For the possible commission of the crime of Tax Fraud, the Superintendence of Tax Administration intervened the commercial company J.I. Cohen.
The intervention was authorized by the Pluripersonal Court of First Criminal Instance in Tax and Customs Matters of the Municipality and Department of Guatemala, informed the Superintendence of Tax Administration (SAT).
In order to force companies to comply with the payment of taxes on sales made through electronic channels, as of June 2021 SAT will begin to use a digital platform that will analyze the information that appears on social networks.
The restrictions on mobility decreed during 2020 due to the outbreak of covid-19 and the change in consumption habits, boosted the growth of online sales in the Guatemalan market.
After inconsistencies were detected between purchases reported by taxpayers and sales that the company declared to the tax authority, an investigation was initiated in Guatemala into the "La Barata" supermarket chain.
During the morning of December 7, representatives of the Public Ministry (MP) and the Superintendence of Tax Administration (SAT), held a press conference in which they explained some details about a new case of alleged tax fraud by the chain of stores "La Barata."
For the first time, the country's Courts of Justice sentenced six people to 10 years in prison for tax fraud against the Public Treasury, a sentence that corresponds to the case of a clothing importing company that defrauded over $575,000.
Carlos Vargas, general director of Taxation, indicated that during 16 years the taxpayer who was condemned used all the procedural guarantees until the last instance.
In this scenario of economic crisis, falling tax revenues and the need to finance recovery programs, in Guatemala and Costa Rica it is already proposed to increase current taxes and create new ones.
Guatemalan authorities are already beginning to discuss the fiscal policy they will apply in 2021, when the economy will have to face the effects of the economic crisis generated by the covid-19 outbreak.
The Superintendence of Tax Administration announced that it will audit companies that pay less than the sector average, that do not invoice and that have sales in different social networks.
The country's tax authority has turned its attention to online commerce, since in this new business context and change in consumption habits, Internet sales have increased exponentially.
Facing the proposal of the authorities to abolish the banking secrecy in the country, businessmen of the industrial sector are opposed, because they argue that there are already legal procedures in the country to do it through a judge.
At a press conference on February 11, Finance Minister Rodrigo Chaves defended the proposal to access sensitive information from taxpayers and said that by lifting banking secrecy they were seeking to tackle tax evasion.
As a result of the elimination of banking secrecy in Guatemala, the business sector announces that it will be alert to "respect due process and the confidentiality of taxpayers.
One year after having suspended access to taxpayers' bank information for fiscal purposes, at the beginning of August the Constitutional Court ruled definitively and revoked the suspension, so that in the coming weeks the changes will begin to apply.
A proposal is made to amend the law in order to limit the granting of criminal dispensation to one time only when the amount of the tax obligation defrauded is paid before the first instance sentence or during the investigation phase.
The Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF) will soon present a project to modify article No. 288-J of Law No. 70 dated January 2019, a proposal that is supported by the business sector.
One year after the suspension of taxpayers' access to bank information for tax purposes, the Guatemalan Constitutional Court ruled definitively and revoked the suspension.
The Panamanian government assures that if the law that criminalizes tax evasion is not approved, the country will be exposed to enter the FATF grey list again in 2019.
From the Ministry of Economy and Finance press release:
The Ministry of Economy and Finance considers that it is necessary for Panama that the National Assembly approve the law that increases tax evasion to a criminal offence and as a precedent for money laundering.
The good functioning of the institution in charge of collecting taxes is vital for ensuring economic development, as it means that honest companies who comply with their fiscal obligations are not at a disadvantage to those who don't.
EDITORIAL
In Costa Rica, better administrative management has made possible better income tax collection figures than those foreseen with simple tax increases.
The exemption of fines, interest and surcharges will will be in effect from May 20 and will last for three months for all taxpayers, whether natural or legal.
Diario de Centroamérica reports that "...The Agreement establishes terms to obtain between 100% and 90% exemptions.From that account, taxpayers who pay all their debts within the first month will receive a 100% reduction in fines, interest or surcharges; 95% for those paying in the second month, and 90% for the third month."
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 declaration of unconstitutionality has been given to the section of the tax code that allowed the Treasury to demand payment of penalties and interest allegedly owed on taxes before the right to a defense can be exercised.
The slowness and inefficiency with which the Taxation department processes tax disputes, sometimes involving decades before there is a resolution, led to the outlandish idea on the part of lawmakers of putting the cart before the horse.In order to solve the problem of stubborn evasions where people take advantage of the inefficiency of the Taxation department, a decision was made to take away from companies the right to contest the results of tax audits, forcing the taxpayer to pay the amounts ordered by these audits, within in a deadline of one month, in order to be able to initiate formal questioning of those results.Now, the Supreme Court of Costa Rica has taken away that power from the Taxation department, declaring it unconstitutional.