Experts warn that the draft law which aims to raise income tax and convert sales tax into value added tax might not be approved for two years.
The lack of consensus between the Ministry of Finance and the President of the Republic, Luis Guillermo Solis, is sending mixed signals on some aspects of the tax reform. One example in the case of corporation tax, an issue that the president himself has stated he disagrees with.
Requests have been made for the clarification of which telecommunications services are to be taxed with VAT, since it is unclear whether it is information services or telecommunications which would be taxed.
Currently telecommunications services are charged sales tax, even though the Costa Rican government aims to close the digital divide. With this new reform proposal, a Value Added Tax (VAT) of 15%, "would be incurred ...
The Executive is proposing to reform the scope of the law and charge a "registration for coffee production fee" of $0.50 per hundredweight.
Despite the outbreak of coffee rust, the debt of $200 million and the funding crisis facing the coffee sector, the Salvadoran government intends to collect more taxes. Currently the bill raised by the Executive Branch is being analyzed by the agricultural legislative committee.
The Costa Rican Chamber of Food Industry notes that new taxes will lead to the informalisation of the activity.
From a press release by the Costa Rican Chamber of Food Industry (CACIA):
An encouragement to informal work and unemployment, is how the Costa Rican Chamber of Food Industry, CACIA, sees the proposed Fiscal Consolidation Programme of the Government, as part of an economic situation which is in no way adequate for the collection of taxes.
The fiscal consolidation document presented by the Ministry of Finance of Costa Rica proposes considering surplus capital distributed by cooperatives and solidarity associations as passive income.
"Capital passive income, is, for example, dividends, mutual funds and bank deposits, among other things, which currently have different rates. The initiative proposes a single rate of tax for them. "
The tax system in Costa Rica is chaotic, complex, unfair, disproportionate, inequitable, and ineffective, which affects development and competitiveness, encouraging tax evasion and smuggling.
In an analysis piece in Elfinancierocr.com items, Danilo Villalta notes the need for comprehensive reform of the Costa Rican tax system, starting with a "strategic planning process" to approve a plan "agreed with the various political forces, and subsequently according to that plan, develop bills with the participation of specialists in order to have legislation that is clear, transparent, simple and easy to apply by the administrator and the taxpayer. "
If passed the new reform would create taxes for financial transactions, unproductive properties and newspapers.
Elsalvador.com reports that Carlos Caceres, head of the Ministry of Finance stated that "The President (of the Republic) has instructed the Ministry to evaluate a proposal acceptable to him and to society, that is politically acceptable and not damaging to the productive sectors and to the poorest people. "
The Sala IV has rejected the tax reform bill that was approved in the first instance in Congress, citing procedure errors in the legislative treatment.
The court decision means, in principle, that the bill that the government calls the "Solidarity Tax" will be returned for consideration by congressional representatives and it will therefore be at least another four months before it can be approved.
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.