Venezuela: Decree establishes tax exemption on imports of goods until 30 June 2025

09 Apr 2025    2 minute read

In brief

The National Executive issued Decree No. 5,104 on 6 March 2025 ("Decree")1. The Decree exempts the value-added tax (VAT) and import duties on imports of several goods. 

The Decree became effective on 13 March 2025, and the exemption benefits established therein apply until 30 June 2025.

Contents

In depth

  1. Exemption
    1. The Decree exempts from 90% VAT the definitive imports of new or used tangible goods indicated in Appendix I of the Decree and carried out by public administration entities or by individuals or legal entities using their own resources.
    2. The Decree exempts the total payment of import duties and VAT on imports of tangible personal property made by the following: 
      1. The Ministry of the People's Power for Energy, or entities attached to the ministry, classified in the tariff codes indicated in Appendix II of the Decree 
      2. The Ministry of the People's Power for Water Attention, or entities attached to the ministry, classified in the tariff codes indicated in Appendix III of the Decree 
      3. The Ministry of the People's Power for Ecological Mining Development, or entities attached to the ministry, and the Corporación Venezolana de Guayana or its attached companies, which are classified under the tariff codes indicated in Appendix IV of the Decree 

To see the Appendices of the Decree containing the tariff codes subject to each exemption, click here.

2. Documents for the exemption

The beneficiaries must submit the following documents in electronic format to the Customs Office to benefit from the exemption:

  1. Descriptive list of the tangible personal property to be imported
  2. Commercial invoice issued in the name of the beneficiary of the acquisition of the goods
  3. The legal regimes indicated in column 5 of Article 37 of the applicable Customs Tariff

3. Loss of the benefit

The Decree establishes that beneficiaries who fail to comply with the following conditions will lose the exoneration benefit: 

  1. Any of the conditions established in the Decree (In such cases, the imported goods subject to the benefit will be taxed without prejudice to the penalties that may apply in accordance with the Organic Tax Code and the Organic Customs Law.)
  2. The periodic evaluation established in the Decree in accordance with the VAT Law (Article 66) and the parameters determined by the Venezuelan Tax Authority.
  3. The obligations established in the Organic Tax Code and the Organic Customs Law.
  4. The declaration of goods at customs in any of the cases sanctioned in accordance with the provisions of Article 177 of the Organic Customs Law.2

* * * * *

Click here to read the Spanish version.

1 Published in the Official Gazette No. 6,890 of 6 March 2025.

2 This article establishes fines when the goods do not correspond to the declared tariff classification, the declared value does not correspond to the customs value and the goods do not correspond to the declared units of the metric system

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