Business leaders want an integral tax reform now

Santo Domingo.- For the National Business Council’s (Conep) leaders the integral tax reform which it has proposed several times cannot be subjected to any electoral-political conjuncture, because what it seeks is the country’s competitiveness, correct tributary distortions, increase national production and exports, among other points.

Conep president Manuel Diez Cabral stressed that reform must include expenditures and reduce the economy’s informality levels, estimated at nearly 60%. “If we’re going to go through another process of patches, the Conep isn’t going to support that process. Now, if we’re going to discuss an integral tax reform which deals with the topic of cost and that focus isn’t how much money is going to be received, it should be instead what’s going to be done so the productive sectors are competitive.”

Without providing more details, the business leader noted that the reform process should lead to more tax fairness and expand the coverage of Government revenue.

Diez also affirmed that the reform should eliminate the one percent fixed tax on assets, because in his view it is very distorting and penalizes a company even if it has losses.

In the case of the ITBIS tax, the Conep president affirmed that although they’ve yet to agree on it, it’s advisable to expand its base and reduce its percentage. He said the integral tax reform had to be done years ago, but acknowledged that it’s magnitude makes it difficult to accomplish before the May 20 presidential election. “Realistically it isn’t going to have a political interest so it won’t be carried out until the next President is chosen.”

For Conep vice president Ligia Bonetti, it’s important to question the presidential candidates on their position regarding the integral tax reform, to ask a rendering of accounts to the one elected.