TAX REVOLT: Business leaders call for new tax code veto
Business leaders, at Panama’s Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Agriculture, have called for a presidential veto of a law amending the Tax Code.
According to the country's leading business association, approval of retroactive changes will impact fiscal 2012 financial planning and business management.
Bill 491, approved on third reading, will create a new excise tax, and replace the new system of monthly advances of income tax (AMIR) by the previous system of estimates.
The project, as approved "with drums beating" last week in the National Assembly, gives retroactive effect to the mechanism required to raise income tax, employers warned. .
The reforms, says the statement, "act to the detriment of the taxpayer and contravene the Constitution, according to which only laws of public or social interest can be made retroactively".
The Chamber, the most representative business association in the country, says it has always fostered a climate where clear, workable rules prevail, ensuring that when changes occur in crucial aspects of the economy investigation prevails instead of "surprise and taxation ".
