FinMin halves down payment requirement to unlock assets, file tax settlements: Businesses will only have to pay a 5% downpayment to unlock assets frozen by the Tax Authority for failure to pay taxes and will be able to repay the remainder in installments, authority head Reda Abdel Kader said yesterday. The authority previously required businesses to pay 10% of the unpaid tax bill to get their assets back and file for a settlement. Taxpayers will still need to pay 1% of the amount owed as part of the application fee.

The rules were set out in the temporary tax dispute resolution bill, ratified on 8 March, which extended the expired Tax Dispute Resolution Act for six months. The bill allows the newly-established dispute settlement committees to handle tax disputes until 30 June this year. Almost 1k businesses have since lodged tax complaints with the committees.