Automatic Exchange of Financial Information

As mentioned in Marval News No. 167, Argentina is assuming some commitments in the OECD context by which it is bound, together with other jurisdictions, to automatically exchange relevant fiscal information. These obligations were assumed by Argentina when signing a Joint Declaration as an early adopter, where it was established that the first exchange of information will take place in September 2017.

Thus, on May 22, 2017 the Official Gazette published General Resolution No. 4056-E, issued by the Argentine Tax Authority (“AFIP”).

The purpose of the regulation is to implement an information regime which will be run by certain financial institutions, according to the terms established by the Common Reporting Standard (CRS), developed by the OECD.

The AFIP decided to implement an Annual Information Regime for the financial institutions regarding “declarable accounts” by “persons from a declarable jurisdiction”, which is deemed to mean non-resident subjects.

The financial institutions are required to report the existence of those bank accounts to the AFIP on an annual basis, submitting the following information:

i. Complete surname and name or corporate name, domicile, tax residence country, place and date of birth, among others;

ii. Account number or equivalent denomination;

iii. Account balance or its value at the end of the calendar year, specifying the currency.

This information must be filed in the “Financial information regime of non-resident subjects” on the AFIP’s website, before June 30 of the year after the one which the information is provided for.

Any breach of these obligations will imply the inclusion of the responsible party in a riskier category, the suspension or exclusion of the inscription in the AFIP’s Special Tax Records and the suspension of the application of exclusion or non-withholding certificates. In addition, the subject will be potentially punished by penalties provided by Tax Procedure Law, No. 11,683.

Fiscal period 2016 will be the first one to require being filed.

This new resolution completes previous regulations by which the Argentine Central Bank, the Argentine Securities Commission and the Argentine Superintendence of Insurance force the financial entities to do whatever is necessary to identify the owner of bank accounts affected by the exchange of information regime developed by the OECD.

Thus, Argentina is moving forward in its commitments with the OECD to contribute to international tax transparency.