Double Tax on Financial Transactions

Market actors in El Salvador claim that transactions are being subjected to double retention, both by brokerage firms and the bank related to it.

Friday, September 19, 2014

Because of the speed with which the financial sector has been forced to comply with the withholding tax on financial transactions, effective from September 1st this year, the same market participants are claiming that investors are suffering because they are being billed the tax twice on each transaction.

The general manager of the Stock Exchange, Javier Mayora, noted that "... the haste with which the reform was implemented has not allowed banks to have the technical conditions needed to retain the tax -without major difficulties-, and therefore this has translated into daily complaints about fees being charged which has already been taken by the brokerage house. "

Elsalvador.com reports that "...As noted by the CEO of the Exchange, although as a brokerage house they are fulfilling their function of retaining the tax on transactions, they are not even clear about the date that the tax is transferred to the Treasury, 'there are no forms, no guidelines to follow, we do not know the mechanics'. "

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