Egypt to tax bloggers, social media influencers, youtubers

Egypt announced on Saturday it will tax social media content creators in a revenue raising exercise as more citizens are taking online platforms as a way to make a living.

The Egyptian Tax Authority demanded on Saturday influencers, bloggers, and YouTubers in the country to register themselves and open tax files.

The authority said in a statement “YouTubers and bloggers” earning over 500,000 pounds ($32,000) annually would be taxed.

It also demanded individuals and companies that use social media to sell their products to register at the authority’s offices and to add the Value Added Tax (VAT) to their tax files in accordance with the law since the start of their activity.

According to local news outlets, the authority is in talks with Facebook and Google’s YouTube to subject the content created by celebrities, YouTubers and bloggers inside Egypt to income and value-added taxes.