·   Illustrating the aims of the additional 5% tax

·   It is a temporary, three-year tax that has to be paid in cash as of January 2015 when submitting the tax return of the current year’s activity

·   Issuing a list of public projects with social nature from which financers can select what to fund.

      Dr. Hany Dimian, minister of finance, has assured that the draft law concerned with enacting additional 5% new tax tranche to be levied on individuals whose annual income exceeds one million pounds, targets three basic pivots: the first is to create a new type of societal participation in establishing projects and providing public services that benefit all the society’s classes especially those with limited & lowest incomes. This new tax tranche was basically proposed by a large number of   civil society institutions and investors.

   He added that the second pivot of participation is procuring more public resources to support the public expenditure programs of the state’s budget, thus leading to reducing its overall deficit which is one of the reasons behind the rise in prices and inflation rates that largely affect the poor and low-income earners.

    His highness added that the third pivot of the draft law is that: it is a part of a wider vision to revamp the tax system as a whole through widening the base of the taxation community by adding new taxable classes without harming low-bracket income.

   He explained that these three pivots reflect the philosophy of the draft law as it is a temporary additional tax to be imposed during the three years: 2014, 2015, and 2016. The current year’s tax will be collected in next January when presenting the tax return. Moreover, this tax takes into account the social dimension as it is limited to those whose annual income exceeds one million pounds.

   He also stated that the factors that determine the basis of tax are the same factors that determine the income public tax stipulated by the law no.91 / 2005, referring to the merit of the new tax that it gives the financer the right to select the field to which he wishes to direct the money he pays as a tax to fund one of the projects with social or public services commitment be it health, education, or any other field with social orientation. According to the minister, there will be a detailed list specifying these projects after reaching an accord with the Planning &International Cooperation  minister, thus allowing the financer, while paying the tax, to choose one or more of the enlisted service projects which will cover all fields; be it health, education, agriculture, or any other fields distributed by sector among governorates of Egypt.