# Cuba

 Country code: CU · Currency: CUC · Language: Spanish

**Pros**
- High level of personal safety and low violent crime rates compared to other Caribbean nations.
- Recent legalization of small and medium private enterprises for limited market-driven business growth.
- Access to a highly skilled, educated workforce at significantly lower costs than international averages.

**Cons**
- Pervasive state intervention in all economic sectors and restrictive centralized control over foreign currency.
- Frequent power grid failures and unreliable telecommunications infrastructure with daily business operations and logistics disruptions.
- Absence of robust legal protections for private property and high risk of arbitrary state expropriation.

Long story short: Starting a business in Cuba usually means a forced marriage with the State, which grabs its cut before you sell a single thing.

Since 2021 though, small private outfits have been popping up all over Havana, and a good bribe unlocks plenty of locked administrative doors. The banking system is flat out dead: you'll pay everything in cash, dollars or black market rate.

Beyond that: daily blackouts, roads falling apart, but Vedado and Miramar stay quiet. Food's good, beaches are stunning.

## Will your income be taxed?

Long story short: NO.
**Cuba** doesn't tax personal income, and nobody comes sniffing around when you settle in. No withholding, no tax return, no centre-of-vital-interests trap waiting to snap shut.

Earn what you want: the taxman here simply doesn't know your name.

**01.1 Income tax**

| Metric | Value | Detail |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Personal income tax | NONE | no personal income tax framework |

**01.2 Tax residence test**

| Metric | Value | Detail |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 183-day rule | does not exist here |  |
| Economic interest | does not exist here |  |
| Family centre | does not exist here |  |
| Habitual abode | does not exist here |  |
| Extended-stay test | does not exist here |  |

## Will your wealth be taxed?

Long story short: NO.
**Cuba** keeps its hands off what you hold. *No capital gains tax*, no annual wealth grab, no inheritance regime.

Your portfolio compounds in peace and leaves the way it came in; nobody's standing at the door with their palm out.

**02.1 Investment income**

| Metric | Value | Detail |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Capital gains | NONE | no capital gains regime |
| Dividend tax | NONE | no dividend tax |
| Interest income | NONE | no interest income tax |

**02.2 Wealth & estate**

| Metric | Value | Detail |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Wealth tax | NONE | no annual wealth tax · no real-estate wealth tax · no net-worth assessment |
| Inheritance system | NONE | no estate tax · no heir-based duties · no succession tax framework. Wealth transfers across heir-classes are not taxed in this jurisdiction. Only standard probate / registration fees may apply. |

**02.3 Crypto**

| Metric | Value | Detail |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Crypto · tax regime | UNREGULATED | Fallback rate: 50% · Cuba officially recognized and regulated the use of virtual assets for commercial transactions and investments through Central Bank (BCC) Resolution 215/2021 and Resolution 89/2022. However, the Tax Authority (ONAT) has not issued specific crypto-tax guidelines. Consequently, crypto gains fall under general personal income tax rules (Ley 113 del Sistema Tributario), which apply a progressive scale with a top marginal rate of 50%. |
| Crypto-to-crypto | TAXABLE | each swap counts as a disposal — gains realised at every trade |
| FATF travel rule | NOT SIGNED | no information-sharing obligation on VASP transfers |

## Easy to run a company there?

Long story short: YES.
**Cuba** is maximum operational chill: *no corporate income tax* on standard profits, *no criminal liability* for misuse of corporate assets, and *non-public* registries.

The state doesn't take a cut, doesn't park a prosecutor over your intra-company flows, and doesn't put your name in a search box.

VAT sits at **n/a**. Run your thing; nobody's looking over your shoulder.

**03.1 Rates**

| Metric | Value | Detail |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Corporate tax | NONE | no corporate income tax framework |
| VAT standard rate | NONE | no general VAT · no consumption tax framework |

**03.2 Regime & registry**

| Metric | Value | Detail |
| --- | --- | --- |
| IP Box · Patent Box | NONE | no IP regime · IP income taxed under standard corporate rules |
| Misuse of corporate assets | NO CRIMINAL | no criminal liability · Under the 2022 Penal Code (Ley 151/2022), offenses such as 'Malversación' (Embezzlement, Art. 297) and 'Apropiación Indebida' (Misappropriation, Art. 424) apply to private entities (MIPYMES). However, for private sector crimes, Cuban law generally requires a complaint from the victim ('denuncia del perjudicado') to initiate prosecution. In a solvent company where the sole director is also the sole shareholder, their consent to the use of funds precludes a criminal charge for 'misuse' against the company itself. Such actions are instead treated as tax evasion (Art. 263) or a civil breach of the 'separation of patrimony' principle established in Decree-Law 46/2021. |
| Shareholders privacy | PRIVATE | Registro Mercantil de la República de Cuba |
| Directors privacy | PRIVATE | Registro Mercantil de la República de Cuba |

**03.3 Incorporation cost**

_In this country, the most standard company form is called Empresa de Capital Totalmente Extranjero (Sociedad Anónima) (Wholly Foreign-Owned Enterprise (Joint-Stock Company)). The costs below are for incorporating a company in its simplest form, for reference only._

| Metric | Value | Detail |
| --- | --- | --- |
| National Registry of Foreign Commercial Representations Fee | USD 3,200 |  |
| Commercial Registry and Notary Fees (Resolución 515/2020) | USD 192 |  |
| Professional Legal and Consultancy Services (CONABI/Bufete Internacional) | USD 37,500 |  |
| Total | USD 40,892 |  |

## A good fit for a holding?

Long story short: NO.
**Cuba** has no treaty network at all, which buries the holding question, full stop.

