Recibo Black Market
September 3rd, 2008
While I was communicating with the museum folks in the months before the concert they said that because I’m a foreigner and I don’t have a Mexican work permit (a Mexican green card) they can’t pay me directly. I’d need a Mexican citizen to sign the “recibo” so I could get paid. They said anyone could do it for me. However, after the concert I found out that not just anyone could do it. It needs to be someone who already has specially printer “recibos de honorarios”. Normally recibo means receipt but in this case it’s more like an invoice that has the user’s tax id printed in a bar code. Then that person basically has to pay my taxes for me on the income. Many musicians who can’t find much work end up selling their recibos for a profit to foreigners. It’s technically illegal but it’s so common that every musicina knows about the “Black Market”.
For my second concert at the Museo Deiguino they needed a recibo before they’d agree to the concert. I had to get one quick so someone hooked me up with this young woman who charged me a steep 15% plus the amount of the taxes (also about 15%). I didn’t have much choice so I agreed. Fortunately the next day I met a Cuban pianist living here in Guanajuato and she contacted a friend of hers, a percussionist in the symphony, who agreed to sell me one for my Museo Iconografico concert for only 5%. That’s great because it pays four times what the other one does and 15% of that would have hurt. He turned out to be a nice guys and I invited him to lunch and a beer after we dealt with all the money stuff. I’ll go to hear his blues-rock band at a club tonight.
Unfortunately, all the mess with the recibos plus the fact that the museum’s financial system crashed for three days meant a big delay in my leaving town. Additionally, I have to return earlier than planned to do the concert at the museo deiguino so it looks like I’m going to have to cancel the Xalapa portion of my trip. Oh well. A doctor in town says he’s putting on a bullfighting festival in September and he wants to fly me down to play at it. If that comes to pass, I’ll do the Xalapa thing on that trip.
Entry Filed under: guanajuato-08
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