Minister of Finance Mohamed Maait issued a decision to amend some provisions of the executive regulations of the Value-Added Tax (VAT) Law based on what was presented by Reda Abdel Qader — Head of the Tax Authority.
The decision includes not taking into account paper invoices in deducting or refunding VAT starting from 1 July, so that only electronic invoices will be considered, with the exception of paper invoices issued by companies or establishments before they were obligated to implement the electronic invoice system as well as invoices issued by companies or establishments that the Tax Authority has not decided to obligate to transition to an electronic system, taking into account the technical specifications and standards of the electronic system contained in the executive regulations of the Unified Tax Procedures Law.
A statement by the ministry said that the electronic invoice system is one of the pillars of the national project to modernise and mechanise the tax management system, which aims to facilitate procedures for financiers, integrate the informal economy into the formal one, achieve tax justice, and get what the state is owed.
Maait explained that more than 70,000 companies have registered on the electronic invoice system, and more than 61,000 companies have already activated their accounts on the system so far and sent more than 208m electronic invoices, reflecting Egypt’s success in being among the first countries in Africa and the Middle East to implement the system.
Through the new system, the finance ministry was able to detect more than 17,000 cases of tax evasion and tax differences exceeding EGP 6bn were collected from the dues of the state’s public treasury.
