HAVANA, Cuba.- Despite all the government declarations to the effect that they are facilitating the work of the new economic actors, including self-employed workers, the reality is that provisions that end up discouraging practitioners are frequent. of these forms of non-state management.
In this case we are referring to the obligation that the collections that the self-employed make from the hands of national entities and foreign investors must be made through the fiscal bank accounts that all self-employed workers who pay taxes under the general regime have. That is, the owners of the businesses that the authorities consider more lucrative. As established by the Central Bank of Cuba, in its Resolution No. 140 of 2021, only transactions of less than 2,500 pesos in national currency are excluded from the use of the aforementioned fiscal accounts.
A recent article in the newspaper Granma realizes the dissatisfactions self-employed, and even many legal entities (companies and entities) due to the aforementioned obligation. However, the National Tax Administration Office (ONAT) limits itself to mentioning the legal provisions that require paying through fiscal bank accounts, and only offers some reasons that indicate a desire to tighten control over the activity of the self-employed.
It is even suggested that those self-employed who are taxed under the simplified regime -those considered less lucrative- would go to the general regime if they receive payments from state entities and companies, or from foreign investors. And, of course, the collection would be through the fiscal bank accounts.
Resolution no. 347 of 2021 of the Ministry of Finance and Prices, which establishes the existence of tax bank accounts for owners of self-employed businesses, indicates that these owners are required to declare the data of these accounts to the legal entities to which they provide services, in order to receive payments through them.
The aforementioned Resolution establishes that non-compliance with operations through fiscal bank accounts constitutes a punishable tax infraction, in accordance with current fiscal legislation, which compromises both the self-employed person and the legal entity that makes the payment.
Regarding the supposed advantages of carrying out transactions through fiscal bank accounts, “the ONAT alleges that it contributes to reducing the circulation of cash, facilitates the management and fiscal control of legal entities, but also allows banking and make operations transparent between the actors of the economy and reduce the risks of the budgeted and business entities in the management of resources”.
Self-employed workers have more than one reason not to welcome the mandatory use of tax bank accounts in their transactions. In the first place, because banking agencies often do not show the necessary agility in their operations, which would make it difficult to accurately account for business. And, most importantly, this transit of the income from the business through the bank constitutes an additional control over the activity of the self-employed person. A control that could be used by the ONAT to keep abreast of the financial situation of the private business, and even manage that information in the context of the sworn declarations of personal income that the self-employed person makes at the end of the fiscal period.
In summary, that the obligation to use the aforementioned fiscal bank accounts is seen by the self-employed worker as a government mechanism that conspires against the autonomy and independence that every private business aspires to maintain.
OPINION ARTICLE
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