Impact on the Anti-Money Laundering legislation of the new regime to settle tax obligations, to declare the holding of national and foreign currency and assets in Argentina and abroad, and to repatriate funds

In Article III the Law establishes the possibility of declaring the holding of national and foreign currency and assets in Argentina and abroad under a regime with incentives related to the destiny given to the funds and assets, through a repatriation and declaration of holdings regime[1]. 

The Law excludes the money obtained under the crimes listed under section 6 of the Anti-Money Laundering Law No 25,246. The crimes listed in this section are related with the traffic and commercialization of drugs, gun smuggling, crimes committed by terrorist associations and illicit associations organized to commit political and racial crimes, fraud against the Public Administration, prostitutions of minors, child pornography and terrorist financing crimes.

The Law establishes that entities and individuals under this regime do not have to report to the Federal Tax Authority the date of the acquisition of the funds or the origin of the funds. 

However, the new regime does not release financial entities and other individuals and entities listed under Section 20 of Law No 25,246 from fulfilling the obligations connected to Anti-Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing legislations or other crimes not related with tax obligations. Thus, entities and individuals which fall under Anti- Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing legislations are still forced to fulfill the “Know your Customer” policies and the obligation to report suspicious transactions, which implies the request of information in connection with the origin of the funds.