Following the large information about Nutresa's OPA, the journalist of a renowned international media for economic information, how many taxes this business could leave Colombia.The response, based on current regulations, is that these operations would hardly help to clean up the country's finances.
First, because, as in other areas of taxation, there are multiple exemptions and benefits that reduce or eliminate taxable income.For example, those of actions registered in the stock market are not taxed, when the individual operation does not exceed 10% of the actions in circulation of society.In addition, if they have been possessed for more than two years, although they are not in the stock market, they only pay 10% of the profit taxes, which is considered occasional, but there are mechanisms to reduce it, recognizing in the fiscal cost the effects of inflation.
This special tax treatment was intended to be a stimulus in procurement of shareholding in the country, but in practice the effect has been totally opposite.According to a study by the National Securities Commission on the existing situation on December 31, 1987, at that date 0.2 percent of the shareholders had 81 percent of the shares, while the remaining 99.8 percent had19 percent.
Information released by the same entity in 1991, indicated that while 2,280 shareholders were owners of about 93 percent of the shares, 743,365 had the remaining 7 percent.By sectors, in the financial 2.48 percent of the shareholders had 97.92 percent;In trade 2.18 percent had 95.49 percent, and in public services 1.26% had 95.49 percent of the shares.All of which shows that the tax stimulus generated a totally opposite impact to the intended one with the measures, in addition to a significant sacrifice for the treasury.Perhaps for that reason the issue of shareholding concentration in our country has not been played again, nor have more studies on the subject have been carried out, as was the case in the past.
The same goes for most tax benefits, created under any pretext, but without positive results for the State.Taxes are generally achieved through lizards and other bugs that have ‘power of conviction’ on parliamentarians.In addition to the strategies of the increasingly reckless experts in ‘Tax Planning’, which incorporate instrumented mechanisms through Panama or Pandora Papers in their models, to leave profits outside the country.
Some economic commentators, however, insist that the causes of the poor direct tax collection obey primarily to the low taxation of natural persons.But they do not say that the majority of the workers earn less than a minimum wage.
Horacio Ayala Vela Private Consultant
