Although there is still a long way to go before the new government can present to Congress the text of the bill for the new tax reformone of the main objectives of the initiative will be to increase the level of fundraising by natural persons, especially those who, despite having good levels of income, use many figures so that the money they receive is not not detected by the radar of the Directorate of National Taxes and Customs (Dian).

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Ricardo Bonilla, economic advisor to the President-elect’s campaign Gustavo Petroexplained to EL TIEMPO that there are no plans to lower the income threshold for natural persons to be declarants, since there are labor incomes, which already pay what they have to pay.

But the same is not true for the income received by the owners of many companies, especially medium-sized ones, which are not recorded as such or as dividends, but as company expenses, As is the case with fees invoiced, most of the time in cash, by professionals or self-employed persons such as lawyers, doctors, traders, architects or even accountants.

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According to Bonilla, in the first case, these are accounting devices used by the owners of companies, especially family ones, through which the natural persons who own these companies receive income, but they are not registered as such or as dividends but as business payments or expenses. For these and other reasons, 80% of the total revenue collected comes from companies and only 20% from individuals.

In the case of dividends, Bonilla pointed out that the objective is to find how to identify them, since in legal persons and in natural persons with a company, with a company and NIT, assets and payments are declared that do not have nothing to do with the purpose of the dividend.

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“The dian It must strengthen its inspection capacity so as to be able to separate the assets that are the object of the business from those that are not. Those that are not surely correspond to shareholders as natural persons, because they are apartments, houses, recreational farms, club memberships, cars and multiple things that have nothing to do with the purpose of the business, but which serve to reduce tax. basis of the company on which the taxes are calculated,” he said.

And in the case of independent professionals, Bonilla believes that Dian’s e-invoice and exogenous information should be fully utilized, largely underutilized in concept, to capture income information that is not readily available. .

These resources are part of the so-called capital income, which also includes leases, interest and other resources, including dividends, which do not constitute income, but which the Canadian mission has identified and declared that it was not possible for Colombia not to be part of the tax base, as is the case in any country of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

Among the initiatives of the new reform is also included, under this same line, that the wealthiest Colombians who declare income pay a little morewhile in the corporate tax, the line we are working on is to eliminate exemptions and benefits, which will allow to have lower rates, 25% for the largest and 20% for the small ones.

ECONOMY AND BUSINESS