Minister of Finance Mohamed Maait said on Tuesday that the legal principles for settling income tax disputes must be unified, directing efforts to develop tax awareness among those concerned with the application of the tax law. "This will create new guarantees to achieve justice and impartiality when deciding on tax appeals and help lay foundations for transparency and stability in the tax community in order to build confidence between financiers and the Tax Authority," he said. This comes in light of the Unified Tax Procedures Law, which reorganised tax appeal committees in terms of amending their formation or facilitating and expediting the procedures for hearing the appeal before them as the main basis for settling tax disputes. Maait added that the tax appeal committees succeeded in establishing many legal principles that contribute to facilitating the settlement of tax disputes at the administrative stage and protecting the rights of each party in accordance with the law, without prejudice to the confidentiality of tax data for taxpayers. He pointed to the continuation of the development of tax appeal committees in a manner that guarantees reducing the duration of the dispute and achieving tax justice in order to help establish the foundations of governance, transparency, integrity, and standardisation of evaluation principles in pursuit of a more advanced tax system that stimulates investment. Furthermore, he explained that recognising the importance of spreading tax awareness, the fourth and fifth parts of the legal principles decided by the tax appeal committees were issued with the aim of developing culture in the field of applying tax laws and resolving disputes regarding income and stamp taxes and the development fee. Maait indicated that the five parts of the legal principles decided by the tax appeal committees were published on the website of the Ministry of Finance on the link: "https://www.mof.gov.eg/ar."