Every dividend in or out eats the statutory withholding at full rate, and no domestic regime can patch a hole that sits on the source side. Don't park a holding here.

**04.1 Substance & exemptions**

| Metric | Value | Detail |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Territorial · individuals | WORLDWIDE | worldwide income taxation regardless of source |
| Territorial · corporates | WORLDWIDE | worldwide corporate taxation |
| Participation exemption | NONE | no dividend participation exemption regime |
| CFC rules | NONE | no controlled foreign corporation regime · foreign-source corporate income out of scope |

**04.2 Withholding tax · non-resident**

| Metric | Value | Detail |
| --- | --- | --- |
| WHT · dividends | NONE | no withholding on outbound dividends |
| WHT · interest | NONE | no withholding on outbound interest |
| WHT · royalties | NONE | no withholding on outbound royalties |
| Tax-haven WHT | NONE | no punitive rate on record |

**04.3 Treaty network**

| Metric | Value | Detail |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Treaties signed | 0 | active |
| Treaties pending | — | in negotiation |

## Easy to come and go?

Long story short: SOME.
**Cuba** taxes your worldwide income while you're resident, but at least the exit is free: *no exit tax* on the way out.

Leaving costs you paperwork, not money; your unrealised gains walk out the door with you, untouched.

**05.1 Exit & dual nationality**

| Metric | Value | Detail |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Exit tax | NONE | no triggers active · residence change tax-free · no deemed-disposal mechanism |
| Dual citizenship | FORBIDDEN | naturalisation requires renouncing existing citizenship |

**05.2 Citizenship paths**

| Metric | Value | Detail |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Residence | 5 years | available path to naturalisation |
| Marriage | 2 years | available path to naturalisation |
| Birth | jus soli | available path to naturalisation |
| Descent | — | not available |
| Investment | — | not available |

## Is your money watched?

Long story short: NO.
Nobody's reading over your shoulder in **Cuba**. It has joined *almost none* of the big automatic-exchange machines (CRS, FATCA, CARF, MLI, MAAC), and its corporate registries are *non-public*.

Your account movements stay out of foreign tax offices; your name stays out of search boxes. Here, discretion isn't a perk; it's the factory setting.

**Multilateral reporting frameworks — 0/9 active**

| Item | Status | Detail |
| --- | --- | --- |
| CRS | None | — |
| CARF | None | — |
| FATCA | None | — |
| MLI | None | — |
| BEPS | None | — |
| MAAC | None | — |
| GLOBAL FORUM | None | — |
| EOIR | None | — |
| CRYPTO TRAVEL RULE | None | — |

## Is it blacklisted?

Long story short: YES.
**Cuba** sits on an **international embargo list** (UN, US or EU sanctions). This is not blacklist friction, it's the financial death penalty: correspondent banking is gone, payment rails refuse the corridor, and simply transacting with the country can put *you* on a sanctions desk's radar.

Whatever the tax math says, the jurisdiction is radioactive. Walk away.

**Blacklist exposure — Listed by 1 authority**

| Item | Status | Detail |
| --- | --- | --- |
| EMBARGO | Listed | un / us / eu sanctions |
| FATF | Clear | grey / black list |
| EU | Clear | non-cooperative list |
| FRANCE | Clear | ETNC list |
| SPAIN | Clear | tax-haven list |
| PORTUGAL | Clear | favourable regimes |
| BRAZIL | Clear | low-tax list |

## Do you feel free there?

Long story short: NO.
Press freedom in **Cuba** is *locked down* (RSF rank **\#165**). Independent media and civic space operate under pressure (when they operate at all), and that kind of grip usually spills over into economic life too.

Small mercy: crypto isn't formally banned.

**08.1 Press freedom**

| Metric | Value | Detail |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Press freedom · RSF index | 165/180 | score 26 · ↑ 3 ranks year-on-year |

Central bank digital currency

NONE

no announced CBDC program · no pilot · no retail or wholesale prototype on record

## Connected to the world?

Long story short: COMPLETELY CUT OFF.
**Cuba** is unplugged from the global money grid: **0/11** of the services we track work here. No *Stripe*, no *Amazon*, and almost nothing around them either.

Whatever your plan is, the payment layer gets built from scratch, with local banks and local rules. Come for other reasons; connectivity isn't one of them.

**Accept payments — 0/6 available**

| Item | Status | Detail |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Stripe | Not available | card payments |
| PayPal | Not available | wallet payments |
| Adyen | Not available | enterprise psp |
| Mollie | Not available | eu payments |
| GoCardless | Not available | direct debit |
| Paddle | Not available | merchant of record |

**Bank and move money — 0/3 available**

| Item | Status | Detail |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Wise | Not available | multi-currency |
| Revolut | Not available | personal banking |
| Revolut Business | Not available | business banking |

**Buy and sell on Amazon — 0/2 available**

| Item | Status | Detail |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Amazon | Not available | consumer delivery |
| Amazon Seller | Not available | marketplace selling |

  SEE ALSO## Other jurisdictions worth comparing

Picked by similarity of strategic profile to Cuba. No editorial ranking — neighbours in the same scoring space.

  PROFILE-ADJACENT Same shape, comparable overall friction.

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  NOTABLY MORE FAVORABLE Same family of strategies, higher total score.

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