In Costa Rica, the Ministry of Finance proposes to apply VAT to services such as Netflix, Airbnb, Tinder, Skype, PlayStation Network and advertising on social networks, among others.
According to a resolution of the Ministry of Finance that should be in consultation in the coming days, credit card issuers would be required to receive the 13% tax.
The list of digital services objects of the collection of VAT amounts to 190, as some are repeated, as companies use different names at the time of billing their customers.
The tax reform law that would be approved in second debate in the coming weeks, involves the exoneration of arrears and penalties for taxpayers who pay their debts in the first three months after the publication of the law.
The proposed measure consists of exonerating 100% of the interest on arrears and up to 80% of the penalty to taxpayers who pay in the first month after the Law is published in the official newspaper La Gaceta.
The Directorate General of Taxation has hired an external service that cross matches taxpayer data in public databases to identify suspicious patterns that might suggest misconduct.
The project called Predictive Model started to be implemented by the Ministry of Finance of Costa Rica this year, and aims to analyze the behavior of firms and individuals in order to identify suspicious or unusual patterns in the process of declaration of income and tax payments.
A bill to improve the fight against tax fraud authorizes the tax authorities to seize the assets and bank accounts of delinquent taxpayers, without a warrant from a judge.
An article in Nacion.com reports that the Technical Services Department of the Legislative Assembly has proposed a rule that "... could affect property rights and the privacy of individuals because it would allow Taxation officials to take possession of any money deposited in bank accounts, income from salaries and pensions. " and all this "... without a warrant, the Tax Administration would be able to seize assets and enter business establishments."
Limiting the deduction of interest from income tax and eliminating the exemption from payment of 15% for dividend distribution between companies are part of the changes included in the project.
The Bill to Improve Anti-Tax Fraud, presented by the Ministry of Finance amends various tax issues that must be taken into consideration by companies operating under Costa Rican law.
A A bill presented in Costa Rica aims to improve tax controls by forcing merchants to accept payments with credit and debit cards.
The bill introduced in the Legislature by the Ministry of Finance, entitled "An Act to improve the fight against fiscal fraud" includes other initiatives such as the imposition of a sales tax on property rentals of less than one month duration.
The new system proposed by the government will include all professionals who create invoices and not only those who work freelance, as had been mentioned in the current project so far.
The pilot project implemented by the Directorate General of Taxation in 2013 will cease to be effective as of now, as will the software and systems that were purchased for its deployment last year.
New guidelines from the Costa Rican Treasury Office will allow greater access to the most relevant data of companies who paid more than $500,000 in taxes in the past three years.
Large taxpayers now have the obligation to submit to the Directorate General of Taxation information on their financial status in unconsolidated digital format.
This measure is intended to increase oversight of the most important data of 500 companies which account for about 70% of the country's tax revenue. The Treasury defines major contributors to the company as those who paid more than $500,000 for taxes in the last three fiscal years.
Experts say that if the Directorate General of Taxation has more autonomy and flexibility it could improve recovery in the country.
The document entitled "The path towards fiscal consolidation " published by the Ministry of Finance, aims to transform the Directorate General of Taxation (DGT) into an entity with greater autonomy in managing its resources and personnel.
Costa Rican industrialists believe the VAT exemption proposed by the Executive will be ineffective.
A press release from the Costa Rica Chamber of Industry states:
Surprised. This was the reaction of industrialists on learning of the filing of an amendment to the Solidarity Tax Act Project by the Ministry of the Economy and Ministry of Finance, relating to value added tax.
If the project is successful, fiscal authorities will have access to taxpayer’s bank account information.
"This is the proposed Law for the Enforcement of Fiscal Transparency Standards, which was yesterday approved by majority at the Committee on Financial Affairs," reported Nacion.com.
The original bill required the intervention of a judge authorizing tax authorities to request information; the new legislation would waive this requirement.