A buddy and I are thinking about starting up a Locutorio or an internet cafe in Centro within a few months. We've been about a year researching it, looking at the possibility of buying existing businesses, talking to engineers and salesmen from IPlan, accountants, etc.
The one thing that everyone agrees on, that everyone does, and that everyone knows about, is how they declare their income and their liabilities to the government.
The only things that these types of businesses pay taxes on related to sales is their phone calls, or if they have RapiPago or Pago Facil (or something similar). These are items that they cannot get out of paying taxes on because they earn a commission, a percentage of what they take in for phone calls, payments, etc. It's all recorded and reported to AFIP.
Everything else is mostly off the books. Computer time is often never reported for calculations of ingreso bruto. If it is reported, it's only a fraction of what is brought in that's reported. Kiosco items are often not reported (at a locutorio anyway - I'm not talking about just a kiosco - I don't know).
If they have an employee, they pay that person minimum wage in the white. They usually pay another 800-1000 pesos a month in the black.
They take every opportunity they can to hide what they are making from the government.
It makes it very difficult to determine what a location's real income is when looking at buying it, and determine what kind of margin is available in that business as a result. Just another thing about doing business here - as someone else mentioned, many of the costs are hidden, as well as the income itself.
To get back to the actual thread topic - I wouldn't worry about the crime in BA any more than LA or New York. At first you won't necessarily be able to tell the good parts of town from the not so good parts (it's not always about how much trash is on the street, for example), so yo will tend to be more careful everywhere until you understand the city better, if you're smart. Shouldn't have any more problems than the rest of us anyway
The one thing that everyone agrees on, that everyone does, and that everyone knows about, is how they declare their income and their liabilities to the government.
The only things that these types of businesses pay taxes on related to sales is their phone calls, or if they have RapiPago or Pago Facil (or something similar). These are items that they cannot get out of paying taxes on because they earn a commission, a percentage of what they take in for phone calls, payments, etc. It's all recorded and reported to AFIP.
Everything else is mostly off the books. Computer time is often never reported for calculations of ingreso bruto. If it is reported, it's only a fraction of what is brought in that's reported. Kiosco items are often not reported (at a locutorio anyway - I'm not talking about just a kiosco - I don't know).
If they have an employee, they pay that person minimum wage in the white. They usually pay another 800-1000 pesos a month in the black.
They take every opportunity they can to hide what they are making from the government.
It makes it very difficult to determine what a location's real income is when looking at buying it, and determine what kind of margin is available in that business as a result. Just another thing about doing business here - as someone else mentioned, many of the costs are hidden, as well as the income itself.
To get back to the actual thread topic - I wouldn't worry about the crime in BA any more than LA or New York. At first you won't necessarily be able to tell the good parts of town from the not so good parts (it's not always about how much trash is on the street, for example), so yo will tend to be more careful everywhere until you understand the city better, if you're smart. Shouldn't have any more problems than the rest of us anyway
