The Banque du Liban HQ in Beirut. (Credit: PHB/L'Orient-Le Jour)
BEIRUT — The Finance Ministry issued a new decision on Tuesday detailing the implementation of the exceptional tax on profits generated from U.S. dollar purchases through Banque du Liban (BDL)’s former Sayrafa platform.
The decision, which implements Article 52 of the 2026 budget law, subjects individuals and entities whose Sayrafa dollar purchases exceeded $100,000 between 2021 and 2023 to an additional exceptional tax of 17% on net profits generated from these transactions, the statement said, replacing the June 2024 mechanism that had applied the same tax to purchases exceeding $15,000.
Sayrafa was an official exchange platform launched during the financial crisis to allow certain dollar transactions at a subsidized or preferential rate.
The ministry said the taxable profit will be calculated based on the difference between the net amount paid in Lebanese lira and the actual value of the dollars received on the date of the transaction, after deducting bank commissions and fees.
Commercial banks operating in Lebanon are required to submit detailed transaction data to the tax administration within two months of the decision’s publication.
Taxpayers covered by the measure must also submit a separate declaration within the same deadline and pay the corresponding tax, or face penalties under the tax procedures law.
The decision allowed taxpayers who had already paid the tax under the provisions of the 2024 budget, and whose transactions did not exceed $100,000, to submit requests for a tax refund. It also permitted those whose transactions exceeded this limit, and whose bank commissions and deductions were not included in the calculation of profits, to have the tax recalculated based on net profit and to apply for a refund of the difference.
Salary and wage-related Sayrafa transactions carried out under BDL circulars remain exempt from the exceptional tax, mainly public-sector employees who were allowed to benefit from Sayrafa to receive a higher dollar value from their Lebanese lira salaries.
Sayrafa was launched by BDL in May 2021, at the height of the economic crisis, to organize dollar transactions and help stabilize the Lebanese lira. The system later drew criticism for creating arbitrage opportunities, as some beneficiaries were able to buy dollars at the discounted Sayrafa rate and profit from the gap with the higher parallel-market rate.
In a 2023 report, the World Bank estimated that participants may have made as much as $2.5 billion in arbitrage gains, while describing BDL’s interventions through Sayrafa as costly and ineffective.
