Diesel oil may be more expensive for the field after the tax reform

By Marcelo Saleme Murad (*)

The ITC, or Tax on the Transfer of Fuels created by Law 23.966, has suffered in the last tax reform consecrated by Law 27430 an important modification that will impact on the finances of the rural man

Indeed, although the referred tax has ceased to be a sum "ad valorem" to become a lump sum subject to inflation adjustment - perhaps trying to be more equitable by decoupling it from the increase in the international price of oil - the percentage that the agricultural sector can "download" or technically, compute as payment on account, of the income tax has been modified

It is that although fixing the tax as a percentage (70% of the value of the Premium naphtha, for example) as did Law 23,966 that created the tax had the effect of raising the tax burden along with the increase of combustion is, replacing it by its equivalent in a fixed sum ($ 4,148 per liter of diesel in the current Law) and tying it to the inflation -which generally follows the dollar although a little more delayed- does not mean anything to the field, or may even be more onerous, if you reduce from 100% to 45% the percentage of this tax that can be computed as payment on account of income tax as provided in Article 15 of Law 27430. It should be clarified that the tax will be updated quarterly according to the Index of Consumer Prices provided by the INDEC pursuant to the provision of Art. 132 Law 27430.

That is to say that of every $ 100 that is paid today from ITC in the value of diesel (or gasoline), the farm can only take $ 45 on account of profits, while before the reform took the full $ 100.

And it is seen that the Government can not take off any of the two variables ( price of gasoline and type of cam bio) of the march of inflation; although he was very optimistic at the time of enacting the tax reform, so the alleged "decoupling" effect could not be achieved.

These days there is talk in the media of an imminent rise of 20% in the price of fuel (added to 13.5% that already increased between January and April of 2018), which will surely impact on inflation, and later, on the ITC; so computing only 45% of the tax as payment on account of profits, the result of the reform will tend to be neutral or, almost certainly, more onerous than the previous situation. That is to say, it is reasonable to expect that the reform implemented, given the current state of the economy, will end up playing seriously against the agricultural activity in this particular item, this tax burden being more onerous for the rural man.

to wonder if in the end a good opportunity was not wasted to get out of the fiscal tangle that has afflicted us for decades.

* Lawyer - specialist in business counseling and tax law. ]