Argentine credit card holders’ buying abroad charged 15% income tax advance

Friday, August 31st 2012 - 05:03 UTC

Full article 34 comments

The long arm of the tax man reaches out to the pockets of Argentine travellers

Argentine credit card purchases abroad will be charged with an additional 15% income tax advance, AFIP tax agency reported on Thursday. The extra amount will be deductible from the income tax and the personal assets tax.

“The measure will be implemented in September and the additional figure will be reflected in the following month’s bill”, said AFIP’s head Ricardo Echegaray.

Another measure announced on Thursday will make credit card companies report all the purchases by credit card holders, including those done in foreign countries and in Argentina. The data will be cross checked with requests to buy foreign currency, and the decision becomes effective next October

Thus, AFIP seeks to have a stronger grasp on contributors, who according the agency’s data they spent 7.4 billion pesos (over 1.5bn dollars at the official exchange rate) between January and 18 June 2012 in purchases paid with 168,000 credit cards.

“We want to make sure that a limited group of 168.000 credit card holders have correctly made their tax statements correctly”, said the AFIP chief.

The measure to help control the drain of hard currency from Argentina is expected to have an impact on Argentine tourists travelling abroad particularly to neighbouring countries this coming spring and summer, mainly Uruguay, Chile and Brazil.

Categories: Economy, Politics, Argentina.

Tags: AFIP, Argentina, Argentina credit cards, income tax, income tax advance, personal assets tax.

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Joe Bloggs
Ouch!!
Aug 31st, 2012 - 05:13 am 0
LEPRecon
Poor Argentine citizens, your government continues to rob you blind after mismanaging your country to the verge of economic collapse.

For a supposedly 'socialist' government they do seem to like pouring tax after tax on the ordinary Argentine citizen to go straight into the pockets of the ruling elite.

Marx would never have approved.
Aug 31st, 2012 - 06:45 am 0
Idlehands
This isn't an attempt to generate increased tax revenues - it is simply an additional hurdle to discourage Argentines form bothering to purchase anything produced abroad in the first place.
Aug 31st, 2012 - 07:09 am 0

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