During the last month and a half, after the filing of the draft tax reform On August 8, the Government and the Legislative have been negotiating some points of the articles. Thus, prior to the first tax debate, the project has received at least 670 proposals in the last seven weeks.
(Tax reform goal could be less than 25 billion pesos).
These focus on issues such as changes in tariffs and caps on some taxes such as income, wealth and occasional profits, modifications in carbon, oil and processed food taxes, and also proposals for new taxes.
Representative Jennifer Pedraza, of the Dignity Party (Hope Center Coalition), for example, filed a proposal that seeks higher rates in wealth tax. It proposes that only a rate of 1.0% be applied up to 260,000 UVT ($9,881 million); that from 260,000 to 1,300,000 UVT ($49,405 million) it is 1.5% and from 1,300,000 UVT onwards the rate is 2%.
Pedraza also filed a proposal to eliminate articles 29 and 30, which define the conditions for the carbon tax, a suggestion that also came from the Liberal Party, through representative Carlos Ardila in another proposal.
Ardila also proposed the elimination of articles 35 to 42, which make up Chapter III of the articles of the tax reform and establish the conditions of the tax on oil, crude and coal exports.
From the Liberal party it was also proposed that the rate of income to legal persons lower than 35% where it is currently at 31%. In addition, a modification in article 3, so that in the dividends there is a marginal rate of 12% in those that exceed 300 UVT and another proposal was also filed, for article 18, so that the tax on occasional earnings of people natural is 15%.
(Not only food: the sectors that would suffer from the rise in gasoline).
From the Partido de la U, the representative Milene Jarava, proposed to modify article 2 of the project, that of the income tax, in its second paragraph, so that people of retirement age are taxed not from 1,799 UVT per year ($68 .3 million), but from 264 monthly UVT ($10.03 million). In corporate income, the congresswoman filed a proposal so that the surcharge to the financial sector is not 3 percentage points (pps) but 5 pps.
The senator of the Democratic Center, Ciro Ramírez, also filed a proposal in relation to income tax, in this case to modify article 6 for exempt income in the general certificate, establishing a top that is not 1,210 UVT ($45.9 million) but 4,000 UVT ($152.01 million).
Senator Karina Espinosa (Liberal Party) proposed that the 3% tax deduction limit It is not applicable for food donations in favor of food banks.
One of the agreements that was reached last month between the Government and the coordinators and rapporteurs of the project is to eliminate from the tax the phrase that would limit the exclusion of VAT and tariff and national tax on gasoline and ACPM on fuels in border area.
In line with this, there are among the proposals one filed by the representative Eliécer Salazar (Partido de la U), and the representative for the department of Arauca, Lina María Garrido (Radical Change).
Another issue that generated several proposals is that of taxes on ultra-processed foods. Pedraza, for example, proposes that articles 50 and 51 be eliminated, and that for article 43, which establishes the tax on sugary drinks and that it come into force in 2025. The senator of the Republic, Sandra Jaimes, proposed that the word wafers be removed from article 49.
(Effective Tax Rate: what it is, how it is measured and other details).
New items
Among the additions that the congressmen seek to introduce in the tax is, for example, a proposal promoted by the Green Party, which proposes a tax “on the consumption of substitutes or imitators of tobacco products”, with a rate of 150% on the taxable base, which is made up of the retail price. And in the case of cigarettes and manufactured tobacco, an additional 10% for each pack of 20 units.
Also from the Green Party, the representative to the Chamber for the department of Risaralda, Carolina Giraldo, proposed to modify in article 424 of the Tax Statute, in goods that do not cause sales tax, the limit for bicycles, electric bicycles, motorcycles electrical, and the like, from 50 UVT to 100 UVT.
Senator José Alfredo Gnecco (Party of the U), filed a proposal so that the devices contraceptives for female usego to the category of excluded to exempt from VAT.
Representative Álvaro Rueda, from the Liberal Party, presented a proposal for a new article so that, for a single time between 2022 and 2023, the mayors of the municipalities and districts that manage their own cadastre impose a surcharge on the property tax. And another to be delivered to municipalities and districts real estate assets of the Special Assets Society (SAE), so that VIS and VIP projects can be developed.
Representative Jarava also proposed the creation of a contribution for digital marketing giveaways for the strengthening of the Colombian educational system, of 50% of the value of the quota without VAT collected for participation in the draw, and another item, with penalties for early withdrawal of voluntary savings, of 10% of the value saved.
Representative Wilmer Guerrero (Liberal Party), proposed that the days without VAT not be eliminated, but rather that they be created as days for the people, with 4 dates a year, but that they apply to articles of national production.
Laura Lucia Becerra Elejalde
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