An overwhelming majority of cases of tax evasion that enter the Public Prosecutor’s Office don’t receive legal punishment. This was confirmed on Thursday by the Comptroller General, Marta Acosta, who spoke before the Commission for Control of Income and Expenditure of the Legislative Assembly.
According to the official, they counted all tax evasion cases in the country between 2000 and 2018, and only 1.9% of the total got a sentence.
This shows that our system is weak and measures must be taken,”
said Acosta.
The Comptroller presented the results of an audit last December, in which it was pointed out that evasion only in the case of sales tax had increased by at least 2% between 2012 and 2016.
Likewise, it was indicated that the number of delinquent taxpayers had increased in the period 2014-2017 by 28%, and as of December 2017, seven out of 10 registered taxpayers had some delinquent debt.
The document also indicated that the debt in arrears grew more than 150%.
This Thursday Acosta delved into the issue and pointed out that there are serious deficiencies in the area of Customs and the Tax Office.
After knowing the data, the legislator Franngi Nicolás questioned that the fiscal plan was approved to give more stability to the country, but the government has not accompanied the issue with a plan to attack the problem.
Acosta said that for the moment the Comptroller is waiting for the Treasury to respond to the report, where an action plan is requested in terms of evasion of the value added tax (before sales).