The Egyptian Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has announced that all liberal professionals are obliged to register in the electronic invoice system no date later than December 15, 2022, and send their bills in case of dealing with IRS-registered installations on the electronic invoicing system. This policy from the IRS has provoked a significant case of discontent with lawyers; it has prompted most sub-unions to issue statements against the decision to register in the electronic invoice system, warning to organize vigils and escalate the order.

Abd al-Halim Alam, President of the Bar Association, immediately met with the Minister of Finance, Dr. Mohammed Ma ‘eet, in the presence of Majdi Sakhi, the Agent of the Union, Mahmoud al-Khalid, the Secretary-General of the Union, and Mukhtar Tawfiq, the head of the IRS. The meeting concluded with a decision to establish a joint committee between the parties to examine and resolve all issues.

But this meeting was not accepted and did not mellow the lawyers’ rage at the application of the electronic invoice system. In their view, this will increase lawyers’ fees for citizens and increase litigation fees; also, this prompted sub-unions and some lawyers on social media sites to call for a vigil in front of the Cairo Public Union and sub-unions on the morning of December 1 in all governorates of Egypt.

Mr. Amir Marghany, Founder and Manager of Marghany Advocates, told The PALM that the Bar Association is not a watchdog of the tax lawyers’ commitment and may not do so, and he hopes that the President of the Bar Association will take a clear position on this.

“Despite the intransigence of lawyers from our society (the difficulty of obtaining any credit facility to prevent them from trading and hiring as directors of companies because there is no mechanism protecting their rights to collect their fees) However, they do not mind what they do for the State, but what is required of them exceeds the capacity of the majority of young lawyers who were young or old between one material burden and another is the time and effort they are required to make with each invoice issued and at the end of each month VAT declaration.” Mr. Amir Marghany noted

He added that law firms that serve companies mainly, those offices are already registered in value-added tax and supplied each month and shared in the electronic invoice and have the capacity to carry out this financial burden, but the issue with colleagues working in those offices and deserving a monthly salary (For some reason the legislator determined that they were professional fees).

The head of the Egyptian Tax Authority told a local newspaper after the protests from lawyers that no one would be excluded from the electronic invoice system, which angered many lawyers on the social networking site Facebook, saying that we will continue to boycott even if it calls us to a general strike.

This article is written by Mahmoud Elshabasy, Editor at The PALM