Egypt to tax foreign social media sites

The Media, Culture and Monuments Committee of the Egyptian parliament approved the taxation of foreign social media sites, including Facebook and Google, for advertisements they generate from the Egyptian market.

A government official said e-commerce accounts for a significant part of the global economy, and Egypt must benefit from this through the taxes it collects.

In previous years, sites like Facebook, Google and Twitter were exempted from the value added tax (VAT).

But now electronic services are also subject to VAT under the new law.

The official added that difficulty in collecting data had been restricting the volume of financial transactions.

However, the situation had changed as international cooperation resulted in the exchange of information in light of agreements preventing double taxation.

He said tax agreements will force foreign sites to pay for products advertised in Egypt.

■ Hams Saleh is an intern at Gulf News