After decades of failed socialist policies, Cuba’s economy is in free-fall. The only ones producing revenue on the island are so-called private business, and the communist regime is coming for an even bigger cut.
Nora Gamez Torres reports via The Daily News:
In recent years, workers in Cuba have dropped out of the low-wage public sector and state-owned companies to get coveted jobs in the small private enterprises that have mushroomed throughout the island despite strict government controls.
Now, these workers will see the pay they take home reduced by as much as 20%, according to new income tax regulations published in the government’s Official Gazette on Tuesday.
But unlike in most countries where those higher tax rates are designed for the highest earners, in Cuba, where the state monthly salary is equivalent to $15, workers earning as little as $109 a month will be in that tax bracket.
According to the new decree, private sector employees will have to pay a 20% income tax on earnings above 30,000 Cuban pesos, about $109 per month. That’s a 15% tax rate increase from the previous scale set up in 2021, which imposed a 5% income tax for earnings over 9,510 Cuban pesos. Business owners must automatically deduct the tax payments monthly, the decree says.
There are currently 9,652 small and medium private enterprises, according to government figures. Another 596,000 people are self-employed.
The Cuban dictatorship’s insistence on controlling every aspect of the economy means there really aren’t any “private” businesses in Cuba. There are businesses owned by private individuals, but they exist and operate on the approval of the government and are subjected to the State’s whims. One day you can have a successful and profitable business, and the next day the State can decide that’s enough and will confiscate everything you have and shut it down. That’s not a private business.
Socialism is parasitic by nature, and the communist Castro dictatorship knows the only way it can survive is by sucking its victims dry.
Yea, stick it to those rich business people. The Cuban business class has been exploiting the public for many weeks now. I am sure they have amassed tremendous wealth. Yachts, secret bank accounts in the Cayman Island, houses overseas paid for in cash. Yea, just like the Cuban government people. Can you imagine!
Look at that rich street seller. Walking in the middle of the street like he owns it. He is even wearing shoes. You KNOW he must be LOADED with cash. The government needs to confiscate his hanging rack and give it to a poor revolutionary family. That will teach him a lesson not to be successful and to lie about his finances.
Yeah. (Sarcasm on) Don’t dare let the peasants have success. Only the Cuban government officials deserve good things.