The amount exempt from payment of the Foreign Currency Exit Tax is $5,000. Above that value, the authorities are demanding the amounts not collected by the financial system during the use of credit cards.
The director of the Internal Revenue Service (SRI), Francisco Briones, explained that the controls have been automated and strengthened to verify the full payment of the Exit Currency Tax (ISD).
According to current regulations, all payments for goods and services acquired abroad are exempt from ISD if they do not exceed an amount of $5,000 per year. Any value above those $5,000 must pay the tax, but if it is done through a card, for example, the collection must be made by the financial system.
However, Briones pointed out that when a person has more than one credit card at different banks, the situation becomes more complicated.
“The financial system cannot verify, for example, that you used $3,000 on one card and spent $3,000 more on another. So you have $1,000 over the exempt amount and the tax must be paid. With cards from the same bank you can crossover, but if they are from different banks it becomes more complex. The SRI, if it can cross the database, can establish the differences and communicate it to the taxpayers”, he said.
In other words, the differences in ISD generally occur when the taxpayer used more than one credit/debit card, because when the natural person or company exceeds the exempt annual amount with an issuer, it makes the corresponding tax withholdings, as established by the Regulation; however, other credit/debit card issuers are unaware that you exceeded the exempt amount with another issuer and do not withhold.
The director of the SRI even revealed, during an interview on Radio Centro digital, that he himself was notified for an unpaid difference.
«Last week I received a notification from the SRI to my personal email. That notice said I owed $45 for ISD billing differences via credit card. What I did was pay because it is what is appropriate, “he said.
According to official information, the ISD payment control program corresponds to the years 2020 and 2021. The information of 85,545 taxpayers has been verified and a total pending payment of $12,322,551.69 has been determined.
On average, the amount to regularize that falls to each taxpayer fluctuates between $136.58 and $149.41.
ISD Overview
1.- The ISD must be paid for the transfer, shipment or transfer of currency made abroad, whether in cash or through checks, transfers, withdrawals, credit cards, etc.
2.- There is an annual ISD exoneration value for consumptions or withdrawals made through the use of credit or debit cards.
3.- The annual exempt amount is equivalent to five thousand (USD 5,000.00) dollars, adjustable every three years based on the annual variation of the Consumer Price Index -General CPI- as of November of each year.
4.- For fiscal years 2016, 2017 and 2018, the amount of the ISD exoneration corresponds to $5,000.
5.- For fiscal years 2019, 2020 and 2021, the annual exempt amount corresponds to $5,017.33.
6.- For fiscal years 2022, 2023 and 2024, the adjusted amount of the ISD exoneration corresponds to $5,109.79.
The format of the notification that is reaching taxpayers by mail is the following:
The Lasso government has implemented a more rigorous control plan to increase collection without having to raise taxes. On the contrary, in two years, more than 10 taxes have been eliminated and reduced. (JS)