Law 257 of November 26, 2021 amends Law 99 of October 11, 2019, which grants general tax amnesty for the payment of taxes, amends Law 76 of February 13, 2019, relating to the Tax Procedure Code and establishes other provisions.
The following are eligible for the tax amnesty period for taxes due and in arrears as of January 31, 2021:
- Individuals and legal entities, and real estate, including those taxpayers who have payment agreements as of the effective date of this Law, in arrears in the payment of taxes, duties and special contributions as of January 30, 2021.
- Taxpayers, withholding agents and other persons responsible for the payment of taxes.
- Taxpayers who maintain pending processes for additional settlements, ex officio levies or any other payment demand before the DGI, prior waiver of the claim or appeal for payment of the obligation.
- Taxpayers and other persons responsible for taxes who, having made payments equal to or greater than 25% of the balance owed in order to formalize payment agreements during or before August 3, 2021, and that for reasons attributable to the DGI it was not possible to enter into payment agreements.
The tax amnesty period is extended until January 31, 2022, subject to the following conditions:
- Up to 75% of the total interest, surcharges and fines will be forgiven if payment is made after August 31, 2021 until January 31, 2022.
The taxpayer who, at the time of availing himself of the benefits of this Law, has a payment agreement, may withdraw the same and must enter into a payment agreement, with a payment of 25% of the nominal tax due, at the time of entering into the payment agreement and subject to the following conditions:
- 70% of the total interest, surcharges and fines will be forgiven if the agreement is signed between September 2021 and January 31, 2022;
- That the term for full compliance with the payment agreement formalized by this Law extends until June 30, 2022;
- Those payment agreements that were formalized under Law 208 of 2021 and that by December 31, 2021 have already paid at least 51% of the total arrears will receive an automatic extension to pay off the payment agreement until June 2022;
- Interest, surcharges and fines will be waived if the amount owed is paid in full by January 31, 2022.
Due to the pandemic, the DGI has granted the benefit of a 15% discount of the property tax to the taxpayer, who within the first four-month period of the year 2022, pays the full amount of the property tax corresponding to that year.
By means of this Law, the Good Taxpayer Certificate is created, which may only be issued by the DGI under the following conditions:
- Compliance with the Single Taxpayer Registry(Registro Único del Contribuyente);
- Have a complete fiscal year, from the date on which they were registered;
- Comply with all fiscal and tax obligations in a voluntary and timely manner;
- To have no administrative or judicial proceedings for tax evasion.
This Good Taxpayer Certificate may be used: (i) by government entities that carry out public bidding processes as a tie-breaking mechanism in the event that two or more participants formalize similar proposals; (ii) by the financial sector as a parameter for the rating of its clients in the location transactions of its various financial products; and (iii) by the tax administration to prioritize processes, requests for procedures that taxpayers carry out before the DGI.