Pay your taxes early. Sound familiar?

Out of 159,000 self-employed workers who registered with the Cuban government in 2013, only 16,000 had filed their income tax return by Jan. 24, the daily Juventud Rebelde reported Thursday (Feb. 6). Tax returns for fiscal year 2013 must be filed between Jan. 8 and April 30 of this year.

More tax returns have been filed by “cuentapropistas” (self-employed workers) so far this year than in a similar period last year, but the entrepreneurs’ expedience “is not enough [for the revenue service] to be satisfied or remain silent, ” said Arelys Pérez García, chief of the Collections Department of the National Office of Tax Management (ONAT). She advised self-employed workers to file early and accurately.

Failure to file a tax return, or filing a tax return with inaccurate, incomplete or fraudulent data could cost the entrepreneur a fine or even imprisonment, she said. More than 500 of the returns at hand were found to require clarification and verification, Pérez told the newspaper.

Of the 16,000 taxpayers who filed, 600 did so at a local bank, PÈrez said, which means they paid their taxes in cash. The remaining 15,400 filed their returns at the ONAT, which means they did not pay but asked for a postponement, she explained.

Asking for a postponement implies paying interest on the taxes due. Although tax deferral is authorized by ONAT, “it is a warning sign,” the newspaper article says, though it doesn’t say of what. Once ONAT grants a deferral under specific conditions, the taxpayer cannot challenge those conditions.

Almost all the 600 entrepreneurs who paid their taxes at a bank were granted a 5 percent discount because they filed their returns before Feb. 28, Pérez said.

Taxpayers in need of advice may find it at the National Association of Economists and Accountants, and at the offices of local lawyers and accountants, Juventud Rebelde suggests.