Egypt VAT and Corporate Tax for Businesses

Egypt's VAT and corporate tax at a glance

Egypt taxes businesses through two main channels: a 14% standard VAT on most goods and services, and corporate income tax at 22.5% for most companies, with higher sector-specific rates for oil and gas and a small group of state-linked entities. Both are administered by the Egyptian Tax Authority (ETA) through the same online e-filing portal, as of September 2026.

This guide sets out the VAT rate and registration threshold, how and when VAT returns are filed and the penalties for missing one, corporate income tax rates by sector and how the annual return works, withholding tax on domestic and cross-border payments, and what Egyptian Accounting Standards require of your records. Our guide on Egypt's e-invoice and e-receipt mandate covers the ETA's digital invoicing system in detail; this guide stays with the rates, filings and numbers themselves.

VAT: rate, threshold and registration

The standard VAT rate is 14% on most goods and services. A reduced 5% rate applies specifically to machinery and equipment used to establish production lines, excluding buses and passenger cars. Both rates are administered by the ETA through its online e-filing portal.

Mandatory VAT registration now applies above EGP 250,000 of annual revenue, cut from EGP 500,000 under Resolution No. 281 of 2025 and effective from 1 January 2026. Businesses that crossed the new threshold were required to register with the ETA before 31 March 2026; our guide on Egypt's e-invoice and e-receipt mandate covers what registration then requires technically, including the digital signature and UUID rules that come with it.

Filing VAT returns and the penalties for missing one

VAT returns are filed monthly through the ETA's online portal. Sources disagree on the exact day a return and payment fall due: some describe the deadline as the end of the month following the tax period, others as the 15th of the following month, and the ETA's own administration guidance confirms only that filing is monthly without stating the exact day. Confirm your specific filing date with the ETA or a licensed tax adviser rather than relying on either figure.

Missing a return carries escalating penalties. A return filed within 60 days of its due date, across VAT and several other taxes including corporate income tax, payroll tax and state development tax, draws a fine of EGP 3,000 to EGP 50,000, doubling or tripling on a repeat offence. Beyond 60 days the fine rises sharply, to EGP 50,000 to EGP 2,000,000, again doubling or tripling for a repeat within 3 years. Separately, unpaid VAT itself accrues a late-payment charge of 1.5% for every month it remains outstanding.

A worked example: one month's VAT return

A Cairo trading company sells EGP 500,000 of goods, net of VAT, to other VAT-registered businesses in a given month, and buys EGP 300,000 of stock and supplies, also net of VAT, from VAT-registered suppliers in the same month. At the standard 14% rate, output VAT on sales is EGP 70,000 and input VAT on purchases is EGP 42,000, leaving EGP 28,000 payable for the period.

If the same company also bought EGP 200,000 of new production-line machinery in the month, qualifying for the reduced 5% rate, it would pay input VAT of only EGP 10,000 on that purchase, and could still recover it against its output VAT for the period in exactly the same way as the 14% purchases above.

• Output VAT: 500,000 x 14% = 70,000
• Input VAT on trading purchases: 300,000 x 14% = 42,000
• Net VAT payable: 70,000 - 42,000 = 28,000
• Reduced-rate machinery purchase: 200,000 x 5% = 10,000 input VAT, recoverable the same way

The schedule tax: a charge the VAT return does not recover

Egypt applies a separate schedule tax, also called table tax, to a specific list of goods and services, such as tobacco products, alcoholic beverages and some professional services, on top of or instead of the 14% VAT depending on the item. Law No. 157 of 2025, effective 18 July 2025, revised the schedule tax on cigarettes and alcoholic beverages specifically, moving alcohol from a proportional to a fixed-rate system and raising cigarette pack prices progressively from November 2025.

The important accounting distinction is that schedule tax paid on a purchase is not recoverable or refundable as input VAT, unlike the 14% or 5% VAT in the worked example above. A business that buys a schedule-tax item should record that tax as part of the cost of the item, not net it off through the VAT account.

Corporate income tax rates, by sector

The standard corporate income tax (CIT) rate is 22.5% on the total net profits of an Egyptian legal person. Two categories sit well above that rate: oil and gas exploration and production companies pay 40.55%, and a small group of state-linked entities, the Suez Canal Authority, the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC) and the Central Bank of Egypt, are taxed under a special 40% regime.

• Standard rate: 22.5%
• Oil and gas exploration and production: 40.55%
• Suez Canal Authority, EGPC, Central Bank of Egypt: 40%

Filing the annual corporate tax return

The annual CIT return is due within 4 months of the end of the company's financial year; a business with a 31 December year-end owes its return by the end of April. Filing is mandatory online through the ETA's e-filing system, and both the taxpayer and its tax adviser must sign off before the return can be submitted.

