LEGISLATION WATCH- House pushes ahead with proposal on capital gains tax reform: The House of Representatives’ Planning and Budget Committee is planning to move forward with its plans to unify capital gains tax, despite the Tax Authority having already shot the idea down, the committee’s deputy chair Yasser Omar told the local press. Omar had proposed back in January that both listed and non-listed companies face a 10% tax on capital gains.

Where do we stand today? Right now, anyone making a gain on the sale of shares in a privately held company is taxed at 22.5%. The CGT on gains made trading in shares of EGX-listed companies stands at 10% on the books, but has been “suspended” until May 2020. The committee’s proposal would mean that anyone selling shares in non-listed companies would see their effective CGT rate slashed by more than half.

Yes, but… Tax Authority head Abdel Azim Hussein told us back in January that the ministry would not endorse the House’s proposal.

Progress may be in hand, after EGX Chairman Mohamed Farid told us the Finance Ministry and EGX are working on potential scenarios for the implementation of a capital gains tax on stock market transactions when the levy comes back into effect next year. The amendments could mean the tax would be calculated differently for resident and non-resident investors and could combine stamp duty and capital gains taxes. This comes despite reports in the local press citing unnamed government sources that suggested earlier in May that the government would not be bringing back “anytime soon” the capital gains tax on stock market trades despite deciding to keep the stamp tax on EGX trades unchanged at 0.150%.