Why the people of Bogota have not been able to pay their taxes and what solutions are there

The change of platform by the Bogotá Treasury Secretariat to facilitate the payment of taxes to taxpayers in the city did not work as expected and for several days now hundreds of Bogotá citizens have complained to the entity because they have not been able to obtain invoices for their tax obligations. Faced with the problems that persist until April 20, the authorities have proposed some solutions for citizens.

To solve the first complaints, it was assumed that since April 18, the people of Bogota could access the button “Download your invoice now”, to access their taxes, and in the same way use virtual alternatives to make payment by platform. But there are many citizens who insist that they have not been able to access any of the services. Faced with this situation, many Bogotá people have come to the entity's offices to hold long lines and ask for the problem to be solved.

For now, the Ministry of Finance has pointed out that the problem corresponds to the infrastructure of the page created to make the virtual payment, which is why they are waiting for the contractor to make the necessary modifications to make it work normally.

In the midst of the complaints, the district entity made excuses to taxpayers and a solution was proposed so that they do not worry about meeting payment deadlines. They established that, for the time being, they will give the contractor until Friday, April 22, to solve the technical problems of the page that citizens should already be using to have their detachables and make the payment of their tax obligations.

If by Friday the problem has not been solved, the District Secretariat is considering changes to the tax calendar so that taxpayers can have their invoice, make the payment and access the 10% discount, understanding that if they paid after a certain date it was because of the problems presented on the page.

This was explained by the Secretary of Finance, Juan Mauricio Ramírez. “We reiterate our excuses to citizens for all the difficulties that have arisen in the Entity's Virtual Office. If the problems persist on Friday, April 22, we will make the decision to move the tax calendar, so that taxpayers can pay the Property Tax with a 10% discount for early payment in a longer period.” However, the official added that there are about 660,000 taxpayers who are already registered on the page and that they can make their respective payments.

To speed up the process, the entity indicated that they have been sending invoices physically and by mail, in addition, that they will keep the button to download the invoice enabled. They also recommended to citizens that it is not necessary to go to the different points of care in person.

Secretary Ramirez recalled that this payment platform was awarded to the Temporary Core Tax Union SDH, in December 2017. “Since we took over the Administration in January 2020, we have been requiring the contractor to strictly comply with its obligations to the SDH. Once again, I have asked internally to review the source of possible failures and to take appropriate immediate action. At the same time, we continue to work on stabilizing the system,” he said.

It should be remembered that the idea of the button is that the application will ask you for a key (which is the number of the owner's document can be NIT, citizenship card or alien's card) and the CHIP of the property. With the physical invoice, printed on laser, they will be able to make the payment at the authorized financial institutions or on the bank portals that have an agreement with the SDH. Despite the help of the tool, users continued to experience problems.

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