One day following the presidential inauguration, the Treasury He presented the tax reform project, an article of 69 points that will be transformed as it passes through Congress.
There are several points that have an impact on the financial system, not only on the profits of the entities, but also on inclusion and investment. In this sense, LR carried out a survey with the country’s bankers regarding their position regarding the articles.
A first point is to maintain the income tax surcharge of 3% for the sector. The directors agree that it is anti-technical, but that, given the fiscal needs of the country, it should be kept only temporarily.
“We think that it goes once morest horizontal equity between sectors. We understand that from the point of view of the situation it is an important tax for the collection of the State, that is why we think that a context like this might merit an additional 3%, but we have said that we are once morest a permanent tax”, said the president. of Bbva Colombia, Mario Pardo Bayona.
The president of Bancolombia, Juan Carlos Mora, agreed with the foregoing, who stressed that “what should not be a permanent overrate, because that does punish the profitability of the sector and probable investors who may be interested.”
While, for Javier Suárez, president of Davivienda, “we have technical reservations regarding the surcharge, but we understand the fiscal situation and we know that our task is to see how we are part of the solution.”
Added to the above is the point referring to the dividendswhich would no longer be taxed under a 10% rate, as in the current regime, but with a progressive rate that would go up to 39% for residents, while for non-residents, a 20% withholding would be applied.
For some experts, such a measure would imply double taxation and might have effects on investment and on the capital market.
“One of the issues that needs to be reviewed more carefully is precisely double taxation, the tax cascade. But you have to understand the needs that the country has at this time,” Suárez explained.
For Pardo, “effectively it is a double taxation for the chain of investors, because when someone invests they have some people behind them and they usually do it through a legal entity, for which the investors are controlled to a greater extent. It is an issue that has been mentioned in different forums and my understanding is that the Government is willing to sit down to see that impact”.
Another point that is included in the tax refers to the tax on financial movements. As explained by the director of the Dian, Luis Carlos Reyes, said tax would end for those who make movements of less than $13.3 million per month, which corresponds to 350 UVT.
According to the bankers, this is a measure that might accelerate financial inclusion, since it would eliminate access barriers.
“The 4×1,000 came at a time of crisis for the financial sector, but it threatens bankarization. It does seem to me that the gradual dismantling is interesting so that more people want to have their money in the banks. It is in favor of having less cash and generating more electronic transactions”, noted the president of Serfinanza, Gian Piero Celia.
Carlos Iván Villegas, president of Tuya, highlighted that the 4×1,000 is a barrier to financial inclusion. “Many people have preferred to keep cash so as not to pay the 4×1,000 and that opens the gap for financial inclusion, for the formal use of savings products, for the use of electronic means of payment.”
However, there are still several doubts regarding how the process would be carried out because, according to the president of AsobancariaHernando José Gómez, it would be sought that people use the exemption in all their accounts, in order to have flexibility and use that cap of $13 million as if it were a quota.
“This creates a very big operational challenge for us, because each bank has its accounting and real-time monitoring of what happens with its customers, but such a bank does not know how the other operates and vice versa. So what is proposed in the tax is that someone or something in a centralized way knows the movements of all the users of the financial system, not only daily, but in real time, “said Gómez at the Banking Convention.
In the midst of the discussion regarding this tax on transactions, the president of Bbva Colombia proposed that the measure also apply to Micropymes.
“We have suggested that something similar be considered for legal entities, especially we are thinking of Micro-SMEs, which currently have that incentive to remain informal and can use financial transactions up to a certain amount. In this way, we might gradually introduce them into the formality,” said Pardo.
And what is the effect of the tax reform on the capital market?
Several experts have already warned of the effect that the tax reform may have on investment, especially through the capital market. The president of the Colombian Stock Exchange (BVC), Juan Pablo Córdoba, assured that it is key that the incentives for companies do not end, so, as a country, “we must decide how we want to tax business income, if in head of the person or company. The way the proposal is, they are taxes in cascade, that is, one on top of the other, which is not convenient”.
