Constitutional Court will not annul ruling that stops the collection of default interest

In mid-February of this year, Sunat asked the Constitutional Court (TC) to annul the sentence that eliminates the collection of default interest to debtors whose disputes have not yet been resolved in judicial instances, as long as the tax administration is responsible for the delay. .

The TC declared the request inadmissible – which it described as one for clarification – and recalled that there are no challenges to its rulings, added to the fact that the Sunat only demonstrated its disagreement with what was decided by the highest interpreter of the Constitution.

Giorgio Balzaa principal associate of Cuatrecasas, recalls that the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF) argued that there would be no legal mandate for judges to compute interest in the judicial stage, but the TC specified that in the article 33 it is contemplated and that, therefore, the claim was declared inapplicable.

In addition to the fact that the update of the debt based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI) —that is, inflation— was not considered in the TC analysis process, and therefore, an undiscussed matter cannot be clarified.

Why is it harmful?

Enrique Vera, superintendent of the Sunat, warned in Caretas that the actions of the TC will devalue the tax debt because “what is owed 10 years ago is not worth the same today” and precisely the default interest maintains the value of money, in addition to it will reward the taxpayer who fails to comply and, therefore, slows down the promotion of timely payment of tax obligations.

“In practice, it substantially cuts state revenue (…). We project an increase in litigiousness through the judicialization of disputes”indicated.

The data

Impact. Sunat foresees that the ruling of the TC sets a precedent because the large debtor companies will stop paying more than S/12,000 million.