Argentina

Taxable period

Tax for individuals in Argentina is assessable on a calendar-year basis.

Tax returns

The earnings of each spouse (e.g. from employment and business activities) are assessable separately and individually.

With respect to registered taxpayers, the general due date for filing a return is June of each year.

Individual PIT returns are not required to be filed for payment purposes by employees who have no sources of income other than payroll compensation, since the tax must be duly withheld at source by the employer.

However, employees with annual gross compensation higher than ARS 6.6 million (for FY 2022) (*) must file a PIT return for information purposes by 30 June of each year. In addition, the company should prepare, by the end of April of the following year, an annual wage tax return reporting the annual compensation, deductions, and withholdings performed for each fiscal year, which is to be filed with the tax authorities.

In addition, employees with annual gross compensation over ARS 6.6 million (for FY 2022) (*) are also required to report their personal assets as of 31 December of the year (locally and abroad) in a separate information PIT return, which is also due on 30 June of each year.

Resident and non-resident employees who receive taxable income other than employment income are required to file an annual Argentine PIT return for payment purposes in June of the following year.

Self-employed workers (including members of boards of directors) must register with the tax authorities and file an annual PIT return in June of every year. In addition, they are required to make advance payments on account of their income tax liability of the current year based on their income tax liability of the prior fiscal year.

Foreign beneficiaries have no filing obligations, since they are subject to income tax withholding at source by the local paying entity on a final and definite basis.

Tax returns are filed electronically. It is required that the taxpayer applies personally for a special fiscal code (clave fiscal) to be able to access the tax authorities' website.

(*) The information is not updated for FY 2023, yet.

Electronic invoicing

All registered VAT payers are compelled to use electronic invoicing, and the use of the paper-based mechanism has been discontinued.

A few exceptions to the use of electronic invoicing remain in force, including operations performed by certain small taxpayers (Monotributistas), invoicing through the use of special fiscal hardware (Controlador fiscal), back-up invoicing systems, and invoicing in certain specific activities.

Payment of tax

Income tax is withheld from salaries. Employers are required to withhold these taxes on a monthly and actual basis at the appropriate personal rates applied to the net taxable remuneration of each employee.

Self-employed workers must pay the balance due on their taxes subsequent to the filing of the respective tax return at the authorised banks. Payments can also be made electronically from the web pages of Argentine banks.

The due date for payment of individual income taxes determined in a tax return is the day following the tax return filing due date which depends on the individual tax identification, Clave Unica de Identificación Tributaria (CUIT).

Audit cycle

The federal tax authority in Argentina is the Administración Federal de Ingresos Públicos (AFIP). The AFIP is entitled to audit any tax return filed by a taxpayer at its sole discretion during the statute of limitations.

An audit is an AFIP review of an individual's income, accounts, personal assets and financial information to ensure information is being reported correctly and to verify the amount of tax reported on the individual's tax return is accurate. An individual's tax return may be examined for a variety of reasons, and the examination may take place in any one of several ways.

Returns are chosen by computerised screening, by random sample, or by an income document matching program. After the examination, if any changes to the individual's tax are proposed, one can either agree with those changes and pay any additional tax owed plus interest for late payment and fines that may have been applied, or one can disagree with the changes and appeal the decision. In most instances the taxpayer may take the case to court.

The tax authority is empowered to send information requests to taxpayers which must be duly responded to using special forms. The due date for responding to information requests is defined by the tax agent but generally is 15 administrative working days from the day the taxpayer is formally notified.

Statute of limitations

The statute of limitations is five years for registered taxpayers and ten years for non-registered taxpayers. Nevertheless, in 2020, tax moratorium legislation extended this period by one year for those tax years that remained open at that time.

The statute of limitations will also limit the time taxpayers have to file a claim for credit or refund.

Topics of focus for tax authorities

There are no special topics of focus for tax authorities in Argentina. They may vary with time and are related to specific issues of the economy.