Housing and transport cooperatives: problematic issues related to VAT

This paper aims to highlight two problems that suffer two types of cooperatives in relation to the payment of Value Added Tax: first, the situation of housing cooperatives of cession of use, because the taxes incurred by the... [ view full abstract ]

This paper aims to highlight two problems that suffer two types of cooperatives in relation to the payment of Value Added Tax: first, the situation of housing cooperatives of cession of use, because the taxes incurred by the purchase of goods or services for carrying out the activity are not deductible outgoings for them, for the fact that the cession of use of housing by the cooperative to the partner is exempt from VAT, as occurs if it were a lease. This means that the cooperative will have higher expenses, so it would be desirable for the law to recognize the social interest underlying in promoting access to housing, specially for marginal or without resources people, in order to favoring the tax treatment of these cooperatives.
Secondly, we intend to highlight the special situation of cooperatives operating in the transport sector since the transport normative was modified to adapt to the relevant European Directives,
in so far as it requires that the transport operations are carried out by who holds the transport card, that is, the holder of the administrative authorization. At the same time, is required that anyone who contracts the transport with a client must be who carries out the operation by himself; also the holder of the activity must have a minimum number of vehicles with a maximum antiquity. The consequence is that many cooperative partners that own a single truck can not continue developing their activities just as they have been doing so far. Therefore it would be desirable a fit policy that could resolve this situation.