Minister of Finance Dr. Youssef Boutros Ghali has reiterated that the new real estate tax law to be reviewed by the People’s Assembly is part of a comprehensive and ongoing plan to improve the investment climate.  He said the main characteristics of the law is the reduction in the tax rate by only 10% instead of 40% and the rationing of exemption to include only government buildings and places of worship.

Taxes throughout the country will be deposited in two equal installments on July 1^st and December 31^st.

The draft law has introduced committees in governorates to calculate the lease value on agricultural land and real estate which take into account the productive value and the quality of the land; in addition to the geographic location in the cities.

The law exempts the first fifty pounds of the annual lease value on agricultural land and it also tax exempts annual leases whose value is less than 600 pounds.

The law places certain conditions for tax exemption, namely that the collapse of the estate wholly or in part making it impossible to exploit the construct as well as the damage to a cultivable land making it impossible to produce.  Fines will be put at 200 pounds to 2000 pounds on taxpayers who choose not to submit their returns.

 (source: Al-Akhbar)