Financing Law: Ministry of Finance confirms that rent increases for people earning more than $10.2 million.

In an interview with EL TIEMPO, Finance Minister Germán Ávila confirmed that the tax reform—known as the financing law —will increase the marginal income tax rate for individuals with monthly incomes above $10.2 million. He explained that the rate will increase from 28% to 29% for this income bracket.

The clarification comes after the controversy generated by a message from President Gustavo Petro on his X account, in which he stated that income tax would only increase for those earning more than $250 million a month. The Ministry of Finance initially responded to the message, but experts and analysts immediately questioned the statement.

When EL TIEMPO asked the Minister how much a person must earn to increase their rental rates, he stated: "The marginal rate would begin to increase from 28 to 29 percent for a person with a gross monthly income of more than 10.2 million pesos."

"So the President's tweet that it would only affect those earning 250 million isn't true?" he was asked about Petro's statement, which he denied at the time: "What the reform indicates is that people with monthly incomes over 142 million pesos would see their marginal rate increase from 39 to 41 percent," he said.

Thus, from $10.2 million per month onwards, the rate will rise from 28% to 29%. Meanwhile, from $142 million per month onwards, the marginal rate will increase from 39% to 41%.

In the interview, Ávila maintained that the impact will be concentrated on upper-middle- and high-income taxpayers and denied that public spending is "overwhelmed." He added that if the reform is not approved, the government would have to make budget cuts of a similar magnitude next year.

Economists, journalists, and academics were the first to point out inconsistencies between the presidential message and the text of the reform. Jorge Espinosa, editor-in-chief of Caracol Radio, reported in X that the adjustment applies from 1,700 UVT (UVTs), or approximately $7.5 million in monthly net income.

"Listen carefully, journalists, the personal income tax will only increase for those earning more than 250 million pesos per month," Petro tweeted on September 4.

For his part, Marc Hofstetter, a professor at the University of the Andes, wrote that “the president lies and the Ministry of Finance reposts the lie.”

This Sunday, Espinosa recalled on the same social network that Minister Ávila himself ended up confirming in EL TIEMPO that the changes do affect those who earn more than $10 million per month, as he had warned : "It's exactly what I said in the tweet in which President Gustavo Petro called me a 'liar,'" he said.

*This content was written with the assistance of artificial intelligence, based on publicly available information released to media outlets. It was also reviewed by the journalist and an editor.