A new resolution of the Ministry of Finance and Prices (MFP) establishes reference values “for the liquidation and payment of taxes on personal income and the transfer of goods and inheritances, associated to the acts of sale and donation of houses” in Cuba.
According to the agency, quoted by official press media, the measure is aimed at “correcting fiscal indiscipline and increasing revenues to the State Budget”.
En el acto de compraventa de viviendas, la persona que vende el bien debe pagar el Impuesto sobre los Ingresos Personales Eventuales y el que lo compra, pagará el Impuesto sobre Transmisión de Bienes y Herencias.#FinanzasyPrecios#Cuba pic.twitter.com/C3YAk6zPKC
— Ministerio de Finanzas y Precios Cuba (@finanzasprecios) November 2, 2024
The values that apply today “have been in force since 2017, and a study by the National Tax Administration Office shows that ‘the real values of sales are significantly higher than those established,’ notes a note from the Cuban News Agency (ACN).
The report details that in the annexes of the Resolution appear “the methodologies to determine the minimum referential values of housing, and taxes, according to the territory or zone of location of the property and its characteristics.”
According to Granma, the Resolution classifies housing in five zones, according to their typology and location, and determines their reference values, and in correspondence with the construction characteristics of the property, as described in the title deed of the property.
Thus, the resolution specifies the treatment of houses located in special zones of economic development, of high significance for tourism, in the municipalities of Havana and provincial capitals, among others.
The provision notes that the value of the corresponding tax, as a result of the application of the established methodology, is reduced by 15% for housing properties located in rural or mountainous areas.
“The Municipal Administration Councils are empowered to approve, exceptionally, to decrease the minimum referential value up to 10 % in suburban areas, prior analysis and investigation of the commercialization value and structural conditions of the houses in those areas”.
Cuba has been immersed in a serious economic crisis for years.
The pandemic, the tightening of U.S. sanctions, and failed government policies have aggravated structural problems of the island’s economy, facts that have spurred migration to historic levels and fueled the real estate market.
Resolution 313/2024 published on Friday, November 1 in the Official Gazette of the Republic becomes effective on November 15. The norm clarifies that the new referential values do not apply to acts of donation of houses, between natural persons who have kinship relations up to the fourth degree of consanguinity, ACN points out.
