Regulación y tributación de los influencers: desafíos y problemas en el marco jurídico ecuatoriano a partir del 2020

Abstract

The rise of influencers, driven by technological advances and the rise of social media, hastransformed these platforms into lucrative sources of employment. With more than 112,000 active influencers, Ecuador faces financial and regulatory challenges such as informality, income disparity and lack of advertising transparency. Countries such as Mexico, Colombia and Argentina have adopted different approaches to regulate influencers' activities for tax purposes. Mexico is leading the way with a comprehensive tax system that includes proactive monitoring, automatic withholding and legislative proposals aimed at increasing advertising transparency. Colombia has clear financial obligations, but faces difficulties in monitoring and regulating advertising. In the case of Argentina, while specific structures to comprehensively regulate influencers' activities are lacking, general rules apply. Based on this analysis, Ecuador can take measures similar to those implemented in Mexico to optimize its tax system from a tax collection perspective. In addition, measures have been proposed for the collection of taxes, such as carrying out tax education activities to adapt the rules to the development of the digital economy.