BCRA Created a Special Regime for Service Providers to Pay Remunerations in Foreign Currency

The regime created by the Argentine Central Bank by Communique “A” 7518, of June 2nd, 2022 (BCRA, after its acronym in Spanish) allows providers of certain services abroad, to keep their collections in foreign currency, within certain limits, for the payment of remunerations in foreign currency in Argentina.

The regulation exempts from the sale for Pesos—but not from transfer into Argentina—in the foreign exchange market, the collections of certain exports of services, to the extent that they correspond to certain concept codes, such as, for instance, telecommunications services, computer services, advertising, market research and public opinion polling, and other business services. These funds must be credited in accounts in foreign currency owned by the client in local financial institutions, so they cannot be maintained in foreign bank accounts.

The regime contemplates a differential treatment, depending on whether the exporter is an individual or a legal entity.

In the first case, exporters may use this mechanism up to an equivalent of USD 12,000 in the calendar year.

Legal entities, instead, must obtain a “Certification of increase in income from collections for service exports in the year 2022”. This certification may be obtained to the extent that compliance with certain requirements is verified, mainly, that the amount for collections of service exports that were transferred to Argentina through the foreign exchange market in the year 2022 is higher than the value of those throughout the year 2021. However, this benefit may not exceed the equivalent in foreign currency of the minimum of two values: (1) 50% of the value in which the income from the foreign exchange market of collections from exports of services in the year 2022 exceed the amount paid for such concepts during the entire previous year, and (2) the amount in foreign currency equivalent to 20% of the gross remuneration paid to workers in the previous calendar month multiplied by the number of months remaining until end of the year including the current month.

In both cases, a sworn statement must be submitted stating, among other things, that on the day the certification is requested and in the previous and subsequent 90 calendar days none of the transactions with securities that limit access to the foreign exchange market for outflow operations.