How to hire and pay contractors in Egypt

How a foreign company hires and pays a contractor in Egypt

Sign a contract for work that buys defined tasks for a price, have the contractor invoice you, and pay into their Egyptian bank account in pounds or foreign currency. A genuine contractor works outside the Labour Law, so there is no Egyptian payroll or social insurance filing.

With Toku as contractor of record, Toku contracts each contributor, collects their invoices and pays them, and your company buys the labeled data from Toku. To employ someone in Egypt instead, see employer of record in Egypt.

Contractor or employee: management or supervision

The Labour Law (Law No. 14 of 2025), in force since 1 September 2025, defines a worker as a person who works for a wage for an employer under the employer's management or supervision (art. 1), and applies its employment contract rules to any contract on those terms (art. 86). Remote, part-time and flexible work done that way is employment too, with the same rights (arts. 96-97).

The Civil Code draws the same line: a contract for work (muqawala) is an undertaking to make a thing or perform work for a price (art. 646), while an employment contract is work in another's service under their management or supervision for a wage (art. 674).

• Pay a price per accepted task or deliverable, not a wage.
• Let contributors choose their tasks, hours and methods, and work for others.
• Review outputs against acceptance criteria rather than supervising the person.

Tax registration, e-receipts and the records you keep

Income from independent professional and non-commercial work done in Egypt is taxed as income from non-commercial professions (Income Tax Law No. 91 of 2005, art. 32), so a freelancer registers with the Egyptian Tax Authority and files returns.

A simplified regime taxes turnover at 0.4% to 1.5% for activities with annual turnover up to EGP 20 million (Law No. 6 of 2025, arts. 1 and 10). To use it, the taxpayer joins the Tax Authority's electronic e-invoice or e-receipt system and issues receipts (art. 3). It excludes professional consultancy where 90% or more of turnover comes from one or two clients (art. 4), which can catch single-client contractors.

Since July 2026, every taxpayer carrying on a professional activity must keep regular accounting books, manually or electronically (Law No. 150 of 2026).

What you keep as the payer: the contract, the contractor's tax card details, their invoices or e-receipts, accepted-task records and proof of payment. Toku keeps these for every contributor it contracts.

Payment rails, pounds and Central Bank of Egypt rules

Under the Central Bank and Banking System Law (No. 194 of 2020), the pound's exchange rate is set by supply and demand (art. 211), and anyone may keep foreign currency they receive and transfer it into and out of Egypt, through banks or entities licensed for it (art. 212). Dealings inside Egypt are in pounds unless a law or CBE decision says otherwise.

In March 2024 the Central Bank of Egypt moved to let market forces set the exchange rate, closing the gap with the parallel market. A contractor can receive US dollars into an Egyptian bank account and keep them or convert at the bank's rate. Dealing outside banks and licensed entities is not allowed.

Paying contractors in Egypt in stablecoins

Toku can pay contributors in USDC or USDT, and in Egypt it confirms the route for each person before the first payout, because the central bank restricts crypto.

Article 206 of the CBE Law prohibits issuing, trading or promoting crypto currencies, operating trading platforms and related activities without a licence from the CBE Board. The Central Bank of Egypt renewed its warning in 2022 against dealing in any crypto currency, noting penalties of imprisonment and fines of EGP 1 million to 10 million. We found no exception for stablecoins.

For most contributors in Egypt, a bank payout in pounds or US dollars is the clear route. To plan the right mix, talk to us about paying in stablecoins in Egypt.

Making the IP transfer valid in Egypt

Under Egypt's Intellectual Property Law (Law No. 82 of 2002), an author can transfer some or all economic rights, but the transfer must be in writing and state each right transferred, its extent and purpose, and the duration and place of exploitation (art. 149). Rights not expressly transferred stay with the author.

The E-Signature Law (Law No. 15 of 2004) gives electronic signatures and writing the same evidential effect as paper in civil and commercial matters (arts. 14-15), when the signature is linked to the signer alone, under their sole control and any change is detectable (art. 18). Certificates come from providers licensed by ITIDA (art. 19), so use a certified e-signature or wet ink rather than a plain click.

• List every right: reproduction, modification, dataset compilation, AI and ML training and sublicensing, with their purpose.
• State duration and place: the full term and worldwide use.
• Assign work that exists: any disposal of an author's future intellectual production is void (art. 153), so assign each task output as it is delivered.
• State the fee: the author is entitled to a percentage, a lump sum or both (art. 150), and can ask a court to revise unfair pay (art. 151).
• Moral rights are perpetual and cannot be transferred (arts. 143 and 145), so the contract should say how the work may be edited and whether it is credited.

Pay data labelers in Egypt with Toku

Toku Contributor Payouts contracts each labeler in Egypt as contractor or agent of record, collects a detailed written IP transfer with a certified e-signature and pays per accepted task in pounds or US dollars. You send task totals through the mass payouts API or a file, and every payout ties back to its contributor, agreement and tasks.

Toku pays contractors in 100+ countries. Contractor management lists at $19 per contractor per month on the pricing page, and Contributor Payouts is priced on the contributors you actually pay. The API is documented at docs.toku.com.