Ethical Vision and the Effects of Income Tax Collection for Salaried Individuals

Abstract

The Colombian tax system has historically been criticized for its structural complexity and lack of ethics in the income tax settlement processes for individuals. This lack of simplicity has been exacerbated by multiple tax reforms, which has contributed to the perception of an unstable fiscal environment. In this context, in recent years, the National Tax and Customs Directorate (DIAN) has implemented various strategies to mitigate the high rates of tax evasion and avoidance, which has had a notable impact on the behavior of income tax for individuals in re-cent years.
This study aims to analyze the ethics and factors underlying this phenomenon, as well as the results obtained in terms of tax collection, number of taxpayers and effective tax rates during the period 2019 to 2021, focusing especially on the salaried population, which repre-sents more than 50% of taxpayers of natural persons according to the classification of subsec-tors corresponding to this tax. To achieve these objectives, the exploratory data analysis tech-nique was used, allowing a deeper understanding of the fiscal dynamics and the effectiveness of the measures adopted by the DIAN.

In accordance with the above, among the findings are the implications and behavior of the ef-fective tax rates, as well as the decrease in benefits for salaried employees at the time of their private liquidation, increasing the value to be paid.