Chamber of Tourism Companies: Permanent joint committee activated, with a meeting within days to discuss tax problems and the development fee
Seizures against companies halted until the review of the problems is complete
The permanent joint committee formed between the Tax Authority and the Chamber of Tourism Companies will hold a meeting within days to discuss a number of outstanding problems between tourism companies and the authority and to find legal solutions to them. This comes after the authority and the chamber agreed to form the committee.
Hossam El-Shaer, chairman of the Chamber of Tourism Companies, stated that, regarding tax refunds for tourists, the Tax Authority will run an awareness campaign on tax refunds for foreigners at ports and airports, based on the fact that foreigners leaving the country who have resided for no more than 3 months are entitled to recover the tax previously paid on their purchases of taxable goods.
He stressed that mutual cooperation between the chamber and the authority has resulted in several important decisions, praising the head of the Tax Authority's affirmation of his keenness to end all disputes and problems with the tourism sector and to provide all facilities and procedures to support it. He added that the fruit of this cooperation was reaching a protocol to simplify and facilitate the procedures for collecting the tax due to the state, and the formation of the permanent joint committee between the authority and the chamber.
For his part, Osama Emara, the chamber's Secretary General, said that tourism companies will be contacted as soon as possible to gather all the problems and present them to the joint committee's meeting for study and urgent solutions, so that their tax position is sound. He added that the committee will study all of tourism's problems related to both income tax and the development fee as well.
The chamber praised the Tax Authority for not taking any legal measures of enforcement seizure against tourism companies until the study of the problem is complete. At the request of the head of the Tax Authority, the Egyptian Tourism Federation will submit a memorandum on these problems, attaching all the documents and rulings issued regarding them, so that the matter can be studied and solutions reached. The chamber noted that there are many problems for which no solutions have yet been reached, most notably the development fee tax, social solidarity support, and seizures against tourism companies.
