Tamer Elgamil ·
A first-time buyer compares the gram price at three shops and never prices the exit. Making charge, VAT and the buy-back gap decide how far gold must rise just to break even.
You are buying your first five grams of 21-karat gold this month, and you already compared the gram price at three shops before choosing one. Almost nobody does that second comparison, the one for what it will cost to turn that gold back into cash.
That exit has a price too, and it is set on the day you buy, not on the day you sell.
An Egyptian gold purchase is never only the gram price. Three separate charges sit on top of it, and all three belong on your invoice as their own lines.
Making charges are not one national number. They vary by shop and by piece. But the Egyptian Tax Authority does publish an average that it uses for tax accounting, updated each year with the gold trade.
For the year running from 1 July 2026, that published average is EGP 64.41 per gram for 21-karat gold and EGP 96.64 per gram for 18-karat. The Authority was explicit that these are accounting figures for working out VAT, and not prices any retailer must charge. Treat them as a sense of scale, not as a quote.
Apply the 14% VAT rate to the 21-karat average and the tax comes to about 9 pounds per gram, on top of the making charge itself. The stamp duty is a smaller separate line, and a jeweller should be able to state it per gram if you ask.
None of that comes back.
When you sell, you are paid for the weight of pure gold at the day's price for that karat, minus whatever gap the buyer works with. Our selling gold back page shows the structure using this site's own recorded reference, which sits a fixed amount below the recorded sell price.
The making charge, the VAT charged on it, and the stamp duty are not in that calculation at all. You paid them once, on the way in, and they stay there.
Add the making charge, the VAT on it, the stamp duty and the buy-back gap together, all in pounds per gram. Divide that total by the price you paid per gram.
The answer is the percentage the gold has to rise before a straight buy-then-sell simply returns your money. Not a gain. Zero.
| Side of the trip | What it includes |
|---|---|
| Paying in | Gram price, plus making charge, plus 14% VAT on the making charge, plus stamp duty |
| Getting out | Pure-gold weight at the day's price, minus the buyer's gap |
| Never recovered | The making charge, the VAT on it, and the stamp duty |
A common hope is that buying a larger piece spreads these costs thinner. It does not.
Every line above is charged per gram, not as a flat fee per piece. Five grams scales all of them by roughly five, so the break-even percentage stays where it was.
What does move that percentage is the kind of piece. A heavily worked design with a high making charge per gram pushes it up. A plainer piece pushes it down.
A bar or an Egyptian gold pound carries a much smaller premium over the metal than a worked bracelet does, because there is far less labour and far less metal waste behind it. Our bullion page treats that premium as its own line for exactly this reason.
Run the same arithmetic on a bar and the break-even percentage comes out lower. Less was added on the way in, so less has to be recovered on the way out. That is a description of the arithmetic, not advice about which one you should own. Jewellery that is worn for thirty years is doing a job a bar cannot do.
With those three you can do this arithmetic at the counter. Our calculator will price a specific weight and karat with a making charge you supply, and our methodology page sets out where each figure on this site comes from.
No. The Tax Authority's published average is an accounting figure used to work out VAT, not a price shops must charge. Actual making charges vary by piece and by shop, so ask for the figure in pounds per gram before you buy.
No. Egyptian VAT on gold jewellery applies to the making charge only, at 14%, and not to the value of the gold. That is why the tax on a gold purchase is far smaller than 14% of the total you hand over.
No. A buyer pays for the weight of pure gold at the day's price for that karat, minus their own gap. The making charge, the VAT charged on it and the stamp duty were all paid once on the way in, and none of them is part of that calculation.
No. Every one of these charges is calculated per gram rather than as a flat fee per piece, so buying five grams scales them all by about five and leaves the break-even percentage where it was. The kind of piece changes that percentage. The size does not.