A manufacturing company with a calendar-year financial year and taxable profit of EGP 1,000,000 for the year owes corporate tax of EGP 225,000 at the standard 22.5% rate, due together with its return by the end of April the following year.

• Taxable profit: 1,000,000
• CIT at 22.5%: 225,000
• Return and payment due: within 4 months of financial year-end

Capital gains and stamp tax on share disposals

Capital gains on shares listed on the Egyptian Exchange (EGX) are taxed at 10%; gains on unlisted or foreign shares fall under the standard 22.5% CIT rate instead. Capital losses in excess of gains can be carried forward for 3 years, but only to offset future share-disposal gains, not ordinary trading profit. An IPO incentive also applies: shares first offered on the EGX within 2 years of the amended tax law, before 15 June 2025, carry a 50% exemption on realised capital gains.

A separate stamp tax applies to the transaction itself, not the gain: 0.05% of the transaction value on disposals of unlisted resident securities involving less than 33% of the company, with EGX-listed shares exempt from this stamp tax since 1 January 2022. Non-resident investors instead pay 0.125% on transactions under 33% of a company, rising to 0.3% charged to both buyer and seller where 33% or more of a company's shares or assets change hands.

Withholding tax on domestic and cross-border payments

Egypt applies a domestic advance-tax withholding on payments over EGP 300 between Egyptian entities: 0.5% on supplies and contracting, 2% on general services and 5% on commissions and brokerage fees. This advance tax is creditable against the recipient's own corporate tax liability, so it works as a prepayment rather than a final cost.

Cross-border payments to non-residents are withheld at higher, generally final rates: 10% on dividends from unlisted shares and 5% from EGX-listed shares, and 20% on interest, royalties and services. Double tax treaty relief is not applied automatically at source: under Ministerial Decree No. 771 of 2009 the statutory 20% is withheld first, and the non-resident recipient must separately claim a refund for the treaty differential. A payment of EGP 20,000 for services to a non-resident supplier, for example, is recorded as: Dr Services expense 20,000 / Cr Supplier 16,000 / Cr Withholding tax payable 4,000.

Accounting standards and record retention

Egyptian companies apply Egyptian Accounting Standards (EAS), which are based on IFRS as issued by the IASB but are not identical to it and are not as comprehensive. Ministerial Decision No. 69 of 2019 aligned EAS with IFRS 9 (Financial Instruments), IFRS 15 (Revenue) and IFRS 16 (Leases), and a new EAS 50 on insurance contracts, based on IFRS 17, took effect for periods beginning on or after 1 July 2024.

A company's tax year is its own financial year, whichever that is. The statute of limitations for a tax assessment under Egyptian Income Tax Law is 5 years, extended to 6 years where tax evasion is found, and this period effectively sets how long a business should keep its VAT, corporate tax and withholding tax records available for review.

Registering a business and getting a Tax ID

Company incorporation is handled by the General Authority for Investment and Free Zones (GAFI) through One-Stop Shops in Cairo, Alexandria and other governorates, covering LLCs, joint-stock companies, one-person companies and foreign branches. After commercial registration, a company separately registers with the ETA to receive a Tax Identification Number, or Tax Card, which it needs before it can invoice or deal with government bodies.

GAFI's Investor Service Center can complete the full registration bundle, commercial register, tax ID and VAT, in roughly one business day. Businesses operating in a free zone under Investment Law No. 72 of 2017, or in a Special Economic Zone under Law No. 83 of 2002, such as the Suez Canal Economic Zone, follow a different regime with its own customs and tax treatment, including exemptions for machinery, equipment and raw materials imported for licensed in-zone operations.

Egypt VAT and corporate tax in Skyline Nexus ERP

A national e-invoicing connector for Egypt's ETA, and automated Egyptian corporate-tax return filing, are being rolled out market by market: tell us your country and we will confirm your go-live date. What is live today is the underlying tax engine every Egyptian business needs regardless of which authority it ultimately files with.

Egypt's 14% standard VAT rate and 5% reduced rate are each set up as a Tax Rate, and a schedule-tax item can be configured as a separate excise-category tax rate that calculates before VAT, so it stays out of the VAT figure rather than mixing into it. The Tax Report and VAT Return in Reports are computed from the same sales and purchase documents, the chart of accounts carries both English and Arabic account names, shown automatically when the interface language is Arabic, and the REST API exposes sales, purchases, contacts and tax data for a provider handling Egypt-specific filing until a direct connector is live.