The Direcci?n General de Impuestos Internos, the national tax office, said that it will step up efforts to detect tax evasion this year. It announced it will investigate 5,500 firms of 20,000 that are registered in the DR. Four thousand of these will be audited for showing no accounting movement in recent years, and another 1,500 companies for declaring losses in 1998. Juan Hern?ndez said that these companies will not have any problems if they can truly demonstrate their losses, but they will have to justify the patrimony of their shareholders. He said there is a large number of companies created in the DR that do not report their operations to the DGII. He said that his department now has more credibility. In 1996, 13,500 companies declared their operations to the tax bureau. In 1998, 16,300 companies did so. Of the 13,500 companies declaring in 1996, 3,400 declared losses. In 1998, only 1,500 declared losses.
