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Most Cubans have not paid taxes
for half a century, but that will change under a new code starting January
1.
The landmark regulations will
change the relations of Cubans with their government and are a signal that
market-oriented reforms, launched since President Raul Castro succeeded his
brother, Fidel Castro, in 2008, are here to stay.
The recently published code
constitutes the first comprehensive taxation in Cuba since the 1959 revolution
abolished just about all taxes.
In the 1990s after the collapse of
the Soviet Union, the country's main benefactor, the Cuban government imposed a
few scattered taxes, but mostly preferred to maintain low wages so it could fund
free social services.
The government's free market
reforms introduced over the last two years, are designed to encourage small
businesses, private farming and individual initiative, along with plans to pay
state workers more. Under the new tax code the state hopes to get its share of
the proceeds.
The government also envisions
replacing subsidies for all with targeted welfare, meaning that the largely
tax-free life under a paternalistic government is on its way out.
"This radically changes the
state's relationship with the population and taxes become an irritating issue,"
said Domingo Amuchastegui, a former Cuban intelligence analyst who lives in
Miami and writes often about Cuba.
The new code covers 19 taxes,
including such things as inheritance, environment, sales, transportation and
farm land, various license fees and three contributions, including social
security.
A sliding scale income tax - from
15 percent for earnings of more than 10,000 pesos (about $400) annually, to 50
percent for earnings of over 50,000 pesos, (about $2,000) - adopted in 1994,
remains in the new code for the self-employed, small businesses and farms, but
it also includes a series of new deductions to stimulate their work.
Tax
Deductions
For example, farmers may deduct up
to 70 percent of income as costs, and small businessmen, who are taxed by income
not profit, up to 40 percent, plus various fees and secondary taxes they
pay.
A labor tax of 20 percent will
gradually be reduced to 5 percent by 2017, and small businesses with five
employees or less are exempt.
Eventually all workers will pay
income taxes as well as a new 2 percent property tax, but both measures are
suspended until "conditions permit" them to go into effect.
The government admits, with an
average pay of about 450 pesos per month, or $19, many workers do not earn
enough to make ends meet.
"They collect taxes for all these
things around the world, it's normal," said Havana economist Isabel
Fernandez.
"But here we face two problems. On
the one hand we are not used to paying for anything and on the other our wages
are so low we can't spare a single peso," she said.
Under the old system, large and
small state-run companies, which accounted for more than 90 percent of economic
activity, simply handed over all their revenues to the government, which then
allocated resources to them.
The reforms call for large
state-run businesses to be moved out of the ministries and become more
autonomous.
Under the new tax system they will
pay a 35 percent tax on their profits, but can take advantage of a myriad of
deductions ranging from amortization and travel to sales taxes, insurance and
environmental protection.
Many smaller businesses will
become cooperatives or be privately leased and taxed based on income.
The state-owned Cuban National
News Agency said Cuba had studied the tax systems of a number of other
countries, including several with capitalist economies.
"The experiences of China,
Vietnam, Venezuela, Brazil, Spain and Mexico were taken into account, but they
were refined to the particularities and conditions of the island," the new
agency said.
The new code is not etched in
stone - it can be amended each year as part of the annual budget passed by the
National Assembly, and temporarily modified for different reasons by the
executive branch of government.
"Like the reforms, it is a work in
progress, a work that has barely begun and will take time to put in place," said
a Western businessman who has worked in Cuba for almost two decades.
But, he added, "this is of course
a major step forward toward the 21st century and a modern state."
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