The president of the Chamber of Deputies, Alfredo Pacheco, said today agree to establish the indexation of the salary exempt from Income Tax (ISR) and comply with the provisions of the Dominican Tax Code that exempts monthly income of up to RD$52,930 from taxes.
The application of this legislation that releases part of the salaries has not been updated since 2017 and they are only free up to RD$34,685 when it should be up to 52,930.
However, Pacheco, an influential legislator from the Modern Revolutionary Party (PRM), maintained that it must first be identified where the resources in that direction would come from.
“I totally agree, now… the problem is where we are going to get the resources from, because the last tax reform, the one that fell through: that was contemplated, that was one of the average good that the reform had,” he pointed out when interviewed on the Hoy Mismo program.
When asked if this economic item could be established in the General State Budget for 2026, the president of the Lower House said: “I think that to achieve that we have to take another type of measure and I hope we can find it.”
According to Pacheco, everyone knows that the resources received by the Dominican State are “short”, however when it comes to tax reform to increase income, a large part of society, especially opposition politicians, reject it outright.
“Every candidate who stands in front of a microphone tells you that a reform must be made, but when it is submitted, everyone opposes it,” stressed the congressman from constituency 2 of the National District.
He stated that the Dominican Republic, in order to face this need and others, urgently needs to increase its income by about 5% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
“But when you talk about touching 2% of the GDP, which was what the last tax reform established, everyone got worried, even me. It is an issue that we have to handle and that we have to know is very nice; I wish the income tax were exempt,” he added.
PRM
Yesterday, the PRM Secretariat of Economic Affairs considered that the Dominican tax system is already “generous” with workers, so it understands that indexing salaries to the rate of inflation, from 34,685 pesos to more than 52,000 pesos, as contemplated by law, could affect State collection.
The head of that portfolio, Francisco Torres, stated that around 78% of the country’s formal workers are exempt from paying ISR. That is, only one in five employees contributes to the treasury.
Unionists
The person who has been demanding compliance with the Dominican Tax Code has been the senator of the National District, Omar Fernández, who yesterday received a boost from the two main union confederations.
We refer to the presidents of the Autonomous Class Trade Union Confederation (CASC) and of the National Confederation of Trade Union Unity (CNUS), Gabriel del Rio and Rafael “Pepe” Abreurespectively.
