The Government of Luis Arce presented a bill to include digital platforms that offer their services in Bolivia, such as Netflix, Amazon or YouTube, in the collection of Value Added Tax (VAT).

What is sought with this measure is that companies that offer their services from abroad pay taxes as nationals do, said the Deputy Minister of Tax Policy, Jhonny Morales, in a statement released on Tuesday by the Ministry of Economy and Public Finance.

The draft was sent to the National Legislature to modify the law that created VAT and expand its scope to these digital services, explains the press release.

“What we are doing is expanding the scope of VAT to these companies so that they can pay taxes in our territory to the national treasury, because they are selling a service that is consumed in Bolivia, that is the idea. The important thing is that we are giving a uniform treatment to all digital services”, affirmed Morales.

Due to the experience gathered from neighboring countries, the payment of these taxes is usually assumed in a shared way between the company and the user, said the vice minister with regarding a possible increase in the cost of these services.

Morales assured that it is not a new tax and justified that neighboring countries already charge taxes to transnational firms for the service of digital platforms. According to the Bolivian authority, in Uruguay “22% is paid for VAT, in Argentina 21% , in Chile, Colombia and Costa Rica 19%, it is indicated in the communiqué. “

If the standard is approved, we will also enter with a 13% rate,” he said.

With this measure, the Arce government plans to collect the equivalent of about 4.3 million dollars, which the authorities foresee that “it will gradually increase over time because the digital market is going to expand,” according to Morales.

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