Ramy Mina, head of the taxation sector at Deloitte, said that companies should be ready for electronic filing, adding that the paper filing is not up to date with the international standards.
Mina added at the seminar, which the American Chamber of Commerce in Egypt held on Wednesday, that the Egyptian Tax Authority (ETA) is implementing a plan to fully switch companies to electronic filing.
“We have experienced e-filing for some companies, but we discovered few problems with the system in terms of signing the filings,” said Mina, noting that the ETA is working hard to solve the current e-filing system.
Mina said e-filing will a positive indicator for international organisations in terms of improving and speeding up procedures, adding, “there are many international companies which do not have an office in Egypt nor employees. E-filing will make the process easier for them.”
Ahmed El-Said, head of taxation sector at Ernst and Young, said that the Ministry of Finance will launch the e-filing system in 2018, adding, “in 2017, filing it was optional, allowing manual or electronic filings, but in 2018, it will be obligatory.”
El-Said mentioned that the companies e-finance and Excel Systems are the companies which designed the system of e-filing for the Ministry of Finance.
“When I was in Saudi Arabia, I realised the problems of e-filing at the very beginning, such as crashing when pressured, so I encourage the Egyptian companies to benefit from other experiences and begin e-filing to discover, early, the problems and find solutions,” noted Hossam Nasr, deputy head of the taxation committee at AmCham Egypt.
Nasr added that the market awaits President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi’s signature on the new adjustments on the taxation law after being approved by the Egyptian Parliament on 15 April.
Parliament was late to approve the law, but the reasons for the delay included the heavily scheduled regulatory agenda, noted Nasr.
