What You Need to Know About the New Blogger Tax for Influencers

If you happen to be a YouTuber, TikToker, influencer, blogger, podcaster— any kind of online creator who gets paid for their content, we have some news. Tik-taxing has entered Egypt. If you make a living through your online content, you now need to open up a tax file with the Tax Authority like any other business. 

The Finance Ministry and the Tax Authority have published a manual outlining the ins and outs of the blogger tax that was announced last year. All YouTubers and content creators must pay income tax, while those who earn over EGP 500,000 a year via local platforms must also charge VAT.

First off, we need to talk about how the taxes are calculated. Egypt-based content creators will pay income tax at the same rates as any other self-employed person, which range between 2.5% and 25% depending on how much you make annually. Each year, your tax returns need to be filed between January and March.

What you pay to create content will be tax deductible. That includes all the money spent on products and services that allow you to run your business. Photography equipment, video editing services, domain hosting, and transport expenses, you get the picture.

Now, if you have a larger audience and make more than EGP 500,000 per year, you need to charge and remit VAT. Content creators with income above this threshold will need to charge and remit VAT and submit monthly returns via the Finance Ministry’s electronic system, in addition to their annual income tax declaration.

Here’s the catch, though. There’s no VAT for content you create for international platforms. Only content made for Egypt-based platforms will be subject to the standard 14% VAT. So if you have a paid partnership to promote SHEIN, for example, but you do it through a series of YouTube videos then, this does not apply. You only need to worry about your annual income tax declaration. However, you do have to charge SHEIN the 14% VAT on the value of the invoice you give them. So yeah. Time to break out your invoice software of choice.