Undoubtedly, the presentation of a tax reform project that increases and organizes the Nation’s income is among the priorities of the elected President of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, who made it known during the campaign and ratified it again when he received this week the letter of credence that accredits him as president of the Colombians, a position he will assume on August 7.

It is clear, as the winner of the electoral contest said, that this time the VAT will not be affectedthese higher revenues will be sought by other means, such as correcting income tax distortions to transform it into a progressive tax.

There is still no outline that allows us to envisage what this reform will be which, like the projects of previous administrations, promises to be structural. It’s also unclear how much the Nation’s collections will increase, but what is clear is that it will be based on recommendations issued by tax commissions. contracted in the past, because as Ricardo Bonilla, economic adviser of the Historical Pact, with whom EL TIEMPO spoke on the subject, says, “the diagnosis is made, all that was needed was the political will to apply the solutions. “

It is clear that a new tax reform has no setbacks…

The president-elect (Gustavo Petro) put the tax issue on the campaign agenda, he said tax adjustments would be made and that is what is being proposed. Colombia has two recent tax commission reports, the first in 2015 and the other was contracted by the current government with Canadian experts whose results were delivered 18 months ago.

In both cases, it is said that income tax poses many problems: that of natural persons is not progressive, while that of legal persons is not fair or equitable, so we must work on this tax , it is the priority because the tax status is eroded.

What does that mean?

That for legal persons the rate must be lowered, as long as the exemptions and advantages are removed. In natural persons, the diagnosis is similar, there are too many exemptions and advantages, persons with higher incomes who pay very low effective rates, but whose incomes are also not identified.

How many taxpayers would we be talking about under these conditions?

The Canadian commission was very precise in the sense that: the 1% of Colombians with the highest incomes pay very low rates, this means that in the country 4 million natural persons declare income, the 10% of Colombians the richest are 400,000 people; the richest 1% has 40,000 people and the richest 1 in 1,000 has 4,000 people.

On campaign, the president-elect today always talked about the richest 4,000, one in 1,000 to say they had the lowest rates and that now it was time to go in to check what was going on. It is therefore a question of knowing what to do to identify the reasons why the income of natural persons brings in so little. The problem is not to lower the threshold, it is to identify what happens to high incomes who have such low rates.

Read also : Is it okay to be charged more when you pay with your credit card?

How to identify income that should have a higher tax rate?

We must enter the Dian, with all the reserve of the matter, how is this information to identify what about the top one percent filers in the country, how many assets are actually owned by individualslegal persons and if the income they declare in the companies is identified as income from shareholders, directors or if they put it as a rebate in the company and it does not appear as income for the people, the Dian must do it task.

Experts say the bulk is in high-income entrepreneurs charging their businesses for some of that paperwork…

This is what needs to be identified. Look, 10% of residential properties in Bogotá are in the name of legal entities and by nature they must be natural persons, holiday farms in Tierra Caliente, Girardot, Melgar, Ricaurte, at least 30% of these holiday centers are in the name of legal persons, houses of more than 5,000 million pesos, these are properties that are not part of the purpose of the company, nor of the recreational domain of the workers of the company, this is what must be identified.

In OECD countries, Europe and the United States, these assets clearly belong to natural persons, they are in their name and they declare them.

They also argue that an ecosystem should be created in which accountants, the Dian, the Public Prosecutor’s Office, the magistrates, the General Public Prosecutor’s Office, information systems and exemplary criminal sanctions…

Agreed, but the question is not to increase the penalties or to criminalize this, as it happens in other cases where the penalties are increased, but no one is punished. You have to have a capacity for sanction and bite, that’s what you have to give to the Dian so that it has a greater capacity for control, you have to modernize it and equip it with tools to fight against evasion .

Corruption, without a doubt, exists in the Dian, in customs, in returns and there are well-known cases, but corruption has other scaffoldings and Colombia should start a real ethical discussion whether pay-for-success between entrepreneurs is really a good exercise.

Executives receive more bonuses than salaries and the question is where do these bonuses come from? That does not mean that all executives engage in practices of this kind, what happens is that there are practices that seem legal, but we have to see if they are ethical.

Also: June bounty payment deadline: Know how much money you’ll get

How will the tax issue be dealt with on the political agenda?

At the moment, these are the ideas contained in the reports of the two missions and with this we will start working on a project, which still does not have a draft. The Treasury junction commission is already underway, we have begun to analyze the projects that are going to be tabled, to organize a discussion on what the elected president called “the National Accord”, that is to say sit down with other voices in the country to agree on the best possible project, there is no ideal, but there is the best possible and while in Congress the governance builds.

We are making progress, on Wednesday there was good news and probably the president guaranteed majorities to present the first projects, but this must be based on programmatic agreements.

What is this ideal reform for you?

I think we need to put clearer numbers on that now, because the campaign ones were hypothetical, now they need to be grounded. But when I say an ideal project, it means that the country needs a structural reform that does not involve carrying out one every two years, as has been done in Colombia so far to solve the cash flow problems, but rather a reform that generates long-term rules of the game; If one of these reforms were carried out, which is the one proposed with the income tax, we release charges and conditions are created for the rules to be stable, that is, the best stability contract legal, fiscal stability.

In the campaign they were talking about revenues of around 50 billion…

Yes, but it is include income, equity, dividends, green taxes and a part that has nothing to do with the Nationn, which has the effect of strengthening the Multipurpose Cadastre so that the municipalities where it is dilapidated have better resources.

The question of income, to what extent can it contribute to this great objective?

At this stage it is better not to speculate with numbers and that the technical teams start doing calculations and actually know what can be obtained. For now, these were just hypothetical campaign estimates, with many of these numbers looking to see what might come out.

What will happen to VAT?

The main thing is to correct the distortions of income tax, we are not talking about VAT because it affects the basic basket and we do not want to set the country on fire.

They will get their hands on the Four X 1000…

It is a complicated tax in the sense that it cannot be removed if no income is found to replace it because we are talking about 9 billion pesos, the alternative has always been to increase the VAT by two points and now is not the time to touch this tribute.

What to do against large companies that are in the country, but do not pay taxes because the companies are registered in tax havens?

In addition to persecuting tax havens, government-to-government relations should be strengthened to obtain better information. HToday, the problem with so-called tax havens is that they have very reserved and restricted information, but the relationship with governments showed that it is possible to have collaborations, we cannot wait for the scandal to break out to find out that someone has something in a tax haven.

How to fight against the “lobby” of the various sectors which, in general, exert strong pressure when this type of tax reform is presented?

There is a proposal, which I have heard from some members of Congress, which aims to bring about reforms in the functioning of Congress and among the points it has is to avoid the presence of the “lobby” at moments of critical project discussions.

What has always happened with the tax authorities is that there is too much ‘lobbying’ and in a discussion on those of the budget or of tax reform, the room is full of people who have nothing to do with Congress. They want to reform that, because there is always a member of Congress available to ‘lobby’ and these Legislative practices must be purged, members of Congress do not have to answer to those who have funded their campaigns.

What do you see as the deadline for carrying out this reform?

The important thing is to prepare the best possible project with the help of the “National Accord”, that is to say that the spokespersons of the different parties participate, that it is not a party project but a project in which many voices of the country collaborate in its construction, in the search for the best for the country and that among the members of Congress it is well socialized, that they know the subject in such a way that it is not approved immediately, because it would do a lot of damage to the country.

TIME

No more news

Self-employed professionals, in the sights of the new taxation

Aviation: Colombia ‘flies’ in the resumption of domestic traffic