Current Situation
The State of Guatemala stops returning on average GTQ 800 million annually. When analyzing the data and projections of the SAT, it can be established that the impact is large for the country's productivity, since approximately USD 6 billion per year is no longer circulated in the economy. According to the estimates made by Central American Business Intelligence (CABI), they indicate that the accumulation of files that the SAT has not concluded from 2012 until 2018 has left losses that exceed the GTQ 40 thousand, due to the effects they have on financial liquidity, the consumption, investments and the payment of taxes that could be generated by these activities. This happens because entrepreneurs and exporters let invest in more products, jobs, and investment in general.
The big problem with the return of the tax credit is that, over the years, the SAT has not been able to create an efficient, transparent and systematized mechanism to expedite this payment. In addition, problems of administration, blurring and expenditure of resources are generated within the different companies that by law enjoy the right to the refund of the tax credit. It also causes discretion of public officials causing the rules to be unclear. The result of poor management in the return of the tax credit translates into the flight of capital from the country and lack of incentives to attract investment, as this has a direct impact on the productivity of capital. The State, by not complying with the return of the tax credit in the term and in the manner established by law, contributes to the weakening of legal certainty and institutions.
Proposal
The economic mechanism that the Government of Guatemala uses for the operation of the refund of the fiscal credit must be improved. Improving the mechanism should immediately reduce the leverage, deficit and debt generated by the incompetence of the tax authorities regarding the authorized return of financial resources that belong to companies and that are indispensable for their working capital.
Currently the State fails to comply with the law and procedures, which has led companies to initiate legal processes to obtain the refund, generating additional costs and deteriorating the relationship with the tax administration. That is why compliance with the law must be strengthened and tax credit return processes must be improved. The law determines the terms and procedures that must be met for the return of financial resources. To this we must add the need to simplify the process of refund of the tax credit and include the reduction of the number of steps and documents for the registration and updating of as people subject to the refund of the tax credit.
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