Income tax, tax incentives and cooperatives in Latin America

Abstract

With a theoretical approach to tax incentives, direct taxes and their incidence on cooperatives, it was sought to identify the current Latin American legal systems for Income Tax. Especially, the norms that include the legal figures for the release of the tax are analyzed, verifying its scope, requirements and procedures for its application. It is based on the fact that the granting of incentives is based on the principle of tax equity and on the recognition of the countries about the benefits that they contribute to social and economic development. Therefore, the research is based on theoretical guidelines on incentives and equity for cooperatives. It is recognized that the region is heterogeneous but that it shares legal similarities, which makes it possible to contrast its regulations. For this reason, the comparative method was considered suitable. With this, the particularities of the normative systems of seventeen nations were understood, through the confrontation of their tax precepts, allowing the identification of their convergences and divergences. The results show that most of the countries integrate exemptions in the various legal devices and, to a lesser extent, countries that tax cooperatives with reduced rates or tariffs were distinguished.