As Covid-19 spreads globally it’s a job to keep track of the changing tax developments in countries worldwide. Governments need to respond to the challenges of keeping citizens safe while ensuring that their respective economies survive an unprecedented fiscal shock.
Monitoring the fast-moving pace of tax law changes is our specialism particularly in emerging countries, where securing accurate information can be challenging at times.
This post focuses on Chile where President Piñera and the central bank announced a few days ago a guaranteed $24 billion credit line for small business. Also welcomed is the deferral of VAT payable for the period April – June 2020 for businesses with annual sales up to $11.8m. Also, VAT payments can now be made in 6 or 12 equal instalments at 0% interest starting in July 2020.
This is with a government sponsored $11.7 billion stimulus package equating to 4.7% of the country’s GDP. Bank interest rates have already been lowered to 1% which in combination with a new law providing cash transfers to low income households. This ensures an additional 670,000 households will receive funds – the estimated cost of this is $170 million.
Global TaxUpdate will keep monitoring all relevant changes in order to keep you up to date with the latest tax measures.