Egypt Working on Simplified Tax System for "Freelancers", Informal Sectors

Ahmed Kouchouk, Minister of Finance revealed a number of incentives to include the informal economy system, noting that mechanizing the tax system helps in supporting informal sectors, and that the application of tax facilities will be applied during the current fiscal year after completing all tax incentive items.

He added during the Tax Facilities Initiative Conference and its Impact on Investment Incentives that expanding the tax base is an urgent necessity by including the informal economy, and when dealing with the informal sector, it must be ensured that it is very complex, and when talking about this sector, we must divide it due to its ramifications and branches.

He explained that the entrepreneurship and freelance sectors provide important services and need help in order to understand the tax system, insurance and other obligations, and we are trying to reach a simplified tax system to deal with these activities.

The Minister of Finance stressed the need to work on all aspects of support for the entrepreneurship and freelance sectors, motivate them and give them sufficient confidence in the official system when dealing with the tax file.

He continued, "We are trying to reach an integrated system that helps and supports these sectors, whether entrepreneurship, freelancers, or informal sectors, to include them in the Egyptian tax system." He pointed out that success in dealing with the informal sector file requires more than one mechanism because incentives or mechanisms for including the informal sector may work for one sector and not for another.