April 4, 2023, 9:00 AM
April 4, 2023, 9:00 AM
In this part of the world, in the year 2020, it has particularly been the subject of a crisis caused by Covid 19, coming to consider this pandemic as one of the most disastrous in recent times, where the majority of people vulnerable to these effects , have been affected by the decrease in their income, reductions in salaries, the rise in unemployment rates and also leading to the closure of a large number of formal companies. Faced with these adversities, all vulnerable people have had the obligation to resort to their savings in order to survive. Let us remember that the effects of COVID-19 are regressive, since they significantly affect those who have less, not only in their health but also in their economy.
Meanwhile, governments have taken measures that led to the generation of fiscal deficits that had not been seen for decades and consequently the increase in the external debt of a country.
Given these circumstances, once the population “returned to the streets” after the confinement due to the pandemic, they had to recover the lost income, the savings spent and therefore the State had to try to reverse the fiscal deficit generated.
However; In the theory of many, there have also been groups that have not suffered the ravages of this crisis, these would be groups that have high levels of wealth and income, and that as a result of the pandemic have increased their fortune. According to a study by Oxfam (Ruiz, 2020), the fortune of billionaires in Latin America increased by more than 48,000 million dollars towards the end of 2020, at a time of great crisis and notable suffering for the rest of the population.
Contextualizing the past, it is necessary to highlight that, in order to reverse this situation, governments had to make important decisions both in tax matters in the medium and short term, otherwise the same less protected populations as well as workers will continue to suffer from the maintenance of the fiscal deficit and the increase in debt. .
In this sense, this March 31, the payment of the Tax on Great Fortunes (IGF) in our country expired for the third consecutive year, one of the first measures adopted by the current government to be able to generate greater collection for the State and try to alleviate the heavy burden of financing the economic effects of this crisis for the rest of the population.
According to the reports of the National Tax Service, the IGF collected Bs 240.2 million, contributed by 204 taxpayers whose individual annual assets exceeded 30 million of that currency for the year ended December 2020 and for the year 2021, the IGF collections totaled Bs 163.4 million.
Now, from the point of view of the IGF taxpayer, we can establish that their accumulated fortune generally comes from investments in businesses, which generated greater accumulated wealth now in assets for personal use.
It is important to note that this type of tax, by not taxing the profitability of companies, but only taxing personal fortunes, does not have a negative effect on investment; however, it is also possible that these taxpayers affected by this tax have fewer incentives to invest, but potential investors not affected by said tax would have incentives to invest in profitable projects.
Having established the above, the government expects that in 2023, there will be a greater tax collection for the tax and it cannot even be ruled out that by the end of the year there will be a drop in the IGF determination percentages in order to include many more people as taxpayers.
