The National Union of Businessmen (UNE) and the Association of Industrial Firms of Herrera (AEIH) yesterday backed the tax amnesty idea recently espoused by famed businessman Jos? Luis Corripio ("Pepin"). UNE’s President Andr?s Dauhajre also backed Corripio’s call for simplification of the DR’s tax bureaucracy and paperwork, with all forms made easy-to-use and all rules clear, precise and easy to comprehend, apply, enforce and inspect. He warned, however, that such an amnesty should be a one-time affair, not to be repeated, and intended solely to allow individuals to address "distortions" in their accounting and tax declarations so that tax payment and collection can proceed more smoothly and accurately thereafter. AEIH’s President, Ignacio M?ndez, urged that those seeking amnesty be required to provide full accounting of their ownership and tax liability and to pay all taxes due. It should be an amnesty only in the sense that taxpayers would not be back-charged or fined for taxes not paid in the past which are being brought up-to-date during the amnesty.The head of the Internal Revenue Directorate-General (DGII), Juan Hern?ndez, has said that the Fern?ndez government would support a "conditional" amnesty as long as it was established by a law passed by Congress. He pointed out that the Administration’s first economic reform package submitted to Congress in 1997 included a type of amnesty where taxpayers would have paid a symbolic fraction of tax owed when they came clean in their reporting to DGII.
