By means of Legislative Decree No. 1535, published on March 19, 2022, a new compliance profile was created, which replaces the Good Taxpayers Regime. This new mechanism qualifies taxpayers in 5 different profiles depending on their level of voluntary compliance with tax, customs and non-tax obligations administered and/or collected by SUNAT. This new mechanism classifies taxpayers into 5 different profiles depending on their level of voluntary compliance with tax, customs and non-tax obligations administered and/or collected by SUNAT.
In this line, last December 30, 2023, Supreme Decree No. 320-2023-EF was enacted, which contains the regulation of this new mechanism. In it, it was determined that the implementation of the assignment of the compliance profile to taxpayers would be carried out gradually, being the first stage those subjects that generate third category income.
The most relevant aspects generated by this new mechanism are presented below.
What are the profiles?
The Administration assigns the taxpayer a qualification according to the following:
- Rating A: Very high compliance level.
- Rating B: High compliance level.
- Rating C: Medium compliance level.
- Rating D: Low compliance level.
- Rating E: Very low level of compliance.
How is the rating performed?
The Administration evaluates the taxpayer’s tax behavior in the 12 months prior to the assignment of its rating. Thus, according to Article 6 of Legislative Decree No. 1535, it will take into account the following factors:
- The behavior of compliance or non-compliance with the taxpayer’s obligations.
- The communication of indications, complaints or proceedings for the commission of a tax and/or customs offense by the taxpayer; being relevant, in the case of legal entities, the similar communication of the legal representative.
- Conviction for tax and/or customs offenses. Likewise, in case the legal representative has a sentence in force for such offenses.
- The legal representative has a resolution of attribution of the condition of subject without operative capacity.
Specify that when the following subjects are in the last two levels of compliance, this will have an impact on the level of compliance of the entity of which they are part:
- The natural person who is the owner of an EIRL.
- The partners, shareholders or stockholders who own more than 20% of the capital of a company.
- The manager, general manager or administrators.
New taxpayers
New taxpayers are considered as new taxpayers, for the purpose of assigning the compliance profile, those who during the evaluation period have less than 6 months performing third category activities, either because they have just started their activities or because they have temporarily stopped performing them.
Those subjects will be assigned the C Rating, unless they incur in one of the assumptions of article 6 of the aforementioned Decree, which will generate a lower rating.
Modification and effects of the assigned rating
This assignment is made on a quarterly basis and takes effect on the first calendar day of the month following the notification of the assignment resolution.
With respect to modifications, once the rating is assigned and notified, the taxpayer has a term of 10 business days to present its arguments, which will be resolved within a term of 30 business days by the Tax Administration. Likewise, the qualification undergoes a periodic quarterly evaluation, so the taxpayer may improve or worsen the initially assigned qualification depending on its incurrence in the factors mentioned above.
Effects of the new compliance profile
Likewise, Legislative Decree No. 1535 made a series of amendments to the tax legislation, of which the following are noteworthy:
- Taxpayers in Classification E may not change their tax domicile without prior authorization from SUNAT (article 11 of the Tax Code).
- Taxpayers classified as D and E are subject to the precautionary measures determined by article 56 of the Tax Code (article 56 of the Tax Code).
- The rectifying tax return of taxpayers in Classification D and E will not take effect until 90 business days after its filing (article 88 of the Tax Code).
- Requests for refunds from taxpayers with Qualification E will have a term of 6 months for their resolution (first final complementary provision of Legislative Decree No. 950).
- In foreign trade operations, taxpayers with Qualification D and E are obliged to use Means of Payment when the amount is 30% of S/. 2,000 or $ 500 (article 3-A and 4 of Supreme Decree No. 150-2007-EF – TUO of the Law for the Fight against Evasion and for Economic Formalization).
- Taxpayers that are in Qualification A that carry out imports may use the amounts deposited by the SPOT for taxes levied on imports (article 9 of Supreme Decree No. 155-2004-EF – TUO of the Law for the Payment System of Tax Obligations with the Central Government).
- The Banco de la Nación will enter as collection the amounts deposited by the SPOT when the taxpayer is in Qualification E (article 9 of Supreme Decree No. 155-2004-EF – TUO of the Law of the System of Payment of Tax Obligations with the Central Government).
- The compliance profile assigned will impact the authorization of foreign trade operators (articles 20, 26 and 167 of the General Customs Law).
Recommendations
Since the implementation of the compliance profiles is currently in force, it is recommended to be attentive to SUNAT’s notification since in case of disagreement with the assigned qualification, it should be challenged as soon as possible.
Thus, compliance profiles have an impact on the decision making of companies and on how SUNAT perceives them; therefore, it is vital that they comply with their tax obligations. At VAG Global we have Tax Consulting & Tax Compliance services that will help your business to always be qualified as a responsible taxpayer.
Sources: SPIJ 1307521 / SPIJ 1366318