Hacienda Minister Donald Guerrero was at the National Congress on Wednesday, 5 February 2019 to lobby for the passing of the Ley de Declaración Patrimonial y Revalorización. The bill for Patrimonial Declaration and Revaluation is described as a kind of fiscal amnesty that would establish a special and transitory tax regime for a period of one year for individuals and companies to clear their undeclared real estate and assets before the tax administration, explained Guerrero. In the visit to Congress, Guerrero was accompanied by the director of the Tax Agency (DGII) Magin Diaz.
The tax amnesty establishes a special tax on the assets voluntarily declared of 3% for real estate and 5% on other assets. Guerrero says the initiative comes after the passing of the Asset Laundering Law and is presented by the Executive Branch to avoid that non-declared assets be persecuted by the authorities as fiscal fraud or asset laundering.
While the government is backing this bill, it told journalists that the timing is not right for the passing of the Tax Reform Bill, as called for by the National Development Strategy 2030 Law 1-21. Several sectors have asked that a tax reform simplify the present tax system. He said instead the government would continue to concentrate on improvements in the tax administration.
Diario Libre reports that in 2018, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) recommended the Government focus the adjustment on the expansion of the tax base and on the exemptions and tax incentives and the simplification of the tax system.
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Diario Libre
7 February 2019
