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VEHICLE AND MUNICIPAL AMNESTY IN HONDURAS
[/vc_column_text][us_separator][vc_column_text]Amnesty, in its etymological definition, comes from the Greek "amnestia", which means forgiveness or forgetfulness and in its practical order, it is precisely the forgiveness or forgetfulness of the sanctions imposed for non-compliance with obligations, in this case a vehicle and municipal amnesty has been approved. As is known, due to the events that occurred during 2020, the COVID-19 Pandemic, hurricanes ETA and IOTA, which still today continue to cause severe economic repercussions on the Honduran population. The National Congress has decided to continue with relief measures for the population, such as the vehicle and municipal amnesty. By Decree 53 – 2021, published in the official gazette La Gaceta on July 28, 2021, the vehicle amnesty was approved, which consists of: 1) "Natural or legal persons who are delinquent or who have not complied with their formal and material obligations with the State of Honduras, through the Property Institute as of January 4, 2021, regarding movable property categorized as vehicles and similar that are administered in the vehicle property registry, in charge of the Property Institute, being able to pay the Annual Single Fee for vehicle registration, vehicle registration fees, including municipal road fees, free of fines and other types of sanctions within the validity of this amnesty, being able to agree on payment plans during this period, without any type of sanctions. 2) The Property Institute (IP) is authorized to ex officio and immediately prescribe all outstanding debts related to The Single Annual Vehicle Registration Fee, vehicle registration fees, including municipal road fees, and any type of penalties, corresponding to the 2016 fiscal year, including those prior to this year, for all movable property categorized as vehicles and similar, which are administered in the Vehicle Property Registry managed by the Property Institute (IP). All vehicles and movable property affected by authorized prescription and that have not paid the amounts owed by December 31, 2020, must be permanently discharged from the Vehicle Property Registry. In the event that the owner of any of the movable property covered by this measure requests to re-register said movable property, the Vehicle Property Registry must proceed accordingly, without any type of surcharge, as long as it does so within the year 2021 and cancels the outstanding fees of the last five (5) years, for requests made after the year 2021, the sanction equivalent to one (1) current average minimum wage will be made in accordance with what was approved by the tripartite commission. 3) Until December 31, 2021, natural or legal persons, national or foreign, official or not, who have obtained any fiscal incentive for the importation of any motor vehicle free of tax payment, under any current legislation that grants tax benefits of this type must appear before the Secretary of State in the Finance Office (SEFIN) to request authorization to sell the vehicle(s) in question, a resolution that must be granted within a period of no more than five (5) days, from the date of the request. This resolution must comply with the legislation that motivated the issuance of the exemption in the sense of stating whether the sales authorization is free of payment of taxes or if the sales authorization is conditioned to the payment of the corresponding taxes, adjusting the corresponding depreciation to the value of the vehicle, as follows: 20% for the first year and 10% for each following year, without the value of the vehicle for the purposes of calculating the taxes to be paid being less than 15% of the original value of the same, a value that is determined by the Secretary of State in the Finance Office (SEFIN) for its application by the customs office in which the corresponding Single Customs Declaration is processed. Regarding the municipal amnesty, the aforementioned decree establishes: "Grant, for a period of 90 days after the publication of this Decree, a Municipal Tax Amnesty in all municipalities in the country, in the payment of fines, surcharges, interest on debts, surcharges and any other type of surcharges caused by late payment, which, via administrative or judicial means, have accumulated as of December 31, 2020, in the payment of all municipal taxes, fees and contributions; Natural or legal persons may pay their taxes free of late charges during the period of validity of this amnesty in accordance with the provisions herein, and the Municipality may establish payment plans outside the period of validity of this Article. In order to achieve the sanitation and recovery of municipal finances nationwide, the amnesty, or a discount and amnesty of twenty percent (20%) will be applied." It should be noted that the year 2021 is not included in this amnesty and it must be paid on the stipulated dates, that is, for the vehicle rate, in the corresponding month and the Real Estate tax until August 31. There may be special conditions, in the case of the municipal amnesty, to enjoy the benefit of a payment plan and an additional 20% discount, so at Lexincorp Honduras, we can advise you to obtain the greatest benefits from these amnesties, both vehicular and municipal, if you would like or need advice on the subject you can contact us at infohn@lexincorp.com or jcbenitez@lexincorp.com[/vc_column_text][us_separator][vc_column_text]
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[/vc_column_text][us_person image=”9336″ name=”Juan Carlos Benitez” role=”Asociado” link=”url:http%3A%2F%2Flexincorp.com%2Fequipo_honduras%2Fjuan-carlos-benitez%2F|title:Juan%20Carlos%20Ben%C3%ADtez||” layout=”cards” img_size=”full”][/us_person][/vc_column][/vc_row]
