Fines and Indictments in Malargüe for Not Paying Income Tax
<p style="line-height: 20.8px;"><span style="line-height: 1.6em;">The Court of Auditors of Mendoza applied the sanction after settling internal differences over whether the offending Foundation had generated damage. The resolution was that it was reprehensible to have held the same position in time. The problem was caused by the lack of cancellation to the collecting agency despite having the funds, reaching the end of the trial of urgency.</span></p> <div> </div>
The Court of Accounts in the province of Mendoza evaluated the accountability of 2013 of the Foundation for Economic Development and Business Promotion of Malargüe and found that it had decided not to pay income tax. As a result, penalties and interest expenses applied by the Federal Administration of Public Revenue (AFIP) and fees were generated.
The Foundation was established in 2004 and is made up of different sectors of society in order to promote projects in the Business Incubator Malargüe. The latter in turn aims to provide technical assistance to entrepreneurs, thus promoting regional economic development.
The area of the Court responsible for evaluating the cases, stated in its opinion that the Foundation "can not freely decide whether they should make introductions and payments to collection agencies but on the contrary it’s a legal obligation." In this situation the sector notes that "it should apply a solidarity surcharge in financial loss to the Treasury for more than $16 million."
However the body of provincial control, despite coinciding with the Secretariat that the payment of taxes is a legal obligation, said that "to financial constraints delays can arise."
For its part, the directors of the Foundation said in its defense that they have autonomy to decide whether to face the payment of taxes, if they ask for credit for cancellation or stop paying their fiscal responsibilities and "they use the AFIP as a financing source by paying the interest on the time of cancellation." The Court's report states that the Foundation argued that the latter option is cheaper than accessing a bank loan.
On this point the Mendoza Watchdog reports that "nothing justifiably demonstrates that they went through times of financial constraints" and therefore have the inability to pay. It adds that "a simple display of the balances of the two checking accounts in the Supervielle Bank to know that they had availability in excess to make the payments in a timely manner."
They also could not explain "why when summoned by AFIP they did not cancel the debt" and came to the point that "the entity will start trials of urgency with the economic consequences they bring" as compensatory interest and fines among other expenses.
Finally, the foundation in question "could not provide receipts to support payment of $11,380, to different people or firms for services performed by third parties and fees."
Given all this, and despite the advisory body saying that there had been a preconception, the Court considers it reprehensible "irregular administrative procedure is repeated over time," considered to be liable to a fine.
The resolution was "to charge the treasurer, the administrative manager and the president of the Foundation for Economic Development and Business Promotion Malargüe for $15,612."
In addition, they were punished with a fine of $2,000, $4,000 and $3,000 respectively.