The Nicaraguan government will force churches and religious entities to pay income tax and ordered the closure of 150 NGOs, in a tightening of control over these organizations.
“The point of the ‘Tax Agreement Law’ where churches, denominations, confessions and religious foundations were exempted from this obligation shall be repealed,” states the resolution published in the official newspaper La Gaceta, signed by President Daniel Ortega.
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They will now have to pay taxes of up to 30% of their annual income, depending on the amount of this at the end of the fiscal year (January-December).
The tax changes were introduced in the reforms to the laws on “Control of Non-Profit Organizations” and “Regulation of Foreign Agents”, which will now oblige NGOs to carry out their projects jointly with state institutions.
The government also cancelled the registration of 151 non-governmental organisations, most of them international and sectoral chambers of commerce, three days after the mass closure of 1,500 NGOs, in what the opposition in exile described as an attack on civil society.
