Loan interests deductibility related to the leverage of dividend payments

Abstract

In the financial system, every company needs sufficient liquid assets to be able to comply with its commercial, legal or financial obligations, as well as to invest in new projects. In these cases, company management must decide whether such obligations should be paid with own funds or through third party funding. When the cash is obtained from the latter through loans, from a tax perspective, we must ask ourselves whether this operation is associated to the operating activity.

In this article, the authors aim to analyze this question and propose a vision of the relationship between companies’ expenses and (either direct or indirect) income-generation. To achieve this purpose, Peruvian and foreign case law and legislation are reviewed and critically evaluated.