Declaration of Properties for Tax Purposes

By Gouna News Reporter - March 15, 2021

Real Estate Taxes Directorate Red Sea Building

Every five years, the Egyptian government conducts a survey of properties in each governorate of the nation. The objective is to update a database that stores all these properties, mainly for property tax purposes. Property taxes being due once a calendar year.

To this purpose the government has issued reminders in the media of the deadline, for filing properties, owned by individuals and companies, before the deadline of March 31, 2021. This deadline being a postponement from a previous one on December 31st, 2020.

El Gouna owners, Egyptian or Foreign, are thus required to file their properties at the Real Estate Tax Directorate in el Dahar in Hurghada, before this new deadline.

This filing is distinct from the paying of property taxes and is done at a different location than the property tax office that residents are accustomed to visiting, once a year. There is no paying of dues or even fees required. Just one form is filled in per property. The form is available online (with English clarifications) at

http://www.rta.gov.eg/recognition/En/Residential.pdf

Originals of the form are also found onsite at the aforementioned Tax Directorate in Hurghada. However any printed copy can be used and is valid, even if the form is in black and white or is the version with English clarifications. The form however, may be completed in Arabic or English.

Penalties for not filing before the March 31st, 2021 deadline range from 2,000 EGP to 5,000 EGP, and are collected with property tax.

The office of the Directorate of Property Taxes for the Red Sea is located in el Dahar in Hurghada. The three ladies at the office are helpful and welcoming. The office was relatively empty and the whole process took 15 minutes. The only hold up was the requirement to present a photocopy of the Egyptian ID, both sides, for Egyptian owners (or passport for non Egyptians). Also, a photocopy of the ownership document is required (along with originals for verification). The office does not have a photocopier, however a bookshop that has a photocopier is a five minute walk away. If you have a non registered property, then photocopies of main pages of the Orascom contract with the relevant information is required. If your property is registered at the Shahr el Eqari then photocopies of all pages of the ‘green’ document are required.

Office working hours are from 10am to 2pm. Sunday through Thursday.

It is important to note that filing this form for your property is unrelated and distinct from the registering of ownership of a property with the Egyptian government. The declaration, which is the subject of this article is primarily for tax purposes. This explains why the Directorate is a department within the Ministry of Finance.

For many absentee Gouna owners, a representative can be sent to file the form on behalf of the Gouna owner, if need be. The representative however will also be required to have ID and all photocopies mentioned above.

Upon submitting the filled in form plus ownership copies and ID copies, the authority will return a receipt with a serial number and a date stamp, to be kept by the property owner, one receipt per property.

Location of the Directorate is easily found in Google Maps by searching for Real Estate Taxes Directorate Red Sea.