Tax changes with the pension revive debate due to possible procedural defects

The Seventh Commission of the House of Representatives finished this Thursday – May 23 – the task it had pending and gave the green light to the 94 articles of the pension reform; that is getting closer to becoming a reality, despite the strong controversies that its process has left.

Issues such as the contribution threshold of 2.3 minimum wages for the savings fund, the entry into force of the project and the population sectors that will remain within the special regimes, including the military forces, They were ready for the final debate in the Plenary of this legislative body.

At this point it is worth highlighting that during his time on the commission, several attempts were made to adjust this Government initiative, as happened with the base contribution index, which received a proposal to modify it, arguing that it would improve the sustainability of the reform, which that finally ended up happening.

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However, among the articles that passed there is one that revived the debate against possible procedural defects that would have arisen in the development of the debates in the Chamber. This is number 85, the same one in which at the end of the votes in the Senate it was reported that there would be an alleged monkey that, although it was corrected, leaves a question in the air.

Can Congress make tax changes through pension reform? This is the question that at the moment is opening up among the different sectors that have been part of the debate and have closely followed the process of this project, since if the law is violated, the effort that has been made so far would be lost. of the Congress of the Republic.

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In order to find out if this is possible or not, Portafolio interviewed several analysts and members of social movements, who have different visions, although they agree that everything has a procedure or a duty that until now It has not been fulfilled as it should, leaving a bad feeling among those affected and spectators.

The first of them was Lisandro Junco, former director of the Dian and one of the first to alert the monkeys of article 85 in the pension reform. This tax expert started by saying that although it is possible and within the powers of the project’s speakers, per subject matter unit, there are other tools to make these changes of fiscal origin.

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“The fiscal impact is being generated from the pension, where they are going to have an expansion of the taxable income base and obviously withholdings are going to be applied for some pensions and for other declarations, withholdings and payments. It is good that they have corrected the missing word monthly in the initial version,” said this expert.

It is worth putting the controversy that initially existed with this initiative in context. It must be said that it all started because the text that came out of the Senate did not have the word “monthly” and simply stated that “all pensions, including pensions” would pay taxes. that Colombian residents receive from abroad will be exempt from income tax. They will be taxed only on the part that exceeds 1000 (thousand UVT).”

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With this, pensions of up to $3.8 would be taxed once the reform project was approved, a situation that undoubtedly generated a stir among Colombians, although it is worth highlighting that it has already been corrected and In its latest version, the missing word is added.

Another of the experts who spoke with this medium was the former Minister of Finance and now rector of the EIA University, José Manuel Restrepo, who was blunt when saying that tax changes cannot be made through a pension reform, although for him it is not what is happening in Congress.

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“You cannot, nor should you, make tax adjustments, because you cannot make those types of adjustments in a pension reform. But, it could eventually generate an additional cash capacity that in the end is even part of the purpose that this reform surely shares due to the transfers that should not be made or a reduction in transfers to Colpensiones, so let’s say that without being a tax issue, if It has tax implications, which is different,” explained Restrepo Abondano.

Another vision in this debate is that of Julio César Iglesias, a member of the ‘No Con Mi Ahorro’ movement, who on several occasions has warned that the pension reform not only has tax implications but also labor regulations, even if the Ministry of Labor did not want to recognize it every time the topic is put on the table.

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“From the economic point of view, in economic reality, this is a reform, rather than a pension reform, it is a tax reform, because it converts flows, contributions that were previously made to individual savings accounts, property of each worker, converts them into flows that will enter the State,” he said.

At this point he reiterated that “that is why we talk about a confiscation, to, as the President has said on several occasions, achieve the purpose of freeing up State funds or generating additional income to be able to finance a subsidy policy. That is, the allocation of workers’ resources to finance the State’s social programs is changed.”

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To all this we must add that currently the pension reform faces the possibility of a court reversing the effects of its last debate, since there is a protection at stake in which it is argued that the times were not respected so that the Opposition could present an alternative presentation, and it has already been accepted for study in the judicial branch.