José Daniel López, managing director of the Applications guild Alianza In, There are 19 subsidiaries in the industry that provide income to more than 150,000 families.
Additionally, although Colombia needs a tax reform, the union and the industry are concerned about a few points in this regard, as the platforms and collaborative economy ensure a large capacity for people, but they have legislation that may or may not explain them. Legislation on the market realities of the 21st century.
What are the Union’s concerns about tax reform?
We openly admit that the country needs tax reform because of its financial situation, tax reform is of course important, but now this cannot be done at the expense of the country’s competitiveness and investment, let’s say, one of the most important sectors in terms of foreign funding.
First of all, there are two specific issues in the tech industry that worry us, and those are the people who pay the bills who can access jobs through technology, but also impact users, digital consumers. it has fewer options and ultimately higher costs.
We are concerned about a figure promoting the tax reform called important economic assetbecause it could translate into a new tax for non-Colombian digital platforms and affect the significant economic presence of companies.
What has been determined is that platforms selling more than 1,100 million pesos Those with the .co domain name or a certain number of usersIt will be understood that they reside in Colombia and a compulsory residence has almost been established for them so that they will have to pay income tax.
We agree with the tax liability of the platforms and in fact, digital platforms already pay VAT for their technological services since 2019; however, if it seems like a contradiction from our union that mobility platforms and drivers such as Uber, Beat, Cabify or Indrive, where the police are committed to fines and immobilizing their cars, seems to be a contradiction that no one understands, as a result of not being regulated a legal activity is working on these platforms, but not regulated and it is also seen as a great hope in tax collection in this sector.
So, we think we welcome the tax discussion from our side, but we believe it should be accompanied by a pending process for an optimal and investment-beneficial regulation in the country.
This significant economic asset figure violates the free trade agreement with the United States because 11.5. The article states that neither the Government of Colombia can compel establishments or branches of US companies to acquire a residence nor the United States of America can compel Colombians. Firms in the US market use this application; Thus, with the figure apparently trying to increase tax collection, what we will achieve is to isolate ourselves from the scheme of violating the FTA with the US, sending a message of absolute contradiction to mobility platforms.
And what does it all result in: What are we going to do less competitive?It is less attractive for digital platforms in the field that are considering entering Latin America and can choose other countries without these conditions.
We would like to accompany the discussion of tax as well as a discussion on the regulation of digital mobility platforms. Well, here we say we have a position at the table and we want both the Government and the majority coalition in Congress to show us their positions.
This is the first offer. The second recommendation is that we do not act unilaterally on significant economic presence.hopefully with multilateral agreements
This is a second issue that worries us about tax reform. In our guild there are some of the so-called Colombian unicorns, companies that were born in Colombia and have achieved great international success. This situation rap or one Truorais a very important company in terms of digital fraud prevention. They succeeded in this and set an example for many entrepreneurs.
However, it will be very difficult to invest as there are projects that are very expensive and require very aggressive investment; So what entrepreneurs do is go looking for equity funds for shareholder interactions in their company with business ideas, to get capital to grow their business.
What the tax reform says in the wealth tax is that any citizen who manages to put together a digital venture like digital entrepreneurs do and goes out for an investment round and If you received $500,000 in your initial investment round, you will not only be required to pay for these resources, but also to respond. but now you will have to pay property tax.
Additionally, one of the concerns is that Colombian investors or entrepreneurs prefer to host their ventures not in Colombia but in other Latin American countries.
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