The national government filed its tax reform project on August 8, which has been socialized and discussed in the last five weeks with Congress, unions, academia and citizens. In this process, the Minister of Finance, José Antonio Ocampo, has been giving clues and announcements about which elements are willing to negotiate the Government of Gustavo Petroand on the contrary, which ones remain firm.
(Read: ‘Making a tax reform is uncomfortable, but it is necessary’: Ocampo).
The first point on which Ocampo has remained firm is the amount: $25 billion. Despite requests from unions and academics for a more modest amount, the minister has not given his arm to twist with the figure.
“The government’s objective is $25 billion, what I have told the congressmen, rather, is that they give us proposals on how we can increase it. We need the resources”, Ocampo said in recent days in statements to the media.
The other element of the reform project with which the government has not wanted to ‘loosen’ is income tax for high-income individualss, those who receive income of more than $10 million per month. “I think that in ‘the immovables’ is the principle that high-income individuals pay more taxes, because it is part of the redistributive effect that this reform has,” said Ocampo.
Taxes
istock
The minister has also highlighted that the bulk of the collection is in natural persons, and also for oil and coal companies with taxes that are proposed, and that the reduction of exemptions is another of the bases that the Government hopes to maintain.
Although the reform maintains its essence in broad strokes, there are several changes that have already been agreed upon, and with which it would reach its first debate in Congress.
One of the first points in which the minister has ‘backed down’ was the proposal to remove the benefits from the prices of cfuels in border areasan idea that caused rejection from various sectors and that he promised would be withdrawn.
“We are going to propose that the article be eliminated as long as there is greater control, there is a lot of contraband to Venezuela of that subsidized gasoline, so it does not really benefit the border area”.
A couple of weeks ago, Ocampo also confirmed that the proposal that seeks to tax extraordinary exports of gold with a fee of 10%.
Likewise, the minister assured that there would be changes in relation to taxes on dividends and free zonesyes “The issue of joint taxation in companies with natural persons through dividends is something we are already working on, and it is even possible that we will reach an agreement with the speakers on Monday,” said the head of the Treasury portfolio .
(Keep reading: Tax didn’t take entrepreneurs into account?: these are the critics).
According to Ocampo, a problem of double taxation would indeed be generated in dividends, but he said that the same does not happen in occasional profits.
For free zonesthe project proposes a requirement for an internationalization plan so that companies can maintain the 20% rental rate in these spaces.
“The government made a mistake of identifying the sole proprietorships as a different problem. There will be a transition and a different wording, because what we are going to propose now is a maximum of sales in the internal market”, assured the minister.
Ocampo also confirmed in recent days that another issue that will see changes is that of him. 10% tax on ultra-processed foods. “We are working with the Ministry of Health to see how we rationalize that list, we are going to leave the sugary ones at least,” said the minister in statements to the media.
(Keep reading: Tax reform: the items in which the collection would be invested).
Reform arrives with points that have already been negotiated
In recent weeks, the government has held meetings with different actors on the content of the reformand has reached agreements on various points.
For example, the minister assured thatIn the case of 4×1,000the tax would remain, but he said that after talking with some banks, he does not rule out eliminating it for the simple tax regime.
Other agreements that the portfolio manager has negotiated have to do with treatment of special sectors. At this point, Ocampo acknowledged that the Government is reviewing what type of tax support can be maintained in the case of ecotourism, for example, to boost investment in the sector.
In addition, the Minister confirmed last week that in relation to the construction of social interest housing, an agreement was reached with Camacol to leave two specific tax benefits for this type of housing.
