Next August 7 will be the inauguration of the new government, which will be led by President Gustavo Petro together with his vice-presidential formula, Francia Márquez. Although it has not yet been fully defined who will lead the 18 ministries, the president has made it clear that one of the main axes of his government will be the tax reform, which seeks to generate a collection of 50 billion pesos by 2026.
(Read: Vehicle tax: when to pay and how to consult it).
José Antonio Ocampo, appointed Minister of Finance, assured that the project would be filed on next August 8 before Congress. One of the pillars of this regulation will be the income tax and the monitoring of taxation of people with higher incomes in the country.
Among taxes that conceives this reform are that of sugary drinks and ultra-processed foods, to the patrimony for the 4,000 largest personal fortunes and that of income.
Now, and taking into account the tax context, Portafolio spoke with experts about which taxes they believe should be implemented in the country.
For the economist Mauricio Rodríguez, one of the taxes that should be adhered to in any tax reform that is implemented in Colombia are those that for consumption or use Yoimpose costs to society. For example, what generates pollution or implies a risk to the health of citizens.
In contrast, the expert Jorge Espitia proposes the inclusion of an income tax on natural persons, an aspect that is included in the reform proposed by the incoming government. In this sense, he suggests that a minimum cap should be placed on the Effective Tax Rate (TET) of 5% of natural persons with monthly income of more than 25 million. This, in order to increase the collection with the taxation of people with high incomes.
For his part, the economist Jorge Restrepo considers that taxation should be placed taking into account the nature of the good in its consumption and how it is produced.
“There should be no good that is excluded from taxation unless the nature of the good, its production and the effects generated by its consumption indicate that it should not be taxed“, it states.
(Also: Will there be an increase in the tax on occasional gains in the Petro tax?).
For example, residential public services should not be taxed unless they have competition, says Restrepo. Likewise, he explains that putting taxes on an industry that is monopolistic could make this taxation end up being paid only by consumers and not by the producer. Along with this, there are goods, such as fuels, that if they are taxed with the aim of reducing their consumption, it depends on whether there are substitutes for them. In this sense, it could be applied to sugary drinks, but not to gasoline.
Tax collection in represented a positive variation of 18.8% compared to 2020.
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For analysts Leopoldo Fergusson and Marc Hofstetter, in their text ‘Taxes in Colombia: what, how, how much and when to reform them?’, the country’s tax system should have a reduction in benefits in this field for companies. Also, a change in the Industry and Commerce Tax (ICA) in order to convert it into a local business income tax and the gradual reduction of the general corporate income rate.
As for natural persons, they agree that it is important to reduce deductions and non-income income and include it in the income tax return. pension income.
“Dividends received by natural persons should also be taxed like any other income”, they assure
For Germán Machado, an economic analyst and professor at the Universidad de los Andes, for equity issues, it would be worth imposing a tax on high pensions. “Only 1% of pensioners achieve allowances of more than $10 million per month. Furthermore, almost all of these pensions are being subsidized with public money.”, he assures.
On the other hand, he considers it desirable to have taxes on sugary drinks and ultra-processed products, in order to discourage their consumption, to reduce the future cost on the country’s health system.
(Read: What is the income collected in the income statement invested in?).
Economist Jorge Iván González highlights that tax reform should be progressive. “The only way to do it is through three paths. 1. Raise the income tax rate for the richest people. To the super rich and the super super rich (1 for 10 thousand and 1 for 100 thousand). 2. Increase taxes on dividends (the rate could be increased to 20%). 3. Tax on assets of more than 5 billion. The fee could be 4% – 5%“, Explain.
Jeisson Balaguera, CEO of Values AAA and professor at the EAN University, explains that the big enterprisessuch as Nutresa or Avianca, have legal representation in countries such as Panama, where they make financial triangulations that allow them to lower the tax level, following the tax regulations that exist in Colombia.
However, for him,These large companies should be the ones that assume a higher level of tax rate compared to other companies, because they are the most income generators and, therefore, they have an important financial muscle to better assume the tax commitments that small or medium ones do not. could”.
Finally, the economic analyst Jorge Quintero explains that the tax reform should focus on reducing tax exemptions or benefits for companies and deductions in the personal income tax.
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