Egypt was ranked 167th out of 190 nations in Pricewaterhouse Coopers’ 2018 Paying Taxes report (pdf). “Using the perspective of a medium sized domestic manufacturer, [the report] … assesses not just the amount of tax paid, but how long it takes the company to meet its tax compliance obligations. This includes the time to prepare file and pay the main taxes, as well as the time taken to claim a VAT refund and to [handle] a correction to a corporate income tax return.” Labor taxes account for 27.3% of Egypt’s total tax contributions, while profit and other taxes account for 13.6% and 4.4%, respectively. Corporate income tax takes an average of 69 hours to comply, labor taxes 165 hours, and consumption taxes 158 hours, placing Egypt among the 11 slowest countries in Africa in terms of tax compliance. The report notes that high income economies were more likely to be ranked higher on the post-filing index, possibly “because these economies have better technology and more mature tax systems along with better fiscal resources to make refunds.”

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