Finance Minister to e-commerce SMEs: be part of the formal economy and no tax accounting for previous years

Dr. Mohamed Moyet, Minister of Finance, stated to e-commerce small and micro entrepreneurs "Initiate registration in the E-Commerce Unit and benefit from the new tax incentives stipulated in the Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprise Development Law.”

The Minister called on small and micro-entrepreneurs to quickly reconcile their situation in the light of the Act on the Development of Medium and Micro-Enterprises and join the Formal Economy. He said “This Act makes it possible to reconcile the situation of medium, small and micro-enterprises operating in the informal economy that operate without a permit. There's no tax accounting for informal economy projects that have applied for a temporary permit to reconcile their situation for the years prior to the date of submitting this application.”

The Minister noted that according to the Act, tax is strictly simplified by volume of sales or business without the need for books, documents or purchase invoices. The volume of sales or works was determined by the owner's acknowledgement, through a simplified, annual tax statement that he carefully prepared, and the IRS trusted his estimate.

The Minister added, referring to every small or micro-entrepreneur engaged in e-commerce “You're an expert yourself, and you won't be visited by a tax officer, and you won't need an accountant. Define your sales or your annual business to yourself, and we trust your estimate. If the sales or business do not exceed 250,000EGP, the tax shall be 1,000 EGP annually, and if it does not exceed 500,000EGP, the tax shall be 2,500 EGP. If it does not exceed 1 million, the tax is 5,000EGP per year, and if the sales or business range from 1 million to2 million, the tax is .5% of the volume of sales.”

The Minister called on small and micro entrepreneurs engaged in e-commerce to quickly register with the Small Enterprise Development Agency and then go to the E-Commerce Unit of the Tax Authority.

According to a statement by the Ministry of Finance, the Act on the Development of Medium, Small and Micro-Enterprises defined the tax on informal economic enterprises whose turnover or sales figure does not exceed 10 million pounds in the period of validity of the temporary license to be 1% of the turnover of enterprises whose turnover exceeds 3 million pounds and does not exceed 10 million pounds per year, and .75% of the turnover of projects whose business volume exceeds 2 million pounds and less than 3 million pounds per year, and .5% of the turnover of projects whose business volume exceeds 1 million pounds and no more than 2 million pounds per year.

The statement noted that the Act on the Development of Medium, Small and Micro-Enterprises established to set the tax at EGP 1,000 annually for micro-informal economy projects whose annual income is less than EGP 250,000. The tax shall be 2,500 EGP for projects whose annual turnover ranges from 250.000 EGP to 500.000 EGP without the need to keep books.