Egyptians: Question about Hyper1 and taxes!!??

Question

OK, I just returned from Hyper1, and I was checking my bill. I found a tax written next to each item!!! Some of the items had a "0% tax" written next to them, others a "5% tax" and others a "10% tax". This, of course, raised the price of everything! You go to the cashier having an item for e.g. 35 pounds only to find a 10% tax imposed on it, and that u should pay 38.50!
So my question is: what the hell is this tax? When is it 0, 5 or 10? And is this in all supermarkets? I was in Alfa Market now, too, and there was NO tax on the item I purchased. Was it a 0% tax just by coincidence??

mel akhr ya3ni, any info about this matter?? :) thx!

msafwat, well I don't think this is normal, because I shop there a lot.. and now the prices are funny! Things cost e.g. 5.63! We never saw piasters that ended with a number other than 5 or 0 (except of course for the promotional 99 piasters).

No you see that's my point.. I did NOT pay the label price! They added 10 (or 15) % TO the label price. So if the label price was e.g. 35, I paid 38.50 .

Answer 1

This is the regular sales tax, according to Law 11 of 1991 all domestic and imported goods and services are subject to a 10% sales tax.

Some products though are exempted 0% or partially exempted 5%, Those items are usually food products subzidized by the government and essential to the daily sustainace of everybody it includes among others:

- Local dairy products
- Bread and pasta made from local flour
- Meat and fish except caviar and smoked fish
- Domestic fruits and vegetables
- Paper, books and magazines
- Natural gas, butane gas (butagas) and petrol

The retailer (producer/ importer) pre-pays this tax to the government and collects it from the consumer. This tax is compulsory and included in the declared price of the merchandise but the retailer doesn't necessarily need to show it on his invoice.

So you pay it regardless of where you buy your stuff from. Hyper1 just gives you the breakdown of the price.

Edit to Stratomanssy: Well this funny price should be the price before tax, and its like that just for the convenience of having again a full round number once the Sales tax is added. Since the prices "including" tax are the ones on the label.

So if the price label of an item says for example LE7.25 the breakdown of the price will be (price LE6.5909 + 10% tax LE0.6591 = LE7.25).

Or maybe they just use this funny format to make you feel that they make only a fixed profit out of their sales and don't make you pay for the rounding up of the figures. But again I don't shop in Hyper1, I live on the other side of the city. I wouldn't really know for sure how they price their items. If I go there sometimes soon i promise I'll have look and let you know.

But I'm sure of one thing though, its the good old sales tax.

Cheers

Edit to hasafer: You know they are free any way to determine the price they need, its a free market and the competition (offer and demand) determines the prices of most items as long as they pay back the government the 10% tax. So the best they could do to fool people into thinking they are cheapest while charging more is hiding the tax component of the price till the last moment, but this would be illegal.

Answer 2

our honourable economy laws of our honourable consecutive governments wants to pick pocket every savings so the invented the "dareebet elmabee3at" (Sales Tax) which is normally 10%.
Now they take much more than the 10% if you want the reality..
For every "movement" of the merchandise in the market they collect their fukcing 10%..from the day of shipment..on the original manufacturer or importer then from the meduim..then the final consumer.(that's 1 of the reasons why life is too damn hard).
so..to answer your question..
i think that Hyper 1 for the sake of marketing and making people think it's making a big sale..it declares prices much lower than the normal, so people like you go and buy..but they didn't tell you that the tax is not included, which in my opinion is a very deceiving act. because every supermarket when tagging the prices include the sale taxes in it, except for Hyper 1 i guess..
i don't know why it's sometimes mentioned 0% or 5%.

Answer 3

some of the guys will give us al 5abar al yakeen

Edit : I'm enjoying this conversation , although I think msafwat didn't get the point , they are asking for extra money more than the label price ...