The President of Chile, Gabriel Boric Font, received this morning the outcomes from the Social Dialogues for Tax Reform. The dialogues were an unprecedented process of participation throughout the country to agree on the foundations and principles of the new fiscal pact.
The dialogues brought together experts, trade associations, social organizations and citizens in general in different participative meetings between April 19 and June 4 this year.
During the event, the President stressed that “achieving a legitimate and lasting tax reform has to go beyond the political sector. That’s why I have insistently emphasized, while also learning from the experiences of the past, that this tax reform is not against anyone. It’s a reform for Chile. It’s a reform for fairer and more equitable development.”
In total, there were 17 citizen meetings for organizations throughout the country, in which 460 representatives from 181 social organizations participated. There were also 75 public hearings with organizations, trade associations and academics with technical knowledge in tax matters, in which 150 people representing various organizations participated; and a citizen consultation via website, in which 285 individuals have participated to date.
Speaking about the process, President Boric said, “I was pleased to see how these small entrepreneurial experiences were also linked to a large public policy.”
“Tax reform is fundamental to finance permanent expenses with permanent income. Chile has many possibilities, and if we do it well, I have no doubt that we will be able to make the most of them,” the President stated.
The conclusions of this process have been organized around a series of principles: progressiveness and fairness; the State’s obligation to make transparent and efficient use of public resources; addressing evasion, avoidance and all tax injustice; simplicity of the tax system; increased tax education and taxpayer assistance; connection and fiscal co-responsibility of citizens; legal certainty for taxpayers; and taking account of Chilean and international evidence for changes and reinforcements to the tax system.
Finally, the President stated that, to achieve tax reform, “we are going to need important consensus. That’s why we took time to carry out these social dialogues. Now comes a process of pre-legislative work, and we hope to count on the goodwill of members of Congress from all political sectors to get this moving forward. Because we have the deep conviction that a fairer distribution of wealth will allow Chile to be a more integrated, more cohesive country.”