Tamer Elgamil ·
The shop hands you one number at the register. That number is four separate charges stacked together, and the July 2026 tax circular moved only one of them.
You hand over the money, the shop hands back one figure, and that is usually the whole conversation. But that single total is four separate charges stacked together. There is the value of the gold itself, the making charge the workshop earns for shaping it, a 14 percent tax that by law touches only one of those charges, and a government stamping fee. If the receipt does not split them out, you cannot tell whether any one of them was fair. You also have no record to point at if a dispute comes up later.
This got more confusing in July 2026. A new circular from Egypt's Tax Authority went around, and for a few days retailers and customers believed the making charge on gold had jumped 10 percent. The Authority pushed back within days. What changed was an accounting benchmark used to work out VAT, not a price you are charged at the counter.
The circular raised the average making-charge figure the Tax Authority uses for VAT accounting. It set EGP 64.41 per gram for 21-karat gold and EGP 96.64 per gram for 18-karat gold, both about 10 percent above the previous year. The new figures run from 1 July 2026 to 30 June 2027.
Rasha Abdel Aal, who heads the Tax Authority, called the document "a routine annual document that specifies the average manufacturing charges used solely for tax accounting purposes". She added that the 10 percent rise "does not constitute an increase in the actual manufacturing charges paid by consumers when purchasing gold jewellery".
That distinction is the whole point. The shop in front of you sets its own making charge. It can be higher or lower than the tax benchmark. What the benchmark controls is how much VAT the government expects that shop to hand over. It does not control what the shop may charge you. Actual retail making charges on ordinary 21-karat pieces often run well above the accounting figure, once workshop, brand and design costs are added. So do not read EGP 64.41 as a ceiling, or as a promise.
A tax office cannot audit every workshop's price list. So the Authority and the gold traders' and manufacturers' divisions agree a per-gram average, under a protocol that lifts it on a set schedule. VAT is then assessed against that benchmark rather than against whatever each shop wrote on each ticket.
That one mechanism explains most of the confusion. A number went up. It was published. It had the words "making charges" in its name. It was never anybody's price list.
By law the 14 percent VAT is worked out on the making charge alone. It never applies to the value of the gold. Here is what that looks like on a 5-gram, 21-karat piece with a making charge of 150 EGP per gram.
| Line item | How it is worked out | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Metal value | Weight x karat purity x the day's gram price | Set by the day's price, and not taxed |
| Making charge | The workshop's own rate per gram | 5 g x 150 EGP = 750 EGP |
| VAT at 14% | The making charge only | 750 x 14% = 105 EGP |
| Stamping fee | A state fee for assaying and marking | Commonly quoted at 8 to 11 EGP per gram |
If a receipt shows a single lump "tax" figure worked out on the full price including the metal, ask about it. The law does not allow that.
The fourth line often gets folded into the total with no label at all. It is the fee charged when the Assay and Weights Authority tests and marks the piece. It is a fixed state charge, separate from the workshop's making charge and separate again from the VAT on that charge.
One Egyptian market guide puts it at roughly 8 to 11 EGP per gram. On a 5-gram piece that is small money. It is still money, and it still belongs on the paper you are signing.
Ask the seller to write all of this on the same receipt, before you pay:
A shop that will not itemise this is not saving you paperwork. It is removing the only record of what you agreed to buy.
An itemised receipt does more than settle an argument on the day. If you or your family eventually sell the piece, a dated invoice naming the weight and the karat gives a buyer less reason to re-test everything from scratch. It also fixes, in writing, how much of what you paid went on making charges. That is the part of the bill that does not come back.
To check the metal price the rest of the bill is built on, the gold price by karat page carries the daily rate and the calculator turns a weight into a figure. The methodology page explains where those daily numbers come from.
No. By law it applies only to the making charge, which is the workshop's labour. The value of the gold itself is not subject to this VAT.
No. That is an accounting benchmark the Tax Authority uses to assess the VAT a retailer owes. Shops set their own making charges, which are often higher.
Egyptian market guides commonly quote it at 8 to 11 Egyptian pounds per gram. It is a state fee for assaying and marking the piece, and it is separate from both the making charge and the VAT.
Ask for it to be itemised before you pay. An itemised receipt is your only record if you later need to question the price, resell the piece, or check what you were charged.