COLOMBIA

On April 12, Senator David Barguil (Partido Conservador – ally of the ruling party) announced that he is submitting to Congress a bill to apply a permanent surtax on Income Tax (IR) to the financial sector. The initiative proposes to tax financial entities with 36% of the IR, thus increasing what these institutions must pay this year (34%). Barguil is expected to introduce the bill in the short term.

According to Barguil, if this initiative is approved, it would raise 1 trillion pesos per year, which would be destined to the construction of rural roads and the improvement of educational infrastructure. “It is immoral to reduce taxes on the financial sector, and even less so in this situation the country is going through,” said the senator. He also said that banks grew four times more than the GDP in the last years and that “they should pay back what they have earned, following a logic of tax equity.”

It is worth remembering that Law 2010 of 2019 proposes that the IR applicable to the financial sector is set to be 34% in 2021 and 33% in 2022. As of 2023, financial entities will pay the current rate for legal entities, set at 30%.