Título I. Disposiciones preliminares

The provisions of this Code are of public law and shall govern the legal relationships arising from the taxes established by the State, with the exception of customs and municipal tax relationships, to which they shall apply supplementarily.

They shall also apply supplementarily to every legal tax relationship, including those arising from obligations established in favor of decentralized or autonomous entities and of non-state persons of public law.

The sources of the tax legal system, in order of hierarchy, are:

1.Constitutional provisions.

2.Laws, treaties and international conventions that have force of law.

3.Regulations issued by the Executive Branch through Governmental Agreement.

The enactment of a statute is required to:

1.Enact ordinary and extraordinary taxes, amend and repeal them, define the taxable event giving rise to the tax obligation, establish the passive subject of the tax as taxpayer or responsible party and joint and several liability, the tax base and the rate or tax rate.

2.Grant exemptions, condonations, exonerations, deductions, discounts, reductions and other fiscal benefits, except as provided in subparagraph r) of Article 183 of the Political Constitution of the Republic of Guatemala.

3.Establish the obligation to pay tax interest.

4.Define violations and establish sanctions, including surcharges and fines.

5.Establish administrative and jurisdictional procedures in tax matters.

6.Establish the forms of extinguishment of tax credits by means other than those established in this Code or in special tax laws.

7.Amend the rules relating to the limitation period for the taxpayer's right to request refund of overpayments and that for the rights of the Treasury to determine and demand taxes, interest, surcharges and fines.

8.Establish preferences and guarantees for compliance with tax obligations.

Provisions hierarchically inferior to statute that contradict or distort the rules contained in the Political Constitution of the Republic of Guatemala, in this Code and in the other tax laws are null ipso jure.

Regulatory provisions shall be limited to regulating matters relating to the administrative collection of the tax and to establishing procedures that facilitate its collection.

The application, interpretation and integration of tax norms shall be made in accordance with the principles established in the Political Constitution of the Republic of Guatemala, those contained in this Code, in the specific tax laws and in the Law of the Judicial Branch.

In cases of lack, obscurity, ambiguity or insufficiency of a tax law, it shall be resolved in accordance with the provisions of Article 4 of this Code. However, by analogical application, passive tax subjects may not be instituted, nor may obligations, exemptions, exonerations, discounts, deductions or other benefits, nor tax violations or tax sanctions be created, modified or suppressed.

In case of conflict between tax laws and laws of any other nature, the provisions of this Code or the tax laws relating to the specific subject matter in question shall prevail, in that order.

The application of tax laws enacted at different times shall be decided in accordance with the following provisions:

1.Tax rules shall govern from the date established therein, provided that such date is subsequent to the issuance of the rule. If they do not establish it, they shall begin to govern after eight days from their publication in the Diario Oficial.

2.When, by amendment of a tax rule, a different amount or rate is established for one or more taxes, these shall apply from the first business day of the following tax period, in order to avoid duplication of the taxpayer's returns.

3.With respect to violations and sanctions, the provisions of Article 66 of this Code shall govern.

4.A legal position established under a prior law is preserved under the authority of a subsequent one. Tax rules that modify any situation with respect to the cases contemplated in prior laws shall not affect the acquired rights of taxpayers.

5.Laws concerning the substantiation and procedural formalities of proceedings before the tax administration shall prevail over prior ones, from the moment they must begin to govern; but time limits that have begun to run and proceedings that have already been initiated shall be governed by the law in force at the time of their commencement.

6.Unforeseen situations shall be governed by the provisions of the Law of the Judicial Branch, insofar as applicable.

Legal, regulatory and administrative time limits shall be counted in the following manner:

1.In legal time limits computed by days, months and years, the following rules shall be observed:

a)The day is 24 hours which shall begin to be counted from midnight (zero hours). For legal purposes, night means the time comprised between eighteen hours of one day and six hours of the immediately following day and it is working time for taxpayers and those liable and for the Tax Administration, in cases of nighttime activities.

b)Time limits shall be fixed in hours, days, months or years, and shall be regulated according to the Gregorian Calendar. The immediately following years and months shall end on the day before the date on which they began to be counted.

c)In time limits designated by days, months and years, the day on which they conclude ends at the hour at which the ordinary working hours or extraordinary working hours of the Tax Administration or respective office ends. If notification occurs, time limits shall begin to run on the working day following its completion.

d)Time limits designated by hour are counted from moment to moment.

2.Both days declared and to be declared legally as holidays, as well as those on which the Tax Administration has not provided service to the public, for any cause, of which a strict register shall be kept, shall be considered non-working days.

3.For purposes of this Code, day means the working hours in the Tax Administration.

4.In time limits computed by days, only working days shall be taken into account.

5.In all cases, time limits expiring on a non-working day for any cause are understood to be extended until the first immediately following working day.

6.The Ministry of Public Finance may, in exceptional cases, declare non-working days in the Tax Administration. In these cases the rules provided for in this article shall apply.

The distance term is mandatory and the authority shall fix it specifically in the respective decision, according to the cases and circumstances.

Taxes are the obligatory payments commonly in money which the State requires in exercise of its taxing power, with the object of obtaining resources for the fulfillment of its purposes.

Tributary charges are taxes, municipal levies, special contributions and betterment contributions.

It is the tribute that has as its taxable event a general State activity not specifically related to the taxpayer.

It is the tax decreed by law in favor of one or several municipalities.

Special contribution is the tax whose determining factor of the taxable event is direct benefits for the taxpayer, derived from the execution of public works or state services.

Special improvement contribution is that established to defray the cost of the public work that produces real-property appreciation and has as the limit for its collection the total expenditure incurred and as the individual limit for the taxpayer the increase in value of the benefited immovable.