Egypt's E-Receipt System: Is Your Business Listed and How to Connect Your POS

Egypt's e-receipt system requires listed businesses to send every sale to final consumers (B2C) to the Egyptian Tax Authority (ETA) as an electronic receipt, issued from a registered POS or ERP. You are obliged only if your name appears in an ETA decision listing taxpayers for a given wave, so the first step is to check the ETA's published lists. If you are listed, your cashier system must be registered and linked to your tax registration number, issue receipts in the ETA format with a QR code, and submit them within 24 hours.

The e-receipt is not the same as the B2B e-invoice. It has its own document format, its own rollout lists and rules designed for high-volume retail, such as chained receipts per POS device. Many shops, cafés, restaurants, pharmacies and clinics in Cairo and Giza discovered this when their tax office appeared in a new decision.

This guide explains how the rollout works, how to check whether your business is listed, what your POS must do technically according to the ETA's own SDK, and how to prepare your branches for go-live.

Key takeaways

• The e-receipt covers B2C sales. It was piloted in April 2022 and has since been extended in waves using named lists of taxpayers, not a single turnover threshold.
• Recent decisions include 123/2025, 225/2025 and 281/2025, with compliance dates in July and September 2025. Decision 281/2025 covered listed taxpayers at the Sixth District and Fifth Settlement tax offices in Cairo.
• Each POS device must be registered and linked to your tax registration number before it issues receipts.
• Receipts must be submitted within 24 hours, chained per device using the previous receipt's UUID, and printed with a QR code.
• Joining the e-invoice and e-receipt systems is also a condition of the simplified tax regime under Law 6/2025.

How the e-receipt rollout works

According to a VATupdate briefing (February 2026), the e-receipt started with a pilot on 15 April 2022 and became mandatory for a first group of large retailers from 1 July 2022. Restaurants, cafés and retail chains were among the early waves. Since then, the ETA has added taxpayers through decisions that list them by name, often grouped by tax office.

ETA decision	Compliance date	Who
123/2025	1 July 2025	Taxpayers listed in the decision
225/2025	15 July 2025	Taxpayers listed in the decision
281/2025	15 September 2025	Listed taxpayers at the Sixth District and Fifth Settlement tax offices, Cairo

Sources: KPMG TaxNewsFlash (July 2025) and Sovos (August 2025). The ETA can issue further decisions at any time, so treat this table as history, not as the complete list.

Is your business listed? How to check

1. Check the ETA's e-receipt inquiry. The ETA publishes the lists and an inquiry service on its website. Search using your tax registration number.
2. Ask your tax office and your accountant. Decisions are often grouped by tax office, so neighbouring businesses in your district may already know.
3. Check each legal entity separately. A group with a trading company and a restaurant company may have one listed and the other not.
4. Record the compliance date. Work backwards from it: POS registration, item codes, integration and staff training all take time.

Even if you are not listed today, consider the simplified tax regime. Under Law 6/2025, businesses with turnover up to EGP 20 million can pay tax as a small percentage of turnover, and one of the conditions is integration with the ETA's e-invoice and e-receipt systems.

What your POS must do: the technical requirements

The requirements below come from the ETA's receipt issuance FAQ and receipt specification in the official SDK. They are what your POS vendor or developer must implement.

Registered devices

The POS device that issues a receipt must be registered and linked to the issuer's registration number before it issues receipts, and the issuer must be enabled for B2C issuance. Each receipt carries the device serial number, the branch code as registered with the ETA and the activity code.

A chain of receipts per device

Each receipt has a unique UUID, a 64-character SHA-256 value. It also carries the UUID of the previous receipt from the same device, which creates a chain. An empty "previous UUID" is accepted only for the very first receipt. This means receipts cannot be silently deleted or re-ordered, and it also means the POS must store its last UUID reliably, even after a crash or power cut.

Timing and submission limits

• Receipts must be submitted within 24 hours of issue, unless they are being resubmitted with a reference to an earlier UUID.
• A single submission can hold up to 500 receipts (1.5 MB), and each receipt can have up to 300 lines.
• Return receipts must reference the original sale and can be issued up to 540 days after the sale.

