They warn that the tax entity could allow micro and small companies to omit the registration of income, income or assets, including the use of false receipts, as long as it is the first time that it detects the lack.

SUNAT is close to losing the ability to inspect and penalize micro and small companies (mypes) that commit violations of the Tax Code.

New regulatory framework for Mypes is proposed

In the Congress of the Republic, it is on the agenda to insist on a bill, which was observed by the Executive Branch, which proposes a new regulatory framework for mypes in Peru. Among the measures is that the Sunat has a differentiated treatment with the mypes with respect to the rest of the companies.

According to the bill, Sunat could not penalize mypes for the first offense detected in the inspection, but only impose “educational measures.” For the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF) this is considered serious, because it “removes the teeth” of the tax administration, since it would treat companies that do not comply with the rules in a “benign” way, even in very serious cases. .

For example, if a mype is found that functions as a front for other activities and is only dedicated to issuing false invoices, it would only have to be sent to educational talks, without being forced to correct the offense committed.

The own observation of the autograph of the law indicates that this measure would allow mypes to omit the registration of income, income or assets; In addition, they could use false or adulterated vouchers to support the entries in books or records, as well as present declarations that are incomplete or do not conform to reality.

For this reason, it is considered that if this regulation is approved, Sunat’s control systems will be “perforated” since it cannot sanction.

In this way, the mypes could not be forced to comply with their tax obligations: register with the RUC, issue payment receipts, keep accounting books (if applicable), present their tax returns and pay the taxes determined in the statement.

“If the economic sanction is removed when there is a situation of evasion and avoidance, with education courses, we will have a problem. If we change the sanctions that come from Sunat for flagrant situations of tax omission, for alternatives of a course by the offender, the issue is, how do we do on the collection side?”, said the Minister of Economy and Finance, Kurt Burneo.

“Educate before punishing”

For the tax expert Walker Villanueva, the measure of seeking to “educate” rather than sanction is unnecessary because the tax code already indicates that the Sunat has a discretionary power to apply sanctions, including educational ones.

“The proposed measures are like saying that mypes operate as they want and that is not positive for the taxpayer or for tax policy. In addition, they are being given differentiated treatment, ”he specified.

Villanueva explained that the Tax Code allows Sunat not to apply sanctions in special, justified and reasonable situations, as in the case of the start of a new standard, as happened with the start of the obligation of electronic invoices, in the that was not sanctioned when it just entered into force.

Defense of the measure

The director of Mypes Unidas del Perú, Fernando Calmell del Solar, defended the project of Congress, stating that it is necessary for mypes to have a differentiated treatment since there are fines applied by Sunat, which cause the bankruptcy of these companies.

Although Calmell del Solar acknowledges that the initiative is quite open, he affirmed that the details for mypes to access this tax treatment can be made in the regulation of the standard.

“Both the Ministry of Economy and the Ministry of Production must determine the parameters so that one can qualify in this way. If the mype shows that its non-compliance is due to ignorance, the first time it can be forgiven so that it learns and the next time the weight of the law falls on it ”, he said.

Measurements would cost about S/. 11,500 million to the State

The Vice Minister of Economy, Alex Contreras, affirmed that the measures proposed in this bill would cost the State more than 1% of GDP every year, that is, close to S/ 11.5 billion per year.

Among the issues that concern the MEF due to its impact on the treasury, in addition to the differential treatment of mypes, the forgiveness of fines, interest or other administrative sanctions that are generated or would have been generated by non-compliance with contributions to EsSalud and the Social Security Standardization Office (ONP).

Forgiveness in tax matters is designed for situations in which a group of people, due to an external event, cannot pay a certain tax concept, having lost economic capacity. For the MEF, this situation is not supported by the legislative initiative of Parliament.

Source: Management