A relative of mine got his business closed today by the SENIAT, our banana republic version of the US IRS. The closing, with an assorted fine, will last for three days.
Why?
Did my relative forget to pay some income tax? No.
Did my relative failed to report and pay some sales tax? No.
Did my relative's business failed to pay any local tax or due? No. All taxes are clear, ALL!
Did my relative forgot to pay some payroll tax, some social security due payment? No, nothing of the sort.
Was there any custom tax that might have been overlooked when importing goods? No, all is clear, all custom taxes were paid.
So, why would the SENIAT close his business for three days, with a nasty closing sign on the door?
Because there was one item, in one form, that was not cited properly. It is about a foreign provider that does not pay any tax in Venezuelan, cannot be sued by the Venezuelan government, whose any infraction would be paid by my relative in any case as the responsible agent in Venezuela, no matter what the fault will be. And there was no fault of the provider.
The item is absolutely irrelevant for Venezuelan tax purposes, it has not cost a penny to the Venezuelan government and yet the business is closed for three days, because a case in a form should have been filled with an useless information of no relevance and was not filled because such information does not exist in the country of the provider and thus it cannot be asked to the provider.
The SENIAT officer that came, came with a gold chain on his neck, the latest Blackberry model which costs more than the monthly paycheck of 3/4 of the employees in that business, etc... That SENIAT employee told my relative that the line should have been filled up with made up information if necessary but should have been filled up. Giving Aristotle "Nature abhors a vacuum" a new shade of meaning.
The real reason for the closing: my relative refused to pay for the hinted for bribe.
And if you think that this was kind of an off-side story be assured that it is way more common than what you think and for even sillier reasons than that one above. The SENIAT, as money is running short for Chavez, is on a mission to fine on any, ANY excuse, with the maximum fine possible, private business. If it bankrupts these businesses and provokes a loss of jobs that is of no concern to the gold chained SENIAT scum bag..... As expressed by the scumbag himself when asked to explain to the employees why they were getting three days off but risking to lose their job soon as the business average earnings for a couple of months were wiped by the fine.....
And no, my relative is not bothering considering to appeal or go to court. Appeal where? To the superior of the scumbag that more than probably is in the take? What tribunal?
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
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Sounds like your common everyday thugocracy
ReplyDeleteYou know what the good news is in this? That SENIAT has been doing this for six years now and it hasn't gotten any worse. Not exactly positive, but everything else has been going downhill, so this is a minor miracle.
ReplyDeleteOne of the worst cases I saw was a friend of mine from Ohio who had resided in an apartment in Santa Paula for over 20 years, decided to sell and move back to the States.The government ended up charging her for years and years of back taxes that she had already paid but did not have the receipts for.Of course she never imagined that they would go back that far. Logic has it that if people owed 10 years in the 80's, they won't be paying the 10 years in the 90's.But of course logic did not persuade them.
ReplyDeleteIn the end she had to pay the the entire worth of her apartment in taxes in order to get out of the country, at which point her final words were " I don't care firepigette,I'm going to pay it cause I just want to get out of this G.D. country."
Chavez controls Venezuela through its natural tendencies of creating chaos which creates uncertainty, which engenders fear, which ends in self- inhibition, which allows him to control without always enforcing the rules.Actually in some ways this works more efficiently than a more obvious iron hand dictatorship where people know what the rules are and follow them if they want to stay out of trouble.
This way Chavez can control without looking like much of a dictator to outsiders.10 times worse in my opinion, in terms of getting him out.
The international media in general is more conscious of who Chavez is now, but there are important exceptions like the BBC and Time Magazine.
its kind of insane the amount of bribery is needed in this country.. police were quite blatant with me asking for 200 bsf.. my dad was so pissed that he refused to pay jack, because i didnt have a cellulo, all i had was my expired passport and birth certificate (venezuelan.) I live in the states, so i didnt have a cedullo, i was in the process of getting one, but even then the amount of bribes needed to get this crappy card is ridiculous... my crappy illinois drivers license is better quality than the cedullo for the country.. .its ashame.
ReplyDeleteNext time a few hidden cameras and microphones to record the scumbags offer might be helpful. Helpful, not in a court of law (Venezuela has no laws now) but to make public.
ReplyDeleteI know all about that...very common, from the airport to where ever. Venezuela is a joke.
ReplyDeleteNext time anyone from SENIAT comes by, make a video of the whole thing and post it on youtube. I'm not saying that I doubt your story is true, I'm just saying that in this day and age when every cell phone comes with a camera, there's no reason not to have video of everything that happens, so we can have a nice look at the faces of all those who will be needing some "neutering" once the tyrant is out.
ReplyDeleteVenezuelans have not seen the worst of Cummunism/21st century Socialism yet. Wait until the economy totally collapsed.
ReplyDelete