HIGHLIGHTS

Ministerial Decree No. 286 of 2021 issued on the 3^rd of June 2021, adopted “the long waited” Executive Regulations of the Unified Tax Procedures Law -hereby referred as ER-. This Law – the Unified Tax Procedures Law- No. 206 of 2020 has entered into force on the 20^th of October 2020 and has firstly a clear vision toward building a unified structured Tax Procedures for Income Tax, Value-added Tax, Stamp duties Tax and the State financial resources developing fees. Secondly, the Law aims to build trust between Ministry of Finance- represented by Tax Authority- and taxpayers. Finally, this Lawmarks the beginning of a new era of electronic procedures on all levels by enforcing Tax declarations through the tax authority e-platform as well as both e-invoices and cashless payment methods implementing procedures.

ENTRY INTO FORCE

Article (5) of the issuing articles of the ER stipulates that it shall be effective as of the first day following its publication (i.e. 4 June 2021).

KEY PROVISIONS OF THE ER

TheER are mainly regulating the following main matters:

• Taxpayers’ rights and obligations;
• Tax registration, Tax card and Tax declarations: highlighting their definitions, required stipulations and required attached documents.
• Tax records;
• Tax filling;
• Tax assessment procedures;
• Taxpayers’ data confidentiality;
• Service provider for implementing the electronic billing system;
• Tax documentation language; and
• Appeals procedures.

SCOPE OF APPLICATION

The ER shall apply on all the natural and legal persons subject to taxation in accordance with the Egyptian tax laws. It is worth mentioning that in its 1^st article the ER listed the related and linked persons to taxpayers as following:

1. Couples, ascendants, and descendants.
2. Partnerships, joint or limited liability partners.
3. Corporates and persons owning more than 50% of voting or administration rights.
4. Corporates in which the same person owns more than 50% of voting or administration rights.

MAIN FEATURES

1. The ER are mainly regulating the taxpayers’ rights, in addition to their obligations and contributions in order to facilitate the procedures, create an encouraging environment and give taxpayers both initiative and ability to present his Tax declaration in any language to Tax authority platform.
2. The ER are in accordance with Egyptian government policy by implementing a complete electronic system on all levels- tax declaration, communication with taxpayers, tax records, tax assessments and collections, and appeals procedures. Tax authority provides nowadays these services electronically through its e-platform and enhanced by both e-invoices and cashless payment methods implementation.
3. These above mentioned pro electronic procedures policy is enhanced in chapter V of the ER confirming that conditions and criteria of electronic invoices shall be fulfilled. Moreover, the process of e-signature, unified coding system for goods and services, and required data for electronic invoices shall also be accomplished by the taxpayer. Detailed rules for integrity, confidentiality and security are listed in art. 34 to 37 and apply to both taxpayers and e-services providers, in addition to rules of license issuance, procedures, obligations, and license duration that apply to service providers.
4. In addition to that, ER stipulate in detail: Tax registration- its mandatory stipulations, required documents and procedures- and main differences between Tax card valid for 5 years and registration certificate that the authority must issue for each branch.

TAX DECLARATIONS

It is worth mentioning that art. 30 to 33 stipulate rules of Tax declaration submission on the Tax Authority e-platform:

1. Natural persons: the annual declaration should be submitted before 1^st of April.
2. Legal entities: the annual declaration should be submitted before 1^st of May or within 4 months following the end of financial year.
3. Concerning public banks, public sector corporates and public legal entities, they should submit their tax declaration within 30 days following their budget approval by its General Assembly.

AIMS AND ADVANTAGES

The Law and its ER mainly aim to create a complete unified and electronic procedures as following:

1. The ER marks the transformation of the Traditional Tax Procedures system toward a new electronic one.
2. Taxpayer will have a unified tax registration number/code to be used for all different types of taxes, in addition to all their transactions and correspondences.
3. Finally, taxpayers’ rights before the Egyptian Tax Authority are now fully defined (i.e., the right to view/check their tax files, registration information, examination memos, notices and the right to attend their file assessment).