The Ministry of Interior's General Directorate of Taxes Investigation announced on Monday that there have been 378 commercial and business-related tax evasion cases in February. According to an official statement issued by the ministry on its official page, the value of transactions in the cases exceeds EGP 2.6bn. On 11 February, the Tax Authority stated that it has collected EGP 125bn in revenues between 1 July and 10 February. This is an EGP 5bn surge compared to the same period during the 2012/2013 fiscal year. The finance ministry stated that the largest portion of tax revenues is generated during the months where tax returns are filed, namely March and April. According to the interior ministry, 201 cases of sales taxes were tracked, with total sales amounting to EGP 9.26m. Seventy cases of customs evasions were caught by the taxes investigation directorate. The smuggled products include foreign-manufactured goods and cars. There were 683 cases of property taxes and real estate evasion in nightclubs and agricultural land nationwide. The interior ministry said legal action has been taken separately for each incident. In December, interim President Adly Mansour issued a presidential decree with a new law permitting reconciliation in the current disputes between taxpayers and the Tax Authority. The law allows the formation of committees in the Tax Authority, and its membership is limited to judges. The committees will attempt to reconcile the authority and the nationals. This applies in cases of appealing against decisions regarding taxes due or accusations of tax evasion.
