Deloitte Panama published a complete tax guide comparing the most relevant fiscal matters between Ibero-American nations.
The document includes the following topics:
0. Comparative Summary
1. Tax on company profits
2. Tax on income from employment, economic activities, capital assets, real estate, and capital gains of individuals.
3. Income Tax for Non-Residents
2010 will be a difficult year for the region's Treasuries, and tax reforms will be one of the weapons used by governments to fight this crisis.
Nicaragua has recently passed a highly controversial fiscal reform. Panama approved tax hikes for companies in the Colón Free Zone, as well as tobacco, casinos and insurance companies. In Guatemala the government proposed a tax reform to increase the tax burden, which includes raising income tax from 5% to 6% and taxing mobile communications. The Salvadoran government intends to raise taxes to alcoholic beverages, tobacco, weapons and ammunition, as well as vehicle registration and commissions at insurance companies.
"If we want first-world services, we must pay first-world taxes" - Laura Chinchilla.
The tax burden in Central America hovers between Guatemala's 9.9% and Nicaragua's 17%. In Brazil its 29%, whereas Scandinavian countries have tax burdens around 40%.
Tax collection has been hardly hit by the economic crisis, making evident the need for fiscal reforms to solve the structural problems of the region's tax systems.
It is official: Latin Americans pay less taxes that almost all of the inhabitants of the other regions of the world.
Two new studies by the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (CEPAL) show that tax collection by Latin American governments is not only below that of the 30 most industrialized nations of the world, but that it is also lower than that of southeast Asia and Africa.