minister said, “We are working on approving tax policies that achieve a balance between the rights of the public treasury, financiers, and taxpayers, along with developing tax appeal committees, stabilizing tax positions for financiers, and reducing the volume of appeals before appeal committees, in a way that ensures a shortening of the dispute consideration period, and justice is achieved.” tax, in a way that helps in laying the foundations of governance, transparency, integrity and standardization of evaluation principles, in pursuit of a more developed, stimulating and attractive tax system.”
