If you sell to the public in Sharm El Sheikh and have a tax file, you have had to issue e-receipts since 1 November 2022. Elsewhere in Egypt, the e-receipt becomes compulsory through mandate decisions of the Egyptian Tax Authority (ETA). Sharm has one of its own: Decision 484/2022 named the Sharm El Sheikh area and required every income-tax and VAT taxpayer there who sells to consumers to issue electronic receipts through the ETA's system.
The decision is tied to the area, not to the size of the business, so a small café in Naama Bay is in the same position as a large resort. This guide sets out who must comply, how the e-receipt differs from the e-invoice, what the VAT threshold changes and what it does not, and the set-up order that avoids paying for a till twice. Everything below is stated as of October 2026.
Who must issue e-receipts in Sharm El Sheikh?
Decision 484/2022 has a wide scope. You are covered when all three of these are true:
| Condition | What it means in practice |
|---|---|
| You are an income-tax or VAT taxpayer | You have a tax file with the ETA. VAT registration is not required: a tax card on its own is enough. |
| You operate in the Sharm El Sheikh area | The decision names an area, not a sector, so hotels, restaurants, cafés, shops and every other business selling there fall under it. |
| You sell to consumers | Your customer is an individual: a hotel guest, a diner, a shopper, a family booking a boat trip. |
The rule applies to every taxpayer who meets those conditions. It does not wait for you to register for VAT, and it makes no exception for small businesses. If the three conditions describe you, every sale to a consumer since 1 November 2022 (or since you opened, if that was later) should have produced an e-receipt.
Sales to companies need a different document, and that is where most of the confusion starts.
E-receipt vs e-invoice in Egypt: which one do you need?
For sales, the ETA works with two electronic documents. They are often treated as one, and many businesses here need both.
| E-invoice | E-receipt | |
|---|---|---|
| Who receives it | Another business | A consumer |
| Legal basis | Decree 323/2022: mandatory for all ETA taxpayers | The ETA's mandate decisions; in Sharm, Decision 484/2022 |
| Sharm example | A hotel billing a tour operator for a block of rooms | A walk-in guest paying at reception |
| Another example | A wholesaler billing a restaurant for supplies | A family paying for dinner |
At a hotel the split is easy to see. The guest who pays at reception gets an e-receipt; the tour operator that pays for the same kind of room under a contract gets an e-invoice. The hotel's system has to issue both, and the two streams have to agree with its books every month.
The purchase side matters as much. The ETA does not recognise costs that are not documented by an e-invoice or an e-receipt, so a paper bill from a supplier does not count as a cost for tax, however real the purchase was. Asking for the electronic document before you pay is one of the cheapest habits a business can adopt. Our e-invoice and e-receipt set-up service covers both sides: the documents you issue and the ones you receive.
Does the EGP 500,000 VAT threshold change anything?
Not for e-receipts in Sharm. VAT registration is compulsory once turnover reaches EGP 500,000, and some businesses must register whatever their turnover, such as importers for trade, exporters and distribution agents. The threshold decides whether you charge VAT. It does not decide whether you issue e-receipts here, because Decision 484/2022 covers income-tax taxpayers as well as VAT taxpayers. For the VAT side, see our page on VAT registration and returns in Egypt.
Restaurants and cafés have a VAT test of their own. A tourist restaurant licensed by the Ministry of Tourism charges 14% VAT. A non-tourist outlet is exempt unless one of the ETA's criteria applies: it is in a mall, a compound, a tourist site or an airport; it belongs to a chain or a known brand; it sells through apps or websites; it offers tourist-standard service; or it charges a service fee. A café that is exempt from VAT under that test still issues e-receipts in Sharm if it has a tax file. Our guide to opening a restaurant or café in Sharm El Sheikh covers the licensing side.
