The Dominican “Banana” Republic

If you had to pick a country with the most stereotypical characteristics of a banana republic as portrayed in the movies you would be hard pressed to find a country that fits the bill more than the Dominican Republic.

I formalized a business in the DR in 2007. It was around the time they started transitioning the economy from being mainly an informal economy. It was really hard the monthly reporting to the Dominican internal revenue, the DGII. And managing payroll reporting to the TSS so your employees could have medical coverage. In fact, during the years it has only gotten more complicated and more costly and a higher tax burden. But they still have a very large informal economy. It seems to me all they did was create a massive bureaucracy. And it doesn’t seem fair with arbitrary compliance depending on how you know how to game the system and apparently also who you know at the DGII according to lawyers and accountants I talked to during the years.

In this interesting video from YouTube https://youtu.be/raOlVtCiFog from about two years ago you see the former president of the Dominican Republic Danilo Medina. A general stands behind in a white uniform and military hat and next to the president, on his left with a mustache, the former foreign minister Miguel Vargas or “The MVP” the most valuable player as he called himself in his 2008 presidential campaign. In the clip Danilo Medina is questioned about accusations of corruption in his administration and he says something like. What corruption. I have asked them to show examples of corruption against the Dominican state. Where is it he says. Where ?