There are two separate 10%'s. The Propina Legal is a charge that all hotels and restaurants have to make (but not people who rent apartments with no service provided). The law says that this should be divided equally between the staff who provide service. It's normal that management get more, and staff who work in the background get less, but owners who don't physically work in the business - and particularly foreign owners - should not get any of this charge. The way the charge is divided between staff, and how much it is, is a huge concern to most staff in restaurants and hotels, and leads to a lot, and I stress a LOT, of arguments. Staff can complain to the Secretaria (the Ministry of Labor) if they are unhappy who then send inspectors. I know all about this because some of my lovely staff did this to me recently and it was quite nasty.
The second 10% is called Bonificacion, and you have to pay 10% of the profit that you declare to DGII to the staff. You have to calculate their 10% on profits before paying any bonuses to directors or owners. The profit that you declare to DGII will be based on the income that you declare (ie Income on which you charge ITBIS) less your declared costs (ie the costs that you return on the 606 each month), and if you're like most other businesses in Dom Rep, these numbers are not the same as what you actually made. And cue another argument, where your staff claim that they should get 10% of your profits, and the profits and not the same as the profits that you declare to DGII. So the advice I have been given is to pay more than the 10% declared.
