The Department of the Treasury loses $700 million
to $900 million a year, courtesy of tax evasion by the white-collar sector,
which includes but is not limited to doctors, lawyers, entrepreneurs and
corporations, carrying out multiple maneuvers to flout the State.
The figure comes from estimates issued by economic
analysts consulted by USA Today Puerto Rico Edition and is based upon the taxes
that were never paid by corporations and white-collar professionals, but not on
one-time jobs or illicit activities, such as drug trafficking.
“The Treasury has lost that battle against tax
evasion. And that front has been reduced with the introduction of
amnesties,” said economist Luis Benítez, former co-chairman of the Tax
Reform Committee in 2005.
Despite the fact that the Treasury doesn’t
disclose estimates of how much it fails to collect annually for this type of
evasion, the agency confirmed to USA Today Puerto Rico Edition that between
2009 and 2011, it identified 103 white-collar tax evasion cases, of which 45
have been prosecuted.
According to the Secretary of the Treasury, Jesús
Méndez, of said total of cases 41 have been taxpayers who failed to report
their income; and for those, the amount due totals $74.7 million. These cases
have already been referred to the Department of Justice.
There are various ways of tax evasion. One of the
most common ones is seen every day in offices and businesses that only accept
payments in cash.
“If the Treasury wishes to fight tax evasion, they
should simply go stragiht to medical offices,” said José J. Villamil, economist
and president of the Board of Directors of Estudios Técnicos.
Contrary to payments made with credit or debit
cards, cash transactions are harder to trace, the economist noted. According to
Villamil, there is no other reason for a company to only take cash as a form of
payment.
Another way of tax evasion is taking cash payments
and not reporting them to the Treasury. The business may be accepting other
forms of payment, but it conceals or reports a lower number of cash
transactions, which registers a reduced amount of income, and thus the taxes to
be paid for said income.
According to economist Ramón Cao, an expert in tax
matters, another method used by white-collar tax evaders is to inflate expenses
in order to pay less tax. “They deduct the yacht, vacation trips and other
expenses that are not business expenses.”
The Sales and Use Tax (IVU, for its Spanish
acronym) is another tax evasion mechanism. Ironically enough, the IVU was
implemented in 2006 as way to increase tax collections, which were plummeting
at the time. It was difficult for the Treasury to implement fiscalization for
the payment of 6.6 percent in excise tax by importing companies, but they
assured the IVU would be easier to monitor.
Today, IVU tax evasion nears the 50 percent,
according to figures from the Treasury and the Foundation of the Certified
Public Accountants Association.
According to economists, there are businesses that
charge the IVU but don’t send it to the exchequer, whereas others are not even
registered at the Treasury Department.
“There has always been” tax evasion said the
economist who estimates that it’s higher now than it was one decade ago.
💬Ver 0 comentarios