VAT and ETA e-invoices for an Egyptian store

What VAT and ETA e-receipts mean for your store, and how the Storix export really works.

Compliance and scale

Tax stops being an abstract worry the moment real money arrives. Starting the paperwork early is far cheaper than rebuilding a year of it later.

This is general orientation, not legal or accounting advice. Confirm every threshold, rate and deadline with the Egyptian Tax Authority or a licensed accountant before you act on it.

When "just selling" becomes a registered business

There is a turnover point where casual selling becomes a registered activity. We are not printing the figure — figures change, and a wrong number costs you money. Ask your accountant what it is this year, and watch a rolling twelve months, not a calendar quarter.

A commercial registration and a tax card are foundational; couriers, gateways and suppliers all ask for them. Imports, regulated goods and free zones are not the default case, so ask before you assume.

What VAT means for your store

You are a collector, not the payer. The buyer pays it and you pass it to the state. It is never your profit, though you can often reclaim VAT on legitimate business inputs.

The default VAT rate on a new Storix store is 14. Some goods carry different or zero rates, so walk your catalogue past your accountant once. Refunds reverse the tax treatment with them, so keep your order records exact.

Set it up once: Accounting → Tax & Invoices

Turn on Enable VAT / tax-compliant invoices for this store. A VAT registration number becomes required.
Turn on Simplified regime (small-business turnover tax — single order-level line, no per-product VAT) if that is your case.
Note that Apply VAT to shipping charges is already on for a new store, so your delivery fee carries VAT too.
Fill in Taxpayer identity: VAT registration number, ETA Registered Issuer Number (RIN), Commercial registration (CR), ETA activity classification code, and your taxpayer name in Arabic and English.
In VAT calculation, set Default VAT rate (%) and a Pricing mode — tax-exclusive or tax-inclusive.
Selling to businesses? Turn on Collect buyer tax ID at checkout.
Choose the invoice Layout: Bilingual Arabic + English or Arabic only. Click Save.

The ETA export, and what it silently skips

On Product codes, give each product an EGS or GS1 code. On Export, pick From and To — 31 days at most — and click Download ZIP. You get ETA-compatible receipts (Receipt v1.2); an order carrying a buyer tax ID produces ETA e-invoices (ETA Invoice v1.0). If ETA cloud submission is on for your store the page says so, and only Storix support can change it.

The export quietly skips an order placed while tax was still off; one whose product has no EGS or GS1 code; one where the RIN, the activity classification code or either taxpayer name is empty; and one carrying a shipping, cash-on-delivery or gift-wrap fee, because the admin has no field for those charge codes.

That last one matters here, where almost every order has a delivery or COD fee. Open errors.json inside the ZIP: it lists why each order was skipped.

Your own records: Accounting → VAT

This page is modest on purpose, and says so: "For your records — not a tax filing". It does not register you for e-invoicing either.

Click Mark store as VAT-registered to start tracking. You then see the standard rate, Total VAT collected, and a month-by-month table.
Download Export VAT CSV, and from Accountant pack, Expenses (CSV), VAT summary (CSV) and COD settlements (CSV).
VAT summary and COD settlements need Growth or Pro; expenses works from Starter. The reporting window is 90 days on Starter, 365 on Growth, unlimited on Pro.

Habits that make an audit boring

Reconcile monthly against what actually landed in your bank, InstaPay or wallet. Match every order to one document, cash on delivery included. Never delete a document you issued — ask your accountant how to reverse one, usually a credit note.

Storix stores your taxpayer details and exports ETA-compatible receipts your accountant can work from — open your store and set up Tax & Invoices in minutes. Storix does not file taxes for you.