With 90 votes in favor, 14 against, and 9 abstentions, the Plenary Session of Congress approved this Thursday the opinion of Bills 714-2021 and 2148-2021, with a substitute text, which establishes the reduction from 18% to 8% payment for General Sales Tax (VAT) temporarily to micro and small businesses (mypes) in the categories of restaurants, hotels, tourist accommodation, catering services and food concessionaires.
This initiative called “8% of the IGV to rescue employment” was exonerated in the second instance with 76 votes in favor.
According to the autograph, the purpose is to support the economic reactivation of this business economic segment, which has suffered a strong impact as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, and seeks to “make survival viable and prevent the closure of these activities”.
Currently companies in these sectors, like other economic activities, are subject to 18% VAT, but with the special rate it will be 8% from the month following its enactment until December 31, 2024.
The beneficiaries will be for the mypes that have the characteristics of being natural or legal persons who receive income from business activity and that the main activity is related to restaurants, hotels and accommodation, whose income from sales or provision of services from said activities represents by at least 70% of your income, is specified in the substitute text.
In this regard, the president of the Economy Commission, Silvia Monteza, stated that according to the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), 85% of informality is registered in the activity of restaurants and not providing benefits For companies that have been making an effort to remain formal, it could mean their transition to informality.
In addition, he indicated that, with statistics from the Ministry of Production from 2019 to 2020, the number of service companies was reduced by 26.65% in the reference category, that is, a total of 981,935 of which 43.3% belong to the Single Simplified Registry and 96.4% are micro-enterprises.
The Executive will have 15 days to review the approved project and decide whether to promulgate it or observe it.
MEF against
A few days ago, the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF) rejected the bills for the temporary reduction of the General Sales Tax (IGV) from 18% to 8% for restaurants, hotels and tourist accommodation.
He considered that a reduced VAT rate distorts and hinders its application, makes the tax system more complicated (by generating three additional regimes) and encourages business “dwarfism” and informality.
“Most companies that are restaurants and hotels are not taxpayers of the IGV. According to statistics from the National Superintendency of Customs and Tax Administration (Sunat) in 2021 there were 114,000 taxpayers in these areas, but more than 50% were registered in the RUS, a regime that is not affected and does not pay VAT.”, maintained the MEF on its official Twitter account.
He added that most restaurants and hotels cater to the local population and not tourists. And to date they would have been registering billing levels similar to those of the pre-pandemic, which would indicate a recovery in the sector.
