--- title: "Egypt's 14% VAT on Restaurant Bills: How to Calculate It Correctly | GoSufra" description: "Egypt's standard VAT rate, where a typical service charge sits next to it, and the exact order a restaurant bill needs to add them in — plus what has to print on the receipt itself." url: "https://gosufra.com/en/blog/restaurant-vat-in-egypt/" language: "en" source: "https://gosufra.com" --- # Egypt's 14% VAT on Restaurant Bills: How to Calculate It Correctly Egypt's standard VAT rate, where a typical service charge sits next to it, and the exact order a restaurant bill needs to add them in — plus what has to print on the receipt itself. 2026-09-16 · 6 min read ![A restaurant receipt with a VAT line and a service charge line shown separately](https://gosufra.com/blog/restaurant-vat-in-egypt.svg) ## Key points - Egypt's standard VAT rate has stood at 14% since the last nationwide increase — confirm the current rate and your restaurant's exact tax category with your accountant, not with a blog post. - A service charge is not VAT: it goes to the restaurant (and usually the staff), sits on its own line, and the two should never be merged into one percentage on the bill. - The order matters — items, then any discount, then service charge, then VAT — and it should be fixed in the POS, not left to whichever cashier is on shift. - A GoSufra bill in Egypt separates the tax registration number, the service charge line and the VAT line automatically, and every sale is numbered with no gaps. A restaurant bill in Egypt usually carries two extra lines beyond the food itself: a service charge and VAT. Most of the confusion at the till comes from treating them as the same thing, or adding them in the wrong order. ## The rate, and why this isn’t the last word on it Egypt’s standard VAT rate has stood at 14% since the last nationwide increase, and it applies to most goods and services, restaurant sales included. Rates and the specific treatment for a given business category can change, and the exact category a particular restaurant falls under is a registration detail, not a blog fact. Confirm the current rate and your restaurant’s own tax category with your accountant or through the Egyptian Tax Authority directly before you configure anything. ## Two different lines, two different owners A service charge is not a tax. It is revenue for the restaurant — usually shared out to staff — calculated as a percentage of the item total, and it needs its own line on the bill. Many restaurants in Egypt apply something in the range of 10–12%, but that figure is a common business practice, not a fixed legal number; set whatever your restaurant has actually decided, not a number you saw somewhere else. VAT, in contrast, goes to the state at the rate your registration applies. ## The order the calculation runs in A sensible and common order: 1. Sum of items 2. minus any discount 3. = the base 4. plus service charge (a percentage of the base) 5. plus VAT 6. = amount due Whether VAT is calculated on the base alone or on the base plus the service charge is a real decision with a real answer for your registration — it is not something a cashier should be guessing differently each day. Decide it once with your accountant, then fix it in the POS so every receipt calculates it the same way. ## What has to be on the receipt At minimum, a compliant receipt needs the business name and branch address, the tax registration number, a sequential invoice number with no gaps, the date and time, the itemized list with quantities and prices, any discount applied, the service charge as its own line, VAT as its own line with the rate shown, and the total with payment method. Skipping any of these does not save paper — it creates a problem the first time someone actually checks the books. ## Branches can differ A restaurant with more than one branch may find the tax treatment or the applicable details are not identical across branches. A system that forces one rate onto the whole business turns every difference into a manual monthly correction. GoSufra sets VAT per branch, calculates the service charge separately from tax, and prints the tax registration number on every receipt — and because every sale writes its own double-entry record automatically, the monthly VAT summary and the sales-and-purchases breakdown becomes a report you open rather than one you assemble. ## Before the month closes - Match the VAT total in your reports against the total in your books. - Review voided and refunded receipts and how they were treated for tax. - Check that the invoice number sequence has no unexplained gaps. - Prepare the itemized sales-and-purchases breakdown, not just the totals. - Confirm any rate change with your accountant before it goes live in the system, not after. Getting the receipt right doesn’t protect you from tax. It protects you from spending three days a month rebuilding what should have been recorded correctly the first time. - VAT Egypt restaurants - Egyptian Tax Authority - restaurant billing Egypt - service charge Egypt ## In the product ### [Tax & Compliance](https://gosufra.com/en/features/tax-and-compliance/) Explore ## Run all of this from one system POS, kitchen, inventory, recipe costing, staff and accounting — connected, and free to start. [Create your free account](https://app.gosufra.com/register?lang=en) ## Related articles ![Illustration of a thermal receipt with a highlighted tax line](https://gosufra.com/blog/vat-and-service-charge.svg) Tax & rules 2026-07-27 · 7 min read ### [Tax and service charge on a restaurant bill: getting the order right](https://gosufra.com/en/blog/vat-and-service-charge/) Tax-inclusive versus tax-exclusive pricing, why service charge is not tax, what a bill must show, and what your accountant needs at month end. Read article ![Illustration of a receipt with its tax line called out](https://gosufra.com/blog/tax-service-charge-and-currency-setup.svg) Tax & rules 2026-08-16 · 7 min read ### [Setting up tax, service charge and currency for your own country](https://gosufra.com/en/blog/tax-service-charge-and-currency-setup/) Where the rate, the inclusive-or-exclusive decision, the service charge and your registration number actually live, why they are per branch, and the two settings people get wrong. Read article ![A phone with a mobile wallet next to a printed restaurant receipt](https://gosufra.com/blog/restaurant-pos-in-egypt.svg) Tax & rules 2026-09-15 · 7 min read ### [Running a Restaurant POS in Egypt: Local Payments, EGP Pricing and What to Check](https://gosufra.com/en/blog/restaurant-pos-in-egypt/) Instapay, Vodafone Cash, Etisalat Cash, Orange Cash and Fawry sit next to cash and cards on an Egyptian till. What a restaurant POS needs to record, reconcile and price correctly for the Egyptian market. Read article [← All articles](https://gosufra.com/en/blog/) [Contact us](https://t.me/GoSufraSupport)