Common situations in Sharm, and what applies to each
| Your situation | What applies (as of October 2026) |
|---|---|
| A café in Naama Bay with a tax card and turnover below EGP 500,000 | E-receipts on every sale to consumers. Whether you also charge VAT is the separate restaurant test above. |
| A tourist restaurant or a hotel charging 14% VAT | E-receipts to diners and guests; e-invoices to companies, tour operators and other business customers. |
| A shop or bazaar in the Old Market (Sharm El Maya) selling to visitors | E-receipts on consumer sales; an e-invoice on any sale to a business. |
| A new business on the 8-month temporary tax card introduced by the tax package in force since 29 July 2026 | That card cannot issue e-invoices. Standard activities get the normal 5-year card, so confirm which card you hold before you buy a till system. |
| A business on the simplified regime of Law 6/2025 | E-invoice and e-receipt compliance is one of the conditions of the regime. |
| An outlet in Dahab, Nuweiba, Taba or El Tor | Decision 484/2022 is the Sharm decision. Check whether another ETA mandate decision covers your business rather than assume either way. |
What happens if you do not issue e-receipts?
We do not quote penalty amounts here. The figures circulating online are not ones we have been able to verify against the law, and a wrong number is worse than none. What we can state with an official source is what staying on paper costs you in practice:
- Your costs stop counting. Costs without an e-invoice or e-receipt are not recognised, so purchases backed by paper bills do not reduce your taxable profit. Give paper to business customers and you hand them the same problem, and a reason to buy elsewhere.
- The simplified regime is out of reach. Law 6/2025 (in force since 1 March 2025) lets companies and freelance professionals with turnover up to EGP 20 million pay tax on turnover at 0.4% to 1.5%, with no tax inspection for five years. E-invoice and e-receipt compliance is one of its conditions. Our guide to the simplified tax regime in numbers sets out the bands and the five-year lock-in.
- From 2028, every business needs books. Law 151/2026 repealed Article 18 of the Income Tax Law: estimated-assessment instructions apply only to tax periods up to 2027, and from 2028 assessment is based on books. Law 150/2026 requires every business to keep regular books from tax period 2028. Your e-receipts will be the sales side of those books, as our article on Egypt's 2028 bookkeeping requirement explains.
If you have been selling to consumers in Sharm without e-receipts, the first job is to start issuing them correctly now. Past periods are a separate question that depends on your tax file and any assessment already raised. If you already have a dispute open with the ETA, the settlement window under Law 152/2026 runs until 31 December 2026.
How to set up e-receipts in Sharm: the steps
This order avoids the most expensive mistake, which is paying for a till that cannot connect.
- Check your tax position. Which tax card you hold (the 8-month temporary card or the normal 5-year card), whether you are or must be registered for VAT, and whether you are on the simplified regime. This decides which documents you issue and how VAT shows on them.
- Prepare your item list. A menu, a shop's stock list or a hotel's rate sheet becomes a coded catalogue, with each item matched to the codes the ETA system expects. A wrong code repeats on every receipt, so take your time over it.
- Choose the POS or system, and check the connection before you pay. The till, the hotel or restaurant system, or the ERP has to send each receipt to the ETA system. Ask the vendor to show you that it does, for a business like yours.
- Onboard and test. Your business has to be set up on the ETA side before any till can send receipts to it. Then run test sales and check prices, VAT where it applies, discounts, refunds and cancellations.
- Go live, then reconcile every month. Every consumer sale gets an e-receipt. At month-end, the sales on the ETA system should match your books and, if you are registered, your VAT return.
Steps 1, 2 and 5 work much the same way for everyone. Steps 3 and 4 are where businesses differ, and where the costly mistakes happen: a till bought before anyone checked the connection, or a hotel system that issues e-invoices but not e-receipts.
How we help with e-receipts in Sharm El Sheikh
We are the office of Eskander Gerges, Chartered Accountant (محاسب قانوني), in Office 314, Al Azizia Mall. For e-receipts we check your tax position, prepare the item coding with you, work with your POS or ERP vendor on the connection and test with you before go-live. After that we keep the books, VAT returns and annual returns built on those receipts, and check each month that they match what the ETA holds. Setting up is day one; staying compliant is every month after it.
If you are still choosing a location or a company structure, start with our guide to doing business in Sharm El Sheikh.
