The Ministry of Finance plans to submit a draft law amending the provisions of Law No. 91 of 2005 on income tax in March.
Parliamentary sources that met the Minister of Finance on Sunday said that the new scheme will set different exemption rates for different categories of citizens according to their annual income.
A source told Daily News Egypt that the finance ministry asked members of the parliament’s Planning and Budget Committee not to discuss the draft law presented by member of parliament (MP) Mervat Matar as the ministry is preparing a new bill.
The committee had proposed to the ministry exempting three income categories from paying income tax: the first segment includes annual incomes up to EGP 14,400; the second up to EGP 24,000; and the third up to EGP 30,000. The committee asked the ministry to predict how exempting each segment would affect tax proceeds.
Meanwhile, MP Mervat Matar presented a bill to amend the provisions of Law 91 of 2005 on income tax, which included amendments to Article 8 regarding the exemption limit, raising it from EGP 6,500 to EGP 15,000.
The sources said committee members called for raising the maximum income tax to 25% from 22.5%.
The members added that raising the maximum will not impact Egypt’s attractiveness to investments. “Investors seek stability, which Egypt is targeting through the economic reforms,” they explained.
