Finally, the Ministry of Finance revealed its cards to the speakers of the General Budget of the Nation in the Senate and the House, in relation to the financing law that it will soon present to Congress in search of collecting $12 billion that it needs for next year’s expenses. All this with a view to avoiding that from the Legislature cuts the $523 billion requested by Casa de Nariño.
In at least 16 points, known by Portafolio, Ricardo Bonilla’s team raises the possibility of making changes to rates, as well as to VAT, the elimination of various incentives for sustainable mobility and ratified its proposal to strengthen the fight against evasion through incentives for reporting.
For reading: The challenges facing Colombia to optimize its tax resources
Changes in regimes
Firstly, according to government sources, the Ministry of Finance has raised the possibility of ending the simple tax regime, which gave special treatment to small businesses and workers, in order to generate savings for them when paying taxes in a unified manner, offering low rates which are settled according to the level of income and linked to the payment of social security.
Ricardo Bonilla, Minister of Finance and Public Credit
House of Representatives
As a replacement for this, the creation of a differential rate would be considered. by company size. Likewise, the proposals presented to Congress mentioned lowering the nominal rate and increasing the real rate to at least 20%; at the same time, work will be done on defining unproductive assets for individuals and legal entities. All of this, simply put, translates into new loss of profits.
Another point that drew attention was the proposal to maintain the base of the wealth tax, which seeks to generate minimal impacts with respect to the current scheme, which is at 72,000 Tax Value Units.
Other news: Dian warns: the most common mistakes in income tax returns
Gambling
Although the National Government was clear in saying that the financing law would not touch the Value Added Tax on the family basket or on basic necessities, in the presentation made to Congress, the possibility of putting a 19% VAT on games was discussed. of luck and chance online and working on identifying the income generated through Airbnb.
According to sources who spoke to Portafolio, all of this would seek to focus on fronts that have been showing growth, but that currently do not have a significant tax contribution, due to the dynamics with which they operate. The Ministry of Finance would have reached this conclusion after reviewing that there is a large amount of resources that would not be received by the Nation.
The presentation to Congress also discussed the possibility of bringing forward compliance with the fiscal rule, one of the ideas that Minister Bonilla himself has insisted on to take advantage of the good fiscal performance.
Colombian pesos
iStock
Benefits to hybrids
Among all the proposals from the Ministry of Finance, one of those that undoubtedly caught the attention of the congressmen was the elimination of incentives for hybrid vehicles, on which the VAT would be increased from 5% to 19%, including accessories. The possibility of creating a green tax credit and increasing carbon taxes was also raised.
Finally, it was said that with the financing law it would be stipulated that costs can only be deducted if the applied retention has been paid, a reward system is created to report evasion that could be 20% of the reported amount, although if false information is reported, the fine could be to 1,000 UVT. There was also talk of rewards for supporting the fight against smuggling.
