After its approval in Congress, the Customs Collection and Control Agency (ARCA) regulated the Fiscal Innocence Regime, the Government’s initiative to “remove dollars from the mattress,” and put into effect the Simplified Income Tax Affidavit Regime.
“With the Tax Innocence Law, a persecutory regime is left behind. Decades of exchange restrictions, high inflation, volatility and a suffocating tax system pushed millions of Argentines into informality and evasion,” the Executive assures.
The Minister of Economy, Luis Caputo, had stated: “Data from the Central Bank say that there are USD 170,000 million under the mattresses of Argentines and the deposits of the private sector are USD 67,000 million, there are almost three times the level of deposits that there are in the private sector in the mattresses. If that were in the coming months to the financial system, or half of that, Argentina’s problems would be solved.”
Among the main points of the measure is that the threshold for simple evasion is raised to $100 million, and that of aggravated evasion to 1,000 million pesos.At the same time, the statute of limitations for the crime was modified, decreasing from 5 years to 3 years.
This means that those who register in the Simplified Gains Regime (RSG) during the coming months will be excluded from any investigation starting in 2029.
Furthermore, evasion will no longer be considered a criminal offense: anyone who fails to comply and is notified will be able to regularize their situation by paying the debt, without having to face a criminal case.
Meanwhile, to join the regime, certain requirements must be met:
The verification will be carried out considering the fiscal period of accession and the previous two, without accumulating the amounts between years.
Another point of the regulations is that ARCA will offer a pre-filled Simplified Affidavit that the taxpayer can review, adjust and present.
Presentation and payment on time—or adhering to a facility plan within the deadline—will have a releasing effect with respect to the Income Tax corresponding to the base fiscal period.
It was established that operations will be considered properly channeled when funds enter the financial system, either at the origin or destination of the transaction.
Likewise, it was ratified that real estate sales may continue to be carried out in cash, in accordance with the provisions of Decree 22/2001.
The digital proof of adherence to the Simplified Profits Regime will be considered a favorable record before financial entities and other obligated entities within the framework of the regulations for the prevention of money laundering, without exempting compliance with the corresponding controls.
In turn, ARCA will implement a digital validation system to facilitate this verification.
The regulations expressly clarify that ARCA will not analyze the increase in assets, including bank deposits, for the purposes of verifying the regime, clearing up erroneous interpretations about the scope of the controls.
The regime introduces a presumption of truthfulness on the sworn statements presented under the simplified modality.When the taxpayer complies in a timely manner with the presentation and payment of the Income Tax for the base tax period, the information declared is considered correct, which provides greater legal security and predictability.
Within this framework, ARCA may only object to the declaration in exceptional situations provided for by the regulations, such as the detection of significant discrepancies duly accredited.
In addition, the scheme incorporates the figure of a new base fiscal period.Every time the taxpayer confirms his permanence in the regime and submits the Simplified Affidavit with the corresponding payment on time, that exercise becomes the new reference period.
Thus, previous periods are covered by the presumption of truthfulness, unless ARCA had previously notified an intervention order, which configures a system of progressive compliance aimed at strengthening trust between the taxpayer and the tax administration.
The regulations clarify that a rectification submitted spontaneously, before an intervention order is notified, will not be considered a significant discrepancy.
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This framework especially benefits SMEs. It happens that the Government decided to annul the automatic issuance of notices aimed at taxpayers who are not considered relevant for national collection.
The measure seeks to reformulate the sanctioning mechanisms and reduce their impact on small and medium-sized companies, which will be given differential treatment in the application of fines.
In this way, automatic notifications will no longer be sent uniformly to all taxpayers.Instead, an individual analysis will be applied, which will exclude SMEs from this automated scheme and give them the possibility of regularizing their situation before facing a formal sanction.
In this sense, reminders will be sent before the investigation of the summary for the application of the fine begins.
