Buying in Egypt: which legal and tax costs are easiest to miss?

[small_plan]

The initial fee categories sound straightforward, but I am not comfortable treating them as a complete picture. The property is a Cairo warehouse at about EGP 30,000,000, and I need a comparison that covers acquisition, ownership and eventual disposal rather than closing alone.

I plan to ask local licensed advisers to price a direct purchase and an entity purchase separately. For each route, I want transfer tax, registration, legal and notary charges identified, along with recurring liabilities and the treatment of a later sale. Residency, capital gains and inheritance are also relevant. What questions usually reveal that the first quotation has omitted a cost or assumed the wrong ownership route?

 

[RealMoss]

Ask for two separate schedules: costs triggered by closing and costs arising during ownership or exit. Each line should identify who pays, when it becomes due and whether it changes with the purchaser’s nationality, residency or legal structure.

The missing fact is how you intend to buy. Is the adviser pricing a direct purchase of the warehouse, or acquisition through an entity? Those routes should not be assumed to have identical registration, annual tax, sale or inheritance consequences.

 

[small_plan]

That distinction is the gap I’m trying to close. Would you ask the lawyer and tax adviser to model direct ownership and an entity side by side, including the eventual sale? I’m particularly concerned that a structure which looks cheaper at closing could create worse capital-gains or inheritance treatment later.

 

[saveTheCairn]

I’d reverse the order slightly. First establish which ownership routes are actually available for this buyer and this warehouse, then compare the costs of the viable choices. Otherwise you may pay for detailed tax modelling of a structure that cannot be used or registered as expected.

Also keep property charges separate from owner-level taxation. Residency and inheritance may affect the owner rather than the warehouse itself, and the answer can involve more than one jurisdiction.

 

[HonestTable]

Give both advisers the same comparison table so their assumptions cannot pass unnoticed. Include purchaser identity and residency, direct versus entity ownership, transfer-tax allocation, registration and notary costs, annual property charges, exit treatment and what happens on death or succession.

For every amount, request the basis, payer, due date and whether it is one-off or recurring. Then ask the lawyer to flag ownership and registration constraints, while the tax adviser addresses ongoing, capital-gains and inheritance consequences. That should make disagreements between their estimates much easier to spot.