Electronic filing of value added tax returns in Egypt

16 January, 2019

In brief

The Egyptian Tax Authority (“ETA”) has recently introduced a new electronic filing (“e-filing”) system for the submission of the value added tax (“VAT”) returns. Taxpayers will be required to submit their monthly VAT and/or schedule tax returns (“VAT returns”) electronically, through the ETA’s website, starting from January 2019. Accordingly, manual filing of VAT returns will not be accepted as of the latter date mentioned.

Further to the above, the ETA will be issuing a standard form for the tax invoice in accordance with the provisions of the VAT law, to ensure that it is line with the e-filing requirements.

This alert summarizes the key aspects of the new VAT e-filing system that has been introduced to ease the process of VAT return submissions in Egypt.

Summary of the key aspects of the new VAT e-filing system

E-filing of VAT returns will become mandatory as of January 2019.

The account created by taxpayers for the e-filing of corporate income tax returns shall be used to access the ETA’s website. Such account will provide taxpayers the access for the e-filing of all relevant taxes, including VAT. Taxpayers will be required to prepare their monthly VAT returns online by uploading the required excel sheets (i.e. sales, purchases and adjustments sheets) on the ETA’s website. The information expected to be required for the VAT e-filing procedures are the following:

The client/ vendor name, address, identification number (“ID”) and VAT registration number (if registered)
Product type (local – export/ import)
Product description, code, quantity and measurement unit (for example kilos, tons, etc) Specification of each item (i.e. types of goods/services) on the sales/ purchase invoices.

Upon filing the online VAT returns, taxpayers will be required to pay the VAT amount due, through the regular bank transfers and then enter the details of the payment on the ETA’s website to finalize the VAT e-filing process.

In addition to the above, the ETA is currently working on the creation of a standard tax invoice, in line with the provisions of the VAT law. Such standard form shall be designed to meet the specific requirements that will be requested during the VAT e-filing process and accordingly ease the filing process.