Colombians support new tax reform with less VAT and taxes on education and wages, says survey

Although the tax reform proposed by Iván Duque's government was responsible for the social outbreak in Colombia in 2021, Colombians responded to the most recent survey of Figures and Concepts where they say that the country needs another such initiative again, but with certain caveats.

This was evidenced in the study of the firm, which joined the Fiscal Observatory of the Javeriana University, in which it is evident that many citizens are unaware of the country's tax issues, but they continue to demand that the Government lower taxes.

For example, to the question of whether they agree that those who earn 5 million pesos a month have $1,250,000 tax-free, 17% of compatriots said they agreed; in addition, 16% of respondents responded to wanting special rates for books to be eliminated, as well as eliminating tax benefits who have those who earn more than 13 million pesos per month.

With regard to the prepaid health system, 13% of participants said they supported reducing the value of these services, as well as favoring eliminating the exempt income of subsidies to buy social housing.

Perhaps of the answers with the lowest results of the study have to do with eliminating the benefit received by saving for the pension, given that only 9% were in favor of this idea. However, only 7% acknowledged that they make withholding at the source, while a few 4% said they declare income tax annually.

Regarding the overall results, 69% of respondents said they asked for an invoice when they buy something, while 31% said they did not. Likewise, 63% responded that they do look at VAT, while 35% said they did not.

In contrast, 62% agreed not to receive the bill if they are charged less, while 38% said yes. As for the perception of whether in Colombia we pay more taxes than in other nations, 73% think we don't, and 27% think so.

Perhaps of the most surprising figures is that 73% of respondents responded not to declare or pay rent, while a meager 26% said they did.

Education and taxes were also consulted in the study. According to Figures and Concepts, 42% of Colombians said they would agree to pay an additional tax that guarantees free universal university education; 38% said they would not pay it.

On the environment, 40% acknowledged that they would support a tax to reduce environmental pollution, while 34% were against it. Likewise, 28% said they were prepared to be charged a wage tax as long as they guarantee that they would maintain their employability.

Pensions, which have been so controversial these days because of the presidential candidates' proposals, were also investigated. To the question of “Do you agree to eliminate the exempt income received by Pension Fund Administrators (AFP), which costs us 555 billion pesos a year?” , respondents answered yes (48%) and no (52%).

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