Egypt's social insurance for business owners: income and rate in 2026

Executive summary

• Business owners and those treated as such are insured for themselves in a separate category: sole traders, general partners, managers of limited liability companies, board members of private-sector joint-stock companies and owners of one-person companies, among others (article 2, second category, of Social Insurance and Pensions Law No. 148 of 2019).
• The owner chooses an insurable income from the table in the executive regulations; applying the table's notes to the 2026 limits, its brackets in 2026 run from EGP 3,000 to EGP 16,700 a month. The owner alone pays 21% of it, and the rate rises by 1% on 1 January 2027 (article 19 of the Law; article 57 of the regulations).
• The old-age pension age for this category is 65 (article 1(10)). The end-of-service reward system, work-injury and unemployment insurance do not cover it.
• No additional amount is charged if a month's contributions are paid within fifteen days of the first day of the following month, and benefits are paid only once the owner's obligations are met (articles 121 and 139).
• Cover is under one category only, and employees come first (article 2 of the regulations).

Who counts as a business owner

In the Law's definitions the employer is whoever "employs one or more workers" (article 1(2)); insuring those workers is covered in Registering a new employer for social insurance in Egypt. In the category of "business owners and those treated as such", by contrast, people are insured for themselves. Article 2 (second category) lists seventeen groups, repeated in article 5 of the executive regulations issued by Prime Ministerial Decree No. 2437 of 2021. Those that matter most to businesses:

The item on companies does not list limited partners, shareholders who are not board members, or partners in a limited liability company who are not managers; the forms themselves are explained in Company forms in Egypt. Two conditions apply to the whole category: "not being subject to the provisions of this Law under the first category of this article, and the insured being not less than twenty-one years old" (article 2, second category).

The insurable income and its 2026 limits

The insurable income is "the income chosen by the insured ... to contribute on, not less than the minimum insurable wage and not more than the maximum" (article 1(9)). It is chosen from the table annexed to the regulations (article 19), issued with brackets from EGP 1,000 to EGP 7,000; under its notes "a new bracket is added on 1 January each year at the amount of the increase in the maximum insurable wage", and brackets below the minimum "are cancelled in turn" (notes to Table 1). The table of income brackets NOSI published for 2023 follows this: its highest bracket is that year's maximum.

We have not found a NOSI table of brackets for 2026 at the date of this review, so the range below is computed from the texts. The 2026 limits announced by NOSI are EGP 2,700 and EGP 16,700, as explained in Egypt's insurable wage in 2026. The table has an EGP 2,600 bracket followed by EGP 3,000; the 2,600 bracket is cancelled because it is below EGP 2,700, the notes add no bracket at the minimum itself, and the highest bracket is the January 2026 bracket equal to the maximum, so in 2026 the choice runs from EGP 3,000 to EGP 16,700 a month. The owner's income may also not be lower than their last insurable wage or income, the highest insurable wage among their employees, or the monthly average of their own annual income assessed for tax in the previous year (article 54 of the regulations).

The owner may move up a bracket once all amounts due from them are paid, and down to the bracket immediately below on reasons NOSI accepts, such as a Tax Authority letter showing no profit in the previous year. Requests are filed in December and take effect from the first of the following month, and the income must be moved to the next higher bracket after at most three years in the lower one (article 117 of the Law; articles 54 and 55 of the regulations).

The rate and what it covers

The rate is 21% of the monthly insurable income, borne entirely by the owner (article 19(2); article 57 of the regulations), whereas an employee's contribution is split with the employer, as set out in Egypt's social insurance contributions. In 2026, on the EGP 3,000 bracket the owner pays EGP 630 a month; on the EGP 16,700 bracket, EGP 3,507. The regulations raise "all the above contribution rates every seven years from 1/1/2020 by (1%)" and split the increase only for employees and informal workers, so under that text the rate becomes 22% from 1 January 2027 (article 19 of the Law; article 57 of the regulations).

