MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentