Egypt cuts the VAT refund wait to three months for small Law 6/2025 enterprises

What changed in detail

Law No. 149 of 2026, amending the VAT Law issued by Law No. 67 of 2016, was published in Egypt’s Official Gazette, issue No. 30 bis (a), on 28 July 2026 and applies from the following day. It replaces item 3 of the first paragraph of Article 30. A VAT credit balance outstanding for more than four consecutive tax periods now qualifies for refund treatment. For taxpayers of enterprises subject to Law No. 6 of 2025 — the tax-incentives-and-facilitations regime for enterprises whose annual turnover does not exceed EGP 20 million — a credit balance outstanding for more than three months is enough.

What it means

The four-period test stays the general rule; what’s new is a separate, shorter three-month test that only Law 6/2025 enterprises can use. That makes refund eligibility depend on a second fact beyond the age of the balance — whether the taxpayer actually falls within the Law 6/2025 turnover ceiling of EGP 20 million — so a refund check now has to test turnover as well as balance age before deciding which clock applies. This is a separate limb of the same Law No. 149 of 2026 that cut VAT to 5% on production machinery (recorded here); it does not touch the machinery rate or the new Article 28 bis suspension covered elsewhere.