With the annual tax return corresponding to 2023, many savers have a much higher balance of Income Tax (ISR) to pay on the returns they obtained during the year, compared to previous year 2022.
Depending on the nominal interest rate agreed with a financial institution and the amount invested, and in the absence of deductions, the situation from one year to another goes from receiving a lower balance in favor to multiplying the Income Tax (ISR) payable by more than 10 times.
In an interview for El Norte, Gustavo Leal Cueva, partner of Leal Benavides y Cía, explained that the change is due to the fact that the SAT charges ISR on the real interest rate received by a saver, that is, the difference between the nominal rate received and the inflation registered in a given year.
And it turns out, he added, that while in 2022 the nominal interest rate was at the end of 10 percent with an annual inflation of 7.82 percent, in 2023 the rate offered by some institutions was 12 percent, with an inflation that was downward and closed at 4.66 percent.
Thus, this differential -the real rate- at the end of each year went from 2.18 to 7.34 percent, and with the same amount of capital invested in each year, the taxable interest is now higher.
Another factor that affected, explained Leal Cueva, is that the withholding rate last year was only 0.15 percent on the invested capital, so there is very little to subtract from the taxable income tax.
“Combining this withholding rate with the high interest rates paid to savers in 2023 and with inflation at more controlled levels than previous years, it turns out that savers saw real gains in their interest well above inflation,” he expounded.
“The biggest tax impact will fall on the highest principal amounts,” he emphasized.
For example, for the 2023 return, which is being made this month, someone with an investment of 2,500,000 pesos, under the previous assumptions of interest rate levels, will be charged 15,510 pesos, when a year ago the same amount of capital resulted in a charge of only 1,141 pesos.
And someone with a capital of 30 million pesos invested, also given the above assumptions, will have to pay 584,647 pesos, compared to 114,833 pesos a year earlier.
It is for this reason that the ISR balance for the year 2023 to be paid in the annual tax return is higher for savers.
