At the end of this first part of this legislature, the joint economic commissions of the Senate and Chamber gave their vote for the filing of the tax reform or financing law, which sought to raise $12 billion that were destined to finance the Budget General of the Nation (PGN) of 2025. With the above, the director of the Dian, Jairo Villabona, issued a letter in which he reproaches the Congress of the Republic for not approving the initiative.
(You may be interested in: This is how the Petro government would compensate for the collapse of its financing law).
The first thing he highlighted has to do with a criticism of the effect that the collapse of this tax reform will have in terms of tax evasion, since he relates that after one year the Nation stops receiving more than $100 billion. The articles sought to grant rewards for complaints about tax evasion and smuggling. In addition, it sought to limit cash purchases.
With the above, the official indicated that “It is inconceivable that our Congress has said no to these measures”. At the same time, he asked the country to ask itself “the interests of the congressmen who rejected this proposal.”
Meanwhile, he highlighted some points that this second tax reform of the Petro Government brought, such as the imposition of VAT on luxury goods that natural persons brought to their companies, despite not having any causal relationship with the legal purpose of these.
“With this we sought to address cases of businessmen who deduct from the rental costs of their organizations, the expenses of employees, maintenance or supplies of their recreational farms in Anapoima or their rest houses abroad,” Villabona added.
The letter also highlighted that in the country there are currently “294 tax benefits, many with first and last name, that have been granted by the parliamentary lobby“He highlighted that there are income that does not constitute income or occasional gain, exempt income, tax discounts and special tax deductions, which makes our tax system more complex and facilitates tax evasion.
How to participate in property auctions.
Archive
More about tax reform
In addition, he praised the eight-point reduction in the tax paid by micro and small businesses and for the rest of the companies in our country, he proposed a progressive reduction in the Income Tax seeking to go beyond 35% over several years. at 30%.
Recommended: Petro says that collapse of the financing law is a blow to the Colombian people
It contemplated VAT exemption for hotels in more than 1,050 municipalities in the country, boosting the economies of these territories through tourism; It created a bonus for investments in energy from renewable sources and provided significant relief in penalties and interest to tax defaulters. Also, he pointed out the VAT tax that was going to be imposed on online betting.
“Our taxes are neither progressive, nor equitable, nor efficient”
Within the content of the letter, Jairo Orlando Villabona referred to the tax situation in Colombia. There he pointed out that the country has a low tax burden compared to other countries in the world.
He added that Colombia is one of the countries in the world where natural persons pay less taxes; since between 75% and 80% of the collection is from the Income of the companies and the rest is from natural persons.
“This shows us that our taxes are not progressive, nor equitable, nor efficient, as ordered by article 363 of the Political Constitution of 1991. They are not progressive because if we analyze the effective or real tax rates of companies we find that there are a very big difference between each of the sectors”, the official said.
And finally he reiterated that Colombia needs a thorough structural reform, in which all these exemptions are reviewed and evaluated, verifying their cost/benefit relationship for the country, doing ex ante and ex post analysis and defining them over time, since it is not They can be given for an indefinite period of time as indicated by good tax practices.
LEIDY RUIZ
Portfolio Journalist
