Within days of October 22 electionspresidential candidates Patricia Bullrich, Javier Milei and Juan Schiaretti signed the commitment to “promote a standard of fiscal transparency for the consumer” to make VAT and other taxes visible on the ticket that are applied to the purchase amount. The applicants adhered to a proposal from the non-governmental organization Lógica, for which all candidates for the Casa Rosada had been summoned.
In the letter, the NGO mentioned that Argentina “is one of the only countries that prohibits and sanctions the exhibition of VAT in the tickets of final consumers” and explained that other taxes national, provincial and municipal taxes that are applied to the purchase amount are also not visible on the ticket “despite the fact that they have a strong impact on the prices paid.”
The organization considered that the prohibition “attacks the fiscal conscience of citizens and has been functional to the successive economic crises of our country. In the world the rule is that VAT is exposed to the consumer, highlighting the case of Brazil, which advanced with a very transparent model (Federal Law 12,741 of 2012) that takes into account several liens for display on tickets. Inspired by this case, the proposal of Logic is that said information is explicitly visible on the consumption ticket.”
NGO demands greater fiscal transparency
The president of Logic, Matías Olivero Vila, He stated that “the fact that three of the presidential candidates have signed the commitment is very notable. It is a response to the incipient demand of citizens for tax issues. The lack of tax culture in our entire society has been functional to the deep economic crisis that we have been suffering for years, which is caused by a regime that systematically hides taxes from us.”
The prohibition of making the tax visible to the final consumer has been governed by article 39 of the VAT Law for 50 years. Those who do not comply receive a generic sanction, although for years a specific sanction was imposed according to article 8 RG 4333/1997 DGI.
In the case of taxes such as debits and credits, internal, gross income, municipal taxes, etc., are applied to the seller but are faced by the citizen without him noticing. This double concealment causes citizens to ignore taxes and how they are used in public spending, not supervising or demanding politicians for fiscal issues.
As highlighted by Lógica, if a regulation of tax transparency to the consumer “the veil will be lifted and people will become aware of how taxes impact their pockets.” In the vast majority of consumer products, the tax burden exceeds 40% of the final price, calculated by different entities (for example, IARAF for food, beverages, hotels, restaurants, etc., ADEFA for cars, ProTejer for clothing, Estudio Fargosi for plane trips, etc.).
In relation to the two candidates who did not sign the commitment (Myriam Bregman and Sergio Massa), Lógica stated that “They answered us from both teams that they could not meet due to agenda issues, but we will continue to insist and open to receiving their commitment until the last day before the ban. Because fiscal transparency goes beyond any ideology. The State has the duty to inform and the consumer has the right to be informed, based on article 42 of the National Constitution and the Consumer Defense Law.”
Differences with Brazil
In the world the rule is that the VAT either tax to sales is presented separately. Stands out Brazil with one of the systems with the greatest tax transparency for the consumer. According to article 1 of Law 12,741, tickets must include “information on the approximate value of all federal, provincial and municipal taxes that affect the formation of the respective sales prices,” whether applied to the seller or buyer. Eight taxes are mentioned to take into account, presented by national, provincial and municipal subtotals and the total taxes.
In line with this proposal, Lógica launched the petition change.org/ivaescondido, which to date has almost 50 thousand signatories. It can be signed on the Lógica networks @paisconlogica.
Olivero Vila concluded that “If this regime had been applied in the past, Argentina would never have had the highest taxes in the world because before, we Argentines would have opposed having the longest and heaviest tax in the world”.
Furthermore, he pointed out that “it is the most opportune moment to enact a consumer tax transparency law, taking advantage of the depth of the current economic crisis and in which citizens perceive how much they are suffering from all the fiscal excesses in their daily lives. It is necessary that This is reflected in our own culture, in a timeless and non-partisan way, so that the fiscal issue goes from the political sector to being a citizen policy. Only with this involvement and demand from society will we have logical taxes, logical expenses and, in short , a logical country.”
Source: Ambito
