In response to approval of a new tax of $0.65 per telephone line, operating companies have returned 6 million lines to the Telecommunications Superintendency.
Representatives from Claro, Tigo and Telefónica each returned 2 million inactive numbers with the aim of adjusting their internal policies to adapt to the new tax which will come into effect next year.
The mining union is opposed to the increase from 1% to 10% for precious metals and the elimination of voluntary royalties to municipalities contemplated in the 2015 budget.
Besides the new tax on the distribution of bags of cement and telephony, increased royalties for the exploitation of minerals and construction materials are also part of the new fiscal package which comes with the 2015 budget.
The argument is that the tax on cement will increase the cost of housing by at least 6% and the tax on phones will directly affect users of prepaid telephone lines.
From a statement issued by the Chamber of Industry of Guatemala:
The Chamber of Industry of Guatemala emphasizes that even though it promptly denounced the risk of lack of transparency and accountability of the state budget for Fiscal Year 2015, it has been approved and will lead to negative impacts on the population.
In order to finance the 2015 budget, Congress has approved a tax of $0.65 for the distribution of each sack of cement weighing 42.5 kg and the same amount for each mobile or fixed telephone line.
Between the two taxes it is hoped that a total of approximately $2,607 million will be raised to finance the General Budget of the Nation in 2015.
In the case of taxes on mobiles and fixed telephone lines, "...
Employers are complaining that the lack of clarity over how the income tax law is applied is generating legal uncertainty.
The law on income tax that arose from the tax reforms two years ago is still raising doubts among private entrepreneurs, who believe that the lack of clarity on how it should be implemented not only casts doubts and causes legal uncertainty, but also generates more informality.
Among other criticisms it has been noted that the tax would encourage established companies to move towards informality.
The executive has rejected the proposal that individuals and organizations who operate informally pay a $20 annual tax, which was intended to expand the tax base.
According to the Guatemalan vice president, Roxana Baldetti, who proposed the tax, " ...
The Executive has proposed that individuals and business organizations that operate informally pay a single tribute of $20 a year.
The Guatemalan vice president, Roxana Baldetti proposed formalizing the informal economy through payment of a single annual tax of $20 which would apply to micro, small and medium enterprises operating in this segment of the economy.
The main freight union of Central America has issued an ultimatum to the government of El Salvador to modify the collection of the new tax levied at customs offices.
Representatives of these unions which integrate the Central American Council of Transport have given a deadline of May 31 to amend this charge, otherwise on that date, if Congress has not amended the law which created the new tax, the truckers will go on strike for an undefined period causing heavy losses to Central American companies.
The recently approved tax reform seriously affects operating conditions for this market.
The recently approved tax reform prevents vehicles which are more than 7 years old from being imported and establishes a tax known as First Registration of Vehicles (Iprima in Spanish), representing a rate calculated on the estimated market price and not the import price.
And apparently for bureaucracies in general, including those of international organizations; an "expert" from the Inter-American Development Bank is supporting tax reform in Costa Rica.
Although officially the IDB "does not advocate a tax burden or specific tax policy," one of its officials warmly supports the project to increase the tax burden to support the Costa Rican economy, to the point of suggesting that the tax burden be similar to Argentina’s.
The coffee sector has announced its opposition to a proposal to establish a 5% surcharge on Income Tax (ISR in Spanish) for the agricultural sector.
A press release by Anacafé states:
The Guatemalan coffee industry via the National Coffee Association, Anacafe, has expressed concern about the establishment of a 5 percent surcharge on Income Tax,, referred to in the draft Anti-Evasion Act II which is now being considered in the Congress of the Republic. Political parties in their current campaigns have said that they will not raise taxes, their representatives in the legislative body have already made agreements to approve them.
While other Central American countries are preparing taxes to combat insecurity, Nicaragua declares that it is not an appropriate option.
The president of Guatemala, Alvaro Colom, proposed to his peers in the isthmus region the creation of specific tax to combat organized crime and the violence it generates.
Although the proposal didn’t prosper at the meeting of the Council of Finance Ministers and Central Finance, both Costa Rica, El Salvador and Honduras are working on the implementation of a national tax for their own security plans.
Analysis is underway to charge a specific tax on mobile telephony in 2010, either to all calls or just international ones.
A 0.1 Quetzal per minute tax (approximately $0.01), is one option being considered to increase fiscal revenues, within the National Emergency and Economic Recovery Program, know for its initials as PNERE.
Marco Cerezo Blandón, PNERE coordinator, "states that one of the objectives of the program for 2010 is fiscal sustainability", reports Sigloxxi.com. "To achieve this 'a Q0.10 per minute tax to mobile calls is being considered' said Cerezo, as well as other mechanisms to raise the state's revenues".