This is the old-age, disability and death insurance contribution. The old-age pension age for business owners is 65 (article 1(10)); the cases in which the pension is due include reaching it with at least 180 months of actual contributions, and total disability or death while carrying on the activity (article 21). Articles 36, 45 and 85 do not list business owners among those covered by the end-of-service reward system, work-injury insurance and unemployment insurance. Sickness insurance carries a contribution of 4% of the income bracket and applies gradually to those designated by the chairman of the board of the health insurance authority (articles 70 and 71); we have not found a decision applying it to business owners at the date of this review. Comprehensive health insurance is outside this piece.

Registration, payment and late payment

The application is made on Form 1 with evidence of the start of the activity or of the capacity that brings the owner within the Law (article 24 of the regulations), such as the commercial register, tax card, licence or company contract, together with copies of the birth certificate and national ID card and a medical fitness report (article 12 of the regulations). Article 24 sets no time limit for it, unlike the two weeks from the start of activity for registering an establishment for its workers (article 17 of the regulations). When the activity ends or the capacity lapses, the owner notifies NOSI on Form 6 within a week (article 25 of the regulations).

Each month's contributions are payable "from the first of the month following the month in which they fall due" (article 72 of the regulations). If late, a monthly additional amount accrues at the average yield on Treasury bills and bonds in the month before the month in which payment is due, plus 2%, and none is due if payment is made within fifteen days of the due date (article 121 of the Law; article 72 of the regulations). Benefits are paid only on "payment of the obligations prescribed" (article 139), and NOSI has a preferential right over all the owner's assets and may collect by administrative attachment (article 132). The owner may ask to pay in instalments, without prejudice to NOSI's right to the additional amounts (article 81 of the regulations). Anyone who deliberately avoids paying amounts due to NOSI by giving false data or concealing data faces a fine of EGP 20,000 to 50,000 (article 166).

Owner and employee at the same time

A person who meets the conditions of more than one category "is covered only as belonging to one of those categories", in this order: employees, business owners, Egyptians working abroad, informal workers (article 2 of the regulations). Whoever meets the conditions for a private-sector employee, namely being subject to the Labour Law, a regular employment relationship and an age of at least eighteen (article 2, first category), is therefore insured as an employee even if they also hold one of the capacities in article 2 (second category).

The regulations deal with the general partner who works for a wage in their own company in the provision that excludes from unemployment insurance, which covers only employees, "general partners in partnerships and partnerships limited by shares who work for a wage in their companies" (article 190 of the regulations).

What this requires of business owners

• Check each partner, manager and board member against article 2 (second category), and whether they are insured as employees.
• Register on Form 1 with the documents for the activity or capacity, and file Form 6 within a week of the activity ending.
• Choose a bracket between EGP 3,000 and EGP 16,700 for 2026, not below the highest insurable wage of the owner's employees or the monthly average of the owner's own income assessed for tax.
• Pay within the first fifteen days of the following month; the deadlines are in the Egypt tax and social insurance compliance calendar.
• File any request to change the bracket in December, and review it in January 2027 against the new rate and limits.

The firm's Social Insurance & Labour Department determines the position of business owners, partners and directors, registers them, prepares their insurable-income and bracket-change requests and follows up their payments, as part of its payroll and social insurance services.

Mahmoud Nassef, Founder Partner
Chartered Accountant, Ministry of Finance, Egypt

Member, Egyptian Society of Accountants & Auditors
Member, Egyptian Tax Society
Member, Egyptian Society for Public Finance and Taxation

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Disclaimer: This bulletin is prepared for general information on the legislation in force at the date of its publication. It does not constitute a professional opinion or tax or legal advice on any particular matter, and it should not be relied upon in place of advice based on an examination of the circumstances of each case. Nassef & Partners International accepts no responsibility for any action taken, or refrained from, in reliance on its contents. The positions stated remain subject to subsequent legislation and decisions.