Home » Technology » Netflix | Spotify | Payment of taxes for digital platform services will impact collection, according to tax experts | ncze | ECONOMY

Netflix | Spotify | Payment of taxes for digital platform services will impact collection, according to tax experts | ncze | ECONOMY

An alternative to increase tax collection in the country is to place tax controls on digital platforms, in which many of them had a faster growth in users during the pandemic. This was pointed out by Walker Villanueva, partner of Estudio Philippi, Prietocarrizosa, Ferrero DU & Uria.

The National Superintendency of Tax Administration (Sunat) in 2019 presented an initiative to the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF) so that these types of services can be taxed with the collection of the General Sales Tax (IGV). At that time, the then head of the collecting body, Claudia Suárez, said that this measure could generate between S / 150 million and S / 200 million a year.

When consulting with representatives of the MEF on this initiative, they indicated to this medium that the issue is still under evaluation.

WHAT WOULD THE PROCEDURE LOOK LIKE?

According to Villanueva, the project that raises the IGV would be in electronic commerce transactions of the B2C type (business to consumer) and the problem arises in cases where the service provider does not reside in Peru and the user is a natural person without RUC, since the current tax regulations do not apply to this type of operation.

“If you hire a Glovo and it is a digital platform that charges you an amount from abroad, then you are not taxed because a natural person is paying. On the other hand, if you contract with Chazki, which is a Peruvian platform, they charge you tax. Here there is a competitive advantage with foreigners and, for fairness, it should be eliminated, “he said.

In this sense, the taxpayer mentioned that, if there is legislation with the B2C service, the VAT payment will be made by the natural person who is subscribed to Netflix, Spotify, Apple Music, etc. This would be done with surcharges to users’ credit cards.

“If you pay US $ 10 for Netflix, additionally the bank will charge you US $ 1.8 for the IGV and it will be deposited to Sunat,” he said.

A second actor to collect would be the providers of the digital platforms. “For example, Chile has a simplified regime to register suppliers, they give them a RUC that identifies them,” he explained.

This measure is not unrelated to other countries in the region such as Colombia, Argentina and Mexico, where the services provided by digital platforms are taxed with VAT (Value Added Tax, equivalent to VAT) with rates of 19%, 21% and 16%, respectively.

For the tax lawyer Jorge Picón, the big issue is how this collection will be carried out. “Obviously, it will be the natural person who will pay that VAT, but you would have to have a mechanism because collecting for credit cards has a cost, so Sunat has had to check if it is not going to be more expensive that way,” he said.

He mentioned that other countries implement it because they have a more solid banking system than ours. “Control with them is not difficult, in ours it will be very complicated.”

Picón said that this measure would help to generate higher collection, but it will be insignificant and could reach S / 20 million annually, and not S / 200 as Sunat pointed out.

INCOME TAX

According to Walker Villanueva, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) wants to unify taxes on the digital economy.

“His proposal consists of calculating a global unit of the profits of multinational companies so that they can pay taxes proportionally to the jurisdictions where the clients are located. Obviously, if the highest value is in the United States, its collection will be higher, “he said.

He argued that as Peru wants to join the OECD, it will most likely wait until June of this year to implement that measure that considers the Income Tax.

However, several countries did not want to wait and, in addition to VAT, imposed taxes on digital services.

“So they are charging 3% to 7% of the billing. Peru should follow the same guidelines and receive 5%. Once the OECD puts its global proposal into operation, it repeals the current tax, “he said.

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