The director of the Tax Agency (DGII) Magín Díaz explained that his department will be installing early this year advisory centers to help small business comply with their tax obligations. The new centers are part of a move to replace the present facility for small business, the Procedimiento Simplificado de Tributación (PST) with a less bureaucratic Unico system. He said the ruling for the new system would be available for public hearing discussions prior to its passing and implementation. Díaz spoke on the TV program, “La cosa como es,” produced by journalist Edith Febles on Channel 45 of Teleradioamérica.
“Rather than selling this process as the elimination of the tax advance (anticipo), I would say that it is about the relaunching of the simplified tax regime authorized for small businesses,” he explained. He said the less complicated system seeks to encourage more businesses to formalize their operations.
He said that the PST has not been successful. In operation since 2007, it only is used by around 10,000 small businesses, despite the hundreds of thousands that would qualify. But he said many companies were irregularly using the PST to avoid paying taxes.
The DGII says that the Unico model would be available for small companies with sales of up to RD$8.7 a year. It would be relaunched in coordination with the Ministry of Industry & Commerce small business program under Ignacio Mendez.
“If small companies use this scheme, they will not have to send forms every month, like large companies; they will not have to pay ITBIS every month, they will not have to pay the advance payment every month,” said Díaz, making clear that the facility does not mean that small businesses still maintain their tax obligations.
Díaz estimated tax evasion in the Dominican Republic at 60%, and evasion of the ITBIS, the local sales tax, at around 45%.
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DGII
24 January 2019
