Why I built Tributo

Hi, I'm Fedor Chishchin. I'm a software architect and engineer, and I work with AI for a living. In April 2026 I moved to Uruguay — and like a lot of people who arrive here, I had to figure out how to work legally as a one-person business.

I'm not afraid of complicated things. Reading documentation is my job. So I decided to do it myself: register as a sole trader (unipersonal), pick the right tax regime, and understand what I'd owe and when. How hard could it be?

The problem

Very hard, it turns out. The official information exists — DGI and BPS publish the laws, decrees and rules. But knowing they exist and understanding what they mean for your situation are two completely different things. The rules cross-reference each other, use terms that assume you already know them, and change depending on details you don't realize matter.

So I did what any engineer in 2026 would do: I asked AI. I used the best models available — Claude Opus 4.7 and GPT‑5.5. And even they couldn't give me a correct answer on the first try. Not because the models are weak, but because the system is genuinely that tangled. I had every official law in front of me and still couldn't be sure I'd chosen right.

If someone who builds software and uses frontier AI every day struggles this much, what about everyone else?

Why this matters

Most people aren't going to read tax decrees. They just want to know three things: what do I need to pay, when is it due, and how much should I expect? Today, getting those three answers means either paying an accountant for things that should be simple, or living with a low hum of anxiety that you've missed something.

That anxiety is the real product of a confusing system. It's not that the taxes are huge — it's that you can never be quite sure you're doing it right.

What I'm building

So I built the thing I wished I'd had: Tributo. You answer a few plain-language questions about your situation, and it gives you a personal tax calendar for the year — what's due, when, and an honest estimate of how much. Every number can be opened to show the step-by-step calculation and a link to the official source it comes from.

One rule guides everything: we never invent a figure. If we can't calculate your case precisely, we tell you so, clearly, instead of guessing. Trust is the whole point.

Where this goes

Tributo starts with Uruguay because it's where I am and where the need is real. But the problem isn't unique to Uruguay. Across Latin America — and frankly most of the world — independent workers face the same fog. The plan is to expand across the region, and then beyond.

If you're self-employed here and the tax system has ever made you feel lost, this is for you. I built it for me first. Now I'm building it for you.