Buyer details

The receipt supports three buyer types: a business in Egypt (B), a natural person (P) and a foreigner (F). The buyer's ID is required for business buyers, and for individuals when the total reaches a configured value, set at EGP 150,000 in the current specification. Your cashier screen should ask for the ID only when needed.

QR code on the printed receipt

The printed receipt must include a QR code that contains the receipt details URL, the seller's registration number and the total. Customers and inspectors can use it to verify the receipt.

Item codes

As with e-invoices, each receipt line needs a GS1 or EGS item code. For a café with 200 menu items or a pharmacy with thousands of SKUs, preparing and registering these codes is often the longest task.

Offline sales, branches and real-world problems

Retail rarely runs in perfect conditions. A good e-receipt setup handles:

• Internet outages. The POS should keep issuing receipts locally, keep the chain intact and submit when the connection returns, within the 24-hour window.
• Many branches. Each branch and device must be registered with the correct branch code. A new branch in New Cairo is not ready until its devices are registered.
• Delivery orders. Orders from delivery apps and your own website still need receipts. Decide where each one is issued.
• Mixed B2B and B2C. A supplier that sells to both shops and consumers needs e-invoices for business buyers and e-receipts for consumers, from the same stock.
• Returns and exchanges. Returns must reference the original receipt. Staff need a simple screen to find it.

POS options: compared

Option	Suits	Check before buying
Ready-made cashier program with e-receipt module	Single shops, cafés, small chains	Registered-device support, offline mode, item code management, cost per device
POS module inside your ERP	Businesses where stock, purchasing and accounts must match sales	Real-time stock update, returns, multi-branch reporting
Custom POS connected to your system	Chains with special workflows, such as kitchens, service tables or clinics	Full ETA receipt specification, chain recovery after crashes, support terms

A 6-step go-live plan

1. Confirm your listing and date for each legal entity.
2. Complete the ETA profile: register the POS or ERP systems and get the API credentials.
3. Prepare item codes for every product and service you sell, including modifiers and packages.
4. Register every device and branch with the correct serial numbers and branch codes.
5. Test in the pre-production environment: sale, return, offline sale, large receipt, individual buyer above the ID threshold.
6. Train cashiers on the new flow, especially returns and what to do when the connection drops.

One last practical tip: appoint one person inside the company to own the e-receipt. They should review rejected or late receipts every day and make sure no new device or branch starts selling before it is registered. Most operating problems do not come from the software. They come from a device added without registration, a new item sold before its code was approved, or a return issued without referencing the original receipt. A short check each morning stops these errors from piling up into a problem with your tax office.

How Nilex helps

Nilex Digital Systems builds custom ERP systems in which sales, stock and accounts share one database, so every sale updates inventory and the ledger at the same time. When a project includes cashier sales, we implement the ETA's receipt requirements, including device registration, chained UUIDs, QR codes and offline queues, through its REST APIs, and design the cashier screens around your actual service flow, whether that is a shop counter, a café or a multi-branch chain.

Frequently asked questions

Who must issue electronic receipts in Egypt?

Taxpayers named in ETA decisions for the e-receipt, from the compliance date stated in the decision. There is no single turnover threshold. Check the ETA's lists using your tax registration number.

What is the difference between the e-invoice and the e-receipt?

The e-invoice covers sales to businesses (B2B), and the e-receipt covers sales to final consumers (B2C). They use different document formats and have different rollout schedules, but both need registered systems and item codes.

Can I issue e-receipts when the internet is down?

The POS can issue receipts locally and submit them later, as long as they reach the ETA within 24 hours of issue and the chain of previous UUIDs remains intact.

Can I keep my current cashier program?

Only if it supports the ETA receipt specification or can be upgraded to do so. Ask the vendor for a live test in the pre-production environment, including returns and offline sales.

I am not listed. Should I still prepare?

Yes, if you want to use the simplified tax regime under Law 6/2025, which requires e-invoice and e-receipt integration, or if your tax office is likely to be included in a future decision.

If your business is listed or about to be, book a free consultation and we will review your POS, branches and item codes against the ETA requirements. For the B2B side, see our step-by-step guide to e-invoice integration.

This article is general information, not legal or tax advice. Confirm the details that apply to your company with a specialist.