The President of the Republic, Gustavo Petro, sanctioned this Tuesday, in the Casa de Nariño, the Tax Reform for Equality and Social Justice, whose main objective is to attend to the historical social debt that the State has with the most vulnerable, in order to the hand of fiscal responsibility.
With this norm, the Government of Change will raise $19.7 billion in 2023 and an average of $20 billion in the following three years. These resources will be used, for the most part, for social spending, which is why the fight against hunger and poverty, education, health, environmental protection, energy transition, productive development and the popular economy will be prioritized. as well as the sustainability of public finances. In this way, the President fulfills one of the campaign promises.
“The interest of the government is to consolidate a sustainable fiscal policy, based on current income and the reduction of debt dependency. The Tax Reform is important for its purpose of equity and as an anticyclical factor in the coming world recession,” said the President on October 6, through his Twitter account.
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What will be the source of income for the Reform?
People with greater contributory capacity
Those with incomes greater than $13 million per month will pay more income tax. According to what was reported by the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit, more than two thirds of the additional collection of this tax come from taxpayers with monthly income of more than $20 million.
mining-energy sector
A surtax is established for the extraction of coal and oil that will depend on international prices; it will be 5% or 10% for coal; and 5%, 10% or 15% for oil.
In the case of oil, by 2023, the surtax will be 5% if the price is higher than USD 67 per barrel; 10% if the price exceeds USD 75; and 15%, if the reference Brent crude is higher than USD 82.
Also, the amounts of the royalties cannot be deducted from the income taxes of the companies of both sectors.
Goodbye to tax benefits
The text proposes the reduction of some specific tax benefits for some sectors and regions. In addition, the non-strategic ones were refined, rationalizing them to the activities that constitute public policy priorities in the territories.
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Healthy and environmental taxes
Taxes on sugary drinks and ultra-processed foods will take effect in November of next year, by which time a reduction in inflation is expected to have already materialized. It will only apply to producers who obtain income greater than $419 million per year for these.
This avoids taxing microenterprises that produce these goods, with a great impact on the popular economy, such as neighborhood bakeries.
In addition, foods with an important participation in the family basket, such as bread and milk drinks, were excluded from this tax.
Regarding environmental taxes, taxes have been established on carbon and single-use plastics.
The Government of Change seeks to have greater collection for the well-being of the most vulnerable as follows:
More investments, less evasions
The Tax Reform for Equality and Social Justice reduces the amounts, from which evasion becomes a crime, that is, natural or legal persons who now have income greater than $1,000 million in assets or liabilities that do not report will incur in sanctions established by law.
In addition, the norm establishes that the conditions for the criminal prescription of evasion become more restrictive.
See more: “Habemus” text of Tax Reform
Likewise, in free zones there will be a weighted tax: 20% for foreign sales and 35% for the internal market. Energy products sold to the domestic market, such as offshore gas free zones, oil refining and biofuel production, will be excepted.