Argentine Tax Authority: New Procedures for Beneficiaries of the Tax Amnesty

 I- Tax Amnesty Regime

Law No. 27,260 established an exceptional and voluntary regime regarding externalization of local currency, foreign currency, and any other assets, whether in Argentina or abroad, holdings (“Tax Amnesty Regime”), and a procedure by which taxpayers could confirm the information stated in their affidavits corresponding to the latest fiscal period that ended on December 31, 2015 (“Confirmation Statement”).

Taxpayers that adhered to the Tax Amnesty Regime were discharged from payment of all omitted taxes originated in the assets that were disclosed. Taxes related to assets that were used, disposed of, or that by any other reason were not held by the taxpayer by July 22, 2016 were also discharged.

Taxpayers that did not adhere to the Tax Amnesty Regime could follow the filed the Confirmation Statement. An affidavit stating that the assets declared in the taxpayers tax returns that corresponded to the fiscal year that ended on December 31, 2015, were all of that taxpayer’s assets and holdings. Taxpayers that filed the Confirmation Statement enjoyed the aforementioned benefits for any asset or holding in their property, regardless of its current status, before the fiscal period that ended on December 31, 2015 if it had not been declared.

The Regulatory Decree stated that the tax obligations under dispute before administrative tribunals, judicial-administrative tribunals or before Criminal, Customs or Exchange Court were affected by the aforementioned discharges.

II- Instruction No. 1008/2017

By virtue of General Instruction No. 1008/ 2017(the “Instruction”), the Tax Authority

1. established uniform criterion regarding the characteristics that each case must have in order to be discharged, or to continue with the process.
2. determined the steps to be followed regarding inspections, official tax assessment processes and investigations in which the taxpayer had adhered to the Tax Amnesty Regime or, to the contrary, had filed a Confirmation Statement.

The Instruction establishes the procedure to be followed according to classification of each taxpayer case under one of the five categories determined by AFRA:

1. Cases with technical adjustments detected by an inspection;
2. Cases with tax adjustments made by the Tax Authority  regarding fiscal periods that are not available to be included in the Tax Amnesty Regime;
3. Cases where tax adjustments have been detected regarding fake invoices;
4. Cases where assets and holdings not included in the Tax Amnesty Regime nor declared before, as long as the threshold set forth by the Tax Amnesty Regime Law was reached; and
5. Cases that cannot be included in any of the aforementioned categories. 

The Instruction establishes that for cases in the situations described in (i), (ii), (iii) and (iv), the Tax Authority must continue the investigation process in accordance with the applicable general instructions, without any special treatment related to the discharge established in the Tax Amnesty Regime being applied.

If existing processes qualify as the situation described in (v) above, that process should be discharged, without any Fiscal interest, as long as the taxpayer has submitted the Confirmation Statement. This includes those cases under dispute before administrative tribunals, judicial-administrative tribunals and Court.

Except for any justified exception, cases where the taxpayer has adhered to the Tax Amnesty Regime and, up to the moment in which such adhesion took place, there was no notification made to the taxpayer, should also be discharged in the same conditions as mentioned above.

In  cases in which the taxpayers has adhered to the Tax Amnesty Regime and, at the time of said adhesion, there was an “administrative dispute” in course, the involved taxpayer must allocate the declared assets to the taxable income of the tax or taxes corresponding to that fiscal correction. The Tax Authority will verify the allocation of the tax correction regarding the tax discharge arising from the adhesion to the Tax Amnesty Regime (that is, of the externalization), and will verify that there was no registered previous allocation.

Finally, in those cases where the tax adjustment was greater than the tax discharge established by the Tax Amnesty Regime as per the externalized amounts, the arising difference must be determined and claimed by the Tax Authority in accordance with the procedure that applies to the nature of the tax correction performed.