The Tax Unit ("TU") is a referential value created by the Organic Tax Code in 1994 to update tax bases, fees, fines and similar tax concepts according to the annual inflation. The National Integrated Service of Customs and Tax Administration (the "Revenue Service"), upon approval of the Permanent Commission of Finance of the National Legislative Assembly, must adjust the TU based on the variation of the National Consumer Price Index published by the Central Bank of Venezuela for the prior year. Despite the Organic Tax Code establishes the adjustment of the TU annually, the Revenue Service has adjusted the TU four times in nine months of 2018, without the National Legislative Assembly's approval. In less than six months, in 2019 the Revenue Service adjusted once again the TU value to 50 Sovereign Bolivars ("VES"), and, like in the past, without the National Legislative Assembly's approval, as summarized below:
Considering the Central Bank of Venezuela has not published the National Consumer Price Index since December of 2015, different reliable sources have estimated the inflation for 2017 between 2,616%[8]and 2,735%[9] and the inflation for 2018 in 1.299.724%,[10] the value of the TU is divorced from reality. Something similar occurred in 2016, 2017 and 2018. In cases of taxes determined annually, such as income tax, the TU value will be the one in force for at least 183 consecutive days during the period. For taxes determined other than annually, such as VAT, the TU will be the one in force at the beginning of the period. The TU adjustment will only apply for determining national (federal) taxes administered and collected by the Revenue Services and the fines imposed by such office. The adjustment of the TU increased in approximately 194% other concepts, such as the tax base of taxes and fees. The most important are:
