João Erse, tax consultant at Deloitte, spoke to Lusa on the sidelines of a clarification session on the Special Contribution on Foreign Exchange Operations (CEOC), organized by Banco Caixa Geral Angola.
The CEOC, which comes into force this Thursday, is applicable to all transfers abroad in foreign currency, with a rate of 2.5 percent for natural persons and 10 percent for legal persons, with the bank making the operation equally responsible for withholding this tax.
CEOC focuses on service provision, technical assistance, consultancy and management, capital operations and unilateral transfers, excluding health and education expenses as long as they are made directly to providers.
The measure also establishes exemptions for the State and its bodies, as well as diamond companies and oil investors, and transfers of dividends and service of debt contracted abroad.
"Salary remittances will have an additional cost of 2.5 percent that they didn't have before and, naturally, the net income will be lower, that will be the big impact", he highlighted, admitting that the measure will also affect the levels of savings in Portugal and other countries where remittances are sent.
According to João Erse, only salaries transferred by the employer to the worker's foreign account are not subject to CEOC.
Another of the issues he raised concerns exchange rate risks, which are on the worker's side: "There are two risks, the first is the loss of value of the salary that (the worker) received as a result of the devaluation of the currency, and then this additional tax charge of 2.5 percent", highlighted the CEOC partner.
Many Angolans who send money to their family members living abroad or who buy houses in Portugal will also feel the effects of the measure, which is included in the General State Budget for 2024.
"These transfers will pay CEOC, there are only two exclusions for health and education expenses as long as the money is transferred from the beneficiary's account directly to the account of the education or health institution", indicated the consultant.
For example, if there is a need to transfer funds from Angola to buy a house in Portugal, you will have to pay CEOC as well.
For João Erse, there are other effects to take into account, namely the increase in inflation, as economic operators and service providers will pass this increase on to the end customer.
"This will naturally lead to an increase in prices and inflation," he stressed.
On the executive side, in addition to tax revenue, the measure may have other objectives such as creating additional constraints when contracting services to non-resident entities, opting for services provided locally.
"One of the consequences will be the flourishing of specialized technical services that can be provided here (in Angola) to the detriment of contracting services to non-resident entities", highlighted the head of Deloitte.
