Press Room

February 05, 2018

From Guatemala: Tax Credit Refund of Value-Added Tax (VAT) Allowed in Guatemala

Mario Salazar - Andersen in Guatemala, a member firm of Andersen Global


Exporters and those who sell and provide services to exempt entities have the option of requesting the refund of the tax credit according to the VAT law.

This is possible because the most important feature of the VAT in Guatemala is that tax collection is not the responsibility of the tax authorities, but of the taxpayers who intervene in the activity of consumption of goods and services, acting in their capacity as agents of perception. In this regard, the law allows taxpayers to deduct the VAT paid in their purchases and acquisition of services from the taxes received from the same regime in favor of the Superintendency of Tax Administration (SAT).

The regulation also establishes that taxpayers will be entitled to a refund of the tax credit that would have been generated in the acquisition of inputs or expenses directly connected to the performance of the aforementioned activities, in accordance with Article 16 of said regulations.

In Articles 23, 23 A, 24 and 25 of the law, three methods are established to request the refund of the tax credit, which are: General, Optional and Special. These methods have specific characteristics that must be considered when preparing a tax credit application file. In August of 2017, the SAT implemented an emergent tax credit refund plan which aims to expedite the return of tax credit and reduce the amount of accumulated records presented by taxpayers.