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The National Office of Tax Administration (ONAT) has been authorized to directly debit amounts owed to the treasury from the bank accounts of Cuban taxpayers, without the need for prior authorization from the account holder, as established by the , published in the Official Gazette on June 18.
The regulation, signed on May 25 by Minister Vladimir Regueiro Ale, will come into effect 30 days after its publication, which places its effective application around July 18, 2026.
The mechanism operates through a "collection order without acceptance" that the ONAT sends directly to the corresponding bank in digital format, without requiring the debtor to approve the transaction.
For legal entities—both state and non-state—the debit is executed from the current account; for individuals, it is from the Fiscal Bank Account.
However, when the ONAT identifies behaviors of tax evasion or underreporting, the measure goes further: the collection order can extend to the personal bank accounts of the debtor, after prior warning.
The Resolution 126/2026 published in Official Gazette No. 53 also states that the head of the ONAT is empowered to issue additional regulatory provisions to implement the mechanism, in coordination with the Central Bank of Cuba.
The regime specifies that the mechanism only applies to debts that have already become final: they were determined administratively, notified to the taxpayer, reached maturity without payment, and the debtor did not file an appeal or request a deferral.
If the available balance is not enough to cover the total amount owed, the collection will be made partially and progressively until the entire debt is settled.
The ONAT defends the measure by arguing that "the implementation of this measure cannot be interpreted as an intrusion into the debtor's finances because only the amount owed will be debited from their bank account, as it does not belong to them; it is part of the State Budget."
Before generalizing it, the regime conducted a pilot test with more than 200 taxpayers in the 15 provinces and 75 municipalities, including the Isle of Youth, whose results were deemed favorable.
The measure comes at a particularly sensitive time for Cubans, who are already facing a banking system in structural crisis: cash shortages, non-operational payment terminals, and lack of mobile coverage.
In Sancti Spíritus, less than 10% of SMEs and private workers regularly accept bank transfers, according to data from May 2026.
In addition, according to recent reports, citizens are waiting up to three days to access 40% of their salary due to failures in the banking system.
The fiscal context is also significant: the maximum public debt of the Cuban state for 2026 amounts to 123,772 million pesos, reflecting the pressure the regime faces to collect revenue and explaining the urgency behind this new tool for forced collection.
Since April 2025, the government already requires self-employed workers to have mandatory tax accounts to operate legally, which means that forced banking and automatic collection are part of the same financial control process over Cubans.
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