The Finance Ministry settled more than 30k tax disputes between March and June, collecting the government more than 30 billion Egyptian pounds in back taxes, Finance Minister Mohamed Maait said in a statement. The passage of a temporary tax dispute bill in March allowed the ministry to offer incentives to taxpayers to file for a settlement until the end of June. The ministry settled almost 18k Egyptian pounds income tax disputes in the four-month period, collecting 14.3 billion pounds in the process. It also collected 15 billion Egyptian pounds in unpaid VAT while real estate disputes were settled for 989 million pounds. The temporary tax dispute resolution bill signed into law earlier this year extended the Tax Dispute Resolution Act, allowing newly-established dispute settlement committees to handle tax disputes and unfreeze assets until 30 June. The law initially allowed businesses to make a 10 percent down payment to unfreeze their assets, file for settlement and enroll in a repayment plan. The Finance Ministry later reduced the down payment for businesses to 5 percent of dues owed to the government and 1 percent for individual taxpayers who had yet to submit an appeal.
