Accounting and tax accompaniment "a success story in Colombia"

Abstract

The current work is derived from “Accounting and tax application of the microentrepreneurs of Tolima Colombia", a Research Project that belongs to the Accounting, management and Innovation Research line and is financed by CONADI, which is the National Committee for Development and Research from Cooperative University of Colombia. The work makes a serious reflexion about the positive effects the Accounting and Tax face-to-face instruction & counseling work has on the microentrepreneurs to assure that they become more competitive within their businesses which are located in the town of San Luis, department of Tolima – Colombia.   The methodological process falls within a case study Yin (2005), in which the target population for the study are the 2015 microenterprises registered at the Chamber of Commerce from Espinal Tolima. In Colombia, microenterprises are the ones defined in article 2, section 3 of Law 905 of 2004. For data collection purposes, a survey which included 80% of structured and 20% of semi-structured questions was conducted. The sample size obtained through a simple random sample technique and with an 80% level of confidence corresponded to 30 microentrepreneurs to whom the accounting and tax face-to-face instruction & counseling work was performed; of a total population of 338. The results of the Research Process enable to determine that 97% of the microentrepreneurs from the región are entrepreneurs who are natural persons who make part of the simplified regime, for which the Colombian legislation expects them to comply with the requirements established in Article 499 of the Tax Statue, in accordance with Decree No. 624 of 1989. Additional results also show that 67% of the microentrepreneurs do not keep track of any accounting record, 23% do it manually and only 10% use a small business accounting software package to produce such records sistematically by using their own computer system which is not only use for personal use, but for business purposes. From the total number of surveyed people, 73% of them do not comply with the norms and accounting principles established by Decree No. 2649 of 1993, neither they comply with law 1314 of 2009, in its regulatory Decree No. 2706 of 2012 related to simplified accounting for microenterprises. On the other hand, it is evident that from those who keep an accounting record, only 10% do it daily. 63% do not prepare sales documents to customers, and only 3% do it in accordance with the law and local business practices. However, when the microentrepreneurs buy, 93% of them ask for a formal receipt of purchase. With the findings above it was decided to proceed and conduct the face-to-face instruction work and counseling to the microentrepreneurs. The instruction and counseling allowed to reduce the financial and tax weaknesses which turned out to be a huge improvement for the entrepreneurs´ work ability, knowledge and their capacity to be more competitive operationally at the time to comply strictly with the legal regulations when recording information, which in fact allows to make timely decision and relevant decisions for the company. The process of learning and ownership was effective and verified, situation authenticated with physical evidences taken at the end of the Accounting and Tax face-to-face instruction & counseling work.