In Guatemala, the Superintendence of Tax Administration completed the computer development phase of the platform, which will manage the new Electronic Regime for the Return of Tax Credit.
This computer development includes the registration for exporters who wish to adhere to this new Regime, as well as the implementation of the Electronic Form for Request for Return of Tax Credit Electronic Special Regime (SAT-2251), informed Agexport.
The changes that had been made to the Regulation of the Value Added Tax Law in Guatemala came into effect.
This is Governmental Agreement 222-2019 modifying the Regulation of the Value Added Tax Law, which contains provisions regarding the mechanisms for the recovery of the tax credit to exporters created by Decree 4-2019, informed the exporters' union.
Since November 4, 2019, the SAT Form 0471 entered into force in Guatemala to register in the new Electronic Regime for the Return of Tax Credit.
To apply to this mechanism, one of the requirements is to be incorporated into the Online Electronic Invoice Regime. According to Agexport, exporters of both goods and services are also eligible.
Standardizing procedures and applying administrative silence in favor of the taxpayer, are some of the proposals that Congress has received for reforming the current regulations.
Due to the widespread delay in the tax refunds which is still harming the majority of the companies in the country, the Central American Institute of Fiscal Studies (Icefi), the Center for National Economic Research (Cien) and the Association of Exporters (Agexport), delivered to the Economic Commission at the Guatemalan Congress, a proposal to modify the regulations that are currently applied.
The Tax authorities have announced that during the first quarter of the year they expect to start making reimbursements corresponding to requests for the fiscal periods of 2013 to 2015.
The acting superintendent of the Tax Administration, Abel Cruz, said that companies that have already been audited will be able to receive the corresponding settlement.
Guatemalan businessmen claim that their operations are being affected by delays up to three years in the tax refunds, when the established periods are 30 to 60 days.
Last week, the Public Prosecutor's Office announced the dismantling of a structure that facilitated refunds of the tax credits through means of illicit payments, operating both internally and externally in the Superintendency of Tax Administration.
The almost $300 million in tax credit that the tax administration plans to return in the short term correspond to requests for fiscal years from 2013 to 2015.
A year after modifying the processes to provide more transparency in the return of tax credits to exporting companies, the Superintendency of Tax Administration is preparing to accelerate the procedures and return credits that have been delayed for more than two years.Intendant Leonel Villamar commented that"..."There is a dam that we need to evacuate and we are working with taxpayers to speed up delivery."
Changing how tax credits are returned is one of the proposals put forward in the reform of the rules for the VAT Act proposed by the tax authority.
Three years after the last modification to the regulations of the Law on Value Added Tax came into effect, it has been proposed that it be re-edited, in order to improve and streamline the audit processes.
The new charges of tax evasion against Aceros de Guatemala demonstrates how the cumbersome procedures for receiving tax returns foster dishonesty among officials and businessmen.
The Justice Department and the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala have accused the company Aceros de Guatemala of committing tax fraud and customs fraud offenses, worth more than the $33 million, and which could be linked to the of customs fraud network dismantled a few months ago known as "The Line".
The Tax Authority (SAT) owes to domestic exporters about $313 million in tax credit refunds.
This was explained by the superintendent Carlos Muñoz, adding that "... this amount represents the backlog in tax credit refunds of Value Added Tax (VAT) to Exporters and there are cases which have been awaiting payment since 2011," noted an article in PrensaLibre.com.
Government Finance Officers in Guatemala acknowledged that instead of returning the credit to exporters, the money was being used for miscellaneous budget payments.
An article in Elperiodico.com.gt reports that "the need to finance public spending in the last months of 2012, led the Ministry of Public Finance (Minfin) to take the "political decision" to use the $50 million (Q392 million) from the Coffee Support Trust and nearly $13 million (Q100 million) from the account for repayment of the tax credit to exporters, even though these resources have specific destinations established in Decree 31-2001 and Section 25 of the Value Added Tax (IVA by its initials in Spanish) Act. '