{"id":43984,"date":"2025-12-22T10:49:19","date_gmt":"2025-12-22T16:49:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/garciabodan.com\/?p=43984"},"modified":"2025-12-22T10:52:05","modified_gmt":"2025-12-22T16:52:05","slug":"guatemala-approves-new-law-to-streamline-tax-refund-processes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/garciabodan.com\/en\/guatemala-approves-new-law-to-streamline-tax-refund-processes\/","title":{"rendered":"Guatemala approves new law to streamline tax refund processes"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Congress of Guatemala has approved Decree 17-2025, which contains the Law for Facilitating Compliance with Tax Refunds, a new regulation that amends key provisions of the Tax Code, the VAT Law, and the Law on Legal Provisions for Strengthening the Tax Administration.<\/p>\r\n

The main objective is to accelerate the reimbursement of improper or excess payments and to optimize the VAT credit refund regime by introducing clearer rules, a more efficient procedure, and a dedicated funding mechanism to ensure the availability of resources for refunds.<\/p>\r\n

 <\/p>\r\n

Key changes approved<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\r\n

The new law introduces reforms that directly impact the tax management of exporters, government suppliers, taxpayers who sell to exempt entities, and companies with accumulated VAT credit balances.<\/p>\r\n

The most relevant changes include:<\/p>\r\n

    \r\n\t
  • Shorter refund processing time:<\/strong> The Tax Code now requires the Tax Administration to process refunds, either automatically or at the taxpayer\u2019s request, within 30 days, instead of the previous 60-day period.<\/li>\r\n\t
  • Option for automatic offsetting:<\/strong> Taxpayers may authorize the application of their credit balance toward future tax liabilities instead of receiving a cash refund.<\/li>\r\n\t
  • Special procedure for VAT credit balance reimbursements:<\/strong> Requests related to uncredited VAT, withholdings, interest, or surcharges will be processed under the Special Procedure for Determining Tax Obligations.<\/li>\r\n\t
  • Resolution of claims without prior audit:<\/strong> Refunds of improper payments will be resolved without an audit, except for verifying the payment, its duplication, or any circumstance that qualifies it as improper.<\/li>\r\n\t
  • Expanded VAT refund regime:<\/strong>\r\n
      \r\n\t
    • Taxpayers who sell or provide services to exempt entities are expressly included, allowing them to request refunds when they cannot offset their VAT credit.<\/li>\r\n\t
    • The requirement to submit \u201coriginal\u201d invoices is eliminated.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n

       <\/p>\r\n

      Creation of a Dedicated Refund Fund<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\r\n

      The Bank of Guatemala may administer the account \u201cSpecific Funds for the Refund of VAT Credit and Reimbursement of Other Taxes,\u201d which will be funded with at least 8% of daily VAT revenue.<\/p>\r\n

      This account will ensure the availability of resources for refund instructions issued by the Tax Administration (SAT).<\/p>\r\n

       <\/p>\r\n

      Transparency and monthly reporting<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\r\n

      The Bank of Guatemala must report monthly to the Ministry of Public Finance and the SAT, providing details of the amounts refunded, including taxpayer-specific information.<\/p>\r\n

       <\/p>\r\n

      Reimbursement of uncredited withholdings<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\r\n

      Suppliers who accumulate VAT credit balances that cannot be offset for two consecutive years may request reimbursement under the special procedure established in the Tax Code.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      The Congress of Guatemala has approved Decree 17-2025, which contains…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":43986,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[229],"tags":[284,250,283],"class_list":["post-43984","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-congress-of-guatemala","tag-guatemala-en","tag-tax"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/garciabodan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43984","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/garciabodan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/garciabodan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/garciabodan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/garciabodan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43984"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/garciabodan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43984\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43990,"href":"https:\/\/garciabodan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43984\/revisions\/43990"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/garciabodan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43986"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/garciabodan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/garciabodan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/garciabodan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}