Confusion and chaos, that is what comes to light every time Venezuelans are consulted about the so-called tax on large financial transactions (IGTF) or tribute to payments with currencies and cryptocurrencies, such as bitcoin (BTC). The new tax began to be collected this week.
In a tour made by CriptoNoticias through several businesses and commercial chains that operate in the country, it was found that, for the most part, those consulted they are not charging the 3% that they must apply to payments in currencies and cryptocurrencies.
In theory, the new tax should have been applied since last Monday, March 28, however, those consulted state that they are not clear about how or to whom to apply it.
Today, in supermarket chains there were people paying with dollars in cash, while in an electronics store a customer used bitcoin to pay for a new smartphone. None of them were told about the IGTF.
The employees of these establishments assure that they have received information about the tax on payments with foreign currency and cryptocurrencies, but their employers have not informed them when they will begin charging the established 3%. Some say that they need time to adjust their fiscal machines which require updating the billing software, since it is the mandatory instrument where the amount paid by the IGTF must be reflected.
In fact, merchants are requesting an extension to the Integrated National Service of Customs and Tax Administration (Seniat), to face the difficulties they have in collecting the new tax on payments with foreign currencies. But so far there has been no official statement.
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Unofficially it is said that some special taxpayers raised with the tax authority the difficulties faced by their businesses to be able to adapt their computer systems and fiscal machines.
So, once the willingness to comply with the new rule has been expressed, they will apparently be allowed to make their adjustments and adapt their systems progressively, in order to collect the new tax.
Some companies like pharmacodo, are already applying the IGTF charge, as reported by users on social networks. However, the fast food chain Arturo’s announced that it will not receive foreign exchange for having confusion regarding the collection of the tax.
“Arturos’s de Venezuela informs all its clients and relatives that, motivated by the uncertainty generated by the application of the new Tax Law on Large Financial Transactions, we are forced to temporarily suspend the receipt of foreign currency,” he described in the text of a release spread on social networks.
The fast food chain subsequently issued a new statement in which he reported that the suspension of foreign exchange payments was maintained while it adjusted its systems for the collection of the new tax.
Pay with bitcoin or bolivars, a frequent dilemma
Cryptocurrency payments, especially bitcoin, are becoming more common in Venezuela. The cryptoactive can not only be used for cross-border transactions, but it is also easily used and is a good alternative to solve the shortage of bolivars that has prevailed in the country for several years.
Buying products, services or food and paying for them with bitcoin is always the ideal for those who have cryptocurrencies. For this reason, the community celebrates every time a new establishment adopts bitcoin as a payment method.
However, the IGTF in Venezuela taxes payments with cryptocurrencies other than the petro in businessescompanies or premises that have been qualified by the Seniat as special taxpayers.
In this sense, every time someone goes to a business or premises and makes payments with bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies you will have to pay the 3% fee stipulates the tax. This only when it is done before the Special Taxpayers (SPE) who are the agents appointed by the Seniat to collect the new tax.
So a person with bitcoin, at the time of making a payment to a special taxpayer, will have to evaluate if he does it directly with the cryptocurrency, or if on the contrary use one of the exchange platforms available in the country to exchange your BTC for bolivars.
Payments with legal tender in Venezuela are exempt from the new tax, but in the operation you can lose up to 5% of the available amount. So, depending on the case, paying directly with BTC may be more beneficial, as one bitcoin user pointed out when preparing to pay at a business.
“Bitcoin is going to continue to impose itself as the best payment alternative that exists in the country,” said Marlón Hernández, a user who believes that with bitcoin there is nothing to worry about in the face of the new tax.
I am not going to change my BTC to make payments with bolivars thinking that I can save 3% of this new tax because the operation can be more expensive and I also trust that the amount that the government subtracts from me, soon I can replenish my profitability that bitcoin can give us each month. It is already something that we are used to in Venezuela and fortunately we have learned that, if they take it from us on one side, on the other we can recover it.
Marlón Hernández, bitcoin user.
The IGTF is a new blow to everyone’s pocket
The IGTF or tax on payments in foreign currency is a new blow to the pockets of ordinary Venezuelans, as well as to small and medium-sized merchants, says Armando Martínez, who runs a chemical products store in the east of the country.
He believes that 3% of the tax on payments in foreign currency has already been adjusted in a price increase made by the commercial chain from the moment the new tribute was announced. “What happens is that now, we will pay this double tax, every time we have to buy each product or pay for services with dollars or bitcoin,” he said.
Rosalba, a merchant who asked not to be identified, described the new foreign exchange tax as an “illogical” measure by the government. From her point of view, the law forces small merchants to acquire new fiscal machines to collect a tax that will not benefit you at all.
Fiscal machines cost between USD 1,000 and 2,000, which in many cases is what you can produce in a month. So if you have that amount, you will always be wondering if you should buy a new machine to collect taxes or if you should invest in raw materials or items to stock your business and have the possibility of generating profits for the next month. It does not seem logical to me what is happening in Venezuela where we are all struggling to survive, but at the same time measures are being implemented to discourage small businesses.
Rosalba, Venezuelan merchant.
As reported by CriptoNoticias recently, the financial lawyer Daniel Betancourt said that a tax with the characteristics that this tribute has on foreign currency or cryptocurrency operations in Venezuela, is not usually implemented in the tax systems of countries. This is because it is considered an aggressive instrument from an economic point of view.
In any case, if someone refuses to comply with the retention or payment of taxes, they can suffer serious consequences.