Hilton Hotels, Movenpick Hotels, the Industrial Development and Workers Bank of Egypt (IDBE), and October for Real Estate Development submitted requests to the Egyptian Tax Authority to resolve their disputes with the authority through the payment of some of their dues.
Government sources said that the Ministry of Finance is preparing to hold the first session of the Supreme Committee for Resolving Tax Disputes, headed by deputy minister of finance for tax policies Amr El-Mounir, to end 20 tax disputes.
The sources added that the amount of disputes with these companies range from EGP 90m to more than EGP 100m. They added that the total number of requests submitted to the committees to end the disputes on the Income and Sales Taxes Law amounted to 1,600 cases, of which 430 are sales taxes.
The Arbitration Law, which was passed in September, allows for solving the existing tax disputes that arise before all courts on different levels, appeal committees, tax and conciliation committees, and commissions of grievances, between the authority and financiers or the officials.
The sources explained that the law provides reconciliation among different parties of litigation, appeal committees, and internal committees, unlike the previous laws that were only confined to courts.
The sources pointed out that a plan was prepared to end disputes of 20,000 out of 160,000 cases of tax disputes that amount to billions of pounds.
They added that field visits will be conduct to these companies to raise awareness of the new Arbitration Law and its features.
Correspondences will be sent to the rest of the other companies to raise awareness of the new law and to urge them to submit requests to end tax disputes.
