NewsWhore
07-27-2009, 05:40 PM
Writing in Saturday's Hoy newspaper, Manuel A. Brugal comments on the way that the PLD administration has been very successful in implementing measures to reduce tax evasion to new record lows, especially at the Department of Taxes (DGII) and the Department of Customs (DGA).
He praises these efforts on the grounds that by making tax payments universal, the tax collection system is fairer, and it reaffirms the fact that all citizens are equal under the law.
Furthermore, it has succeeded in reducing unfair competition by companies that can compete on price because they don't pay taxes or benefit from contraband, or have a strong market position based on years of tax evasion.
And, he says that it helps make banking information transparent and sets correct credit rating information.
He also makes the point it gives businesspeople more space to have an opinion and actively participate in public discussions, because they cannot be blackmailed by the tax department. And finally he states that the government would have more resources for fighting poverty and providing incentives for exports, without whose growth we will not be able to defeat underdevelopment.
Thus he says that the efforts to reduce tax evasion are revolutionary.
But then he drives home the main point of his article. While he can applaud the tax collection efforts of the government, when it is time to spend these revenues this is done in a socially inefficient way, giving priority to the short-term political use of these funds, instead of using it to reduce our enormous social debt.
"And what is worse, a significant part of these funds is distributed through the corruption network and through the clientelism that is constantly fed by the government."
He concludes that this then discredits all the previous efforts, and the tax collection efforts loses legitimacy, because no one wants to pay taxes that will be thrown out the window.
"That will lead to a weakening of the government efforts to collect taxes and it will make it easy for another government to dismantle all the good work that has been done, because no one is going to defend something that is fraudulent.
"With its dual behavior, the government tells us that the modernism it has brought to tax collecting is not to modernize the country or to fight poverty, but to feed the primitivism in its spending, and in a poor country that is socially insensitive."
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#10)
He praises these efforts on the grounds that by making tax payments universal, the tax collection system is fairer, and it reaffirms the fact that all citizens are equal under the law.
Furthermore, it has succeeded in reducing unfair competition by companies that can compete on price because they don't pay taxes or benefit from contraband, or have a strong market position based on years of tax evasion.
And, he says that it helps make banking information transparent and sets correct credit rating information.
He also makes the point it gives businesspeople more space to have an opinion and actively participate in public discussions, because they cannot be blackmailed by the tax department. And finally he states that the government would have more resources for fighting poverty and providing incentives for exports, without whose growth we will not be able to defeat underdevelopment.
Thus he says that the efforts to reduce tax evasion are revolutionary.
But then he drives home the main point of his article. While he can applaud the tax collection efforts of the government, when it is time to spend these revenues this is done in a socially inefficient way, giving priority to the short-term political use of these funds, instead of using it to reduce our enormous social debt.
"And what is worse, a significant part of these funds is distributed through the corruption network and through the clientelism that is constantly fed by the government."
He concludes that this then discredits all the previous efforts, and the tax collection efforts loses legitimacy, because no one wants to pay taxes that will be thrown out the window.
"That will lead to a weakening of the government efforts to collect taxes and it will make it easy for another government to dismantle all the good work that has been done, because no one is going to defend something that is fraudulent.
"With its dual behavior, the government tells us that the modernism it has brought to tax collecting is not to modernize the country or to fight poverty, but to feed the primitivism in its spending, and in a poor country that is socially insensitive."
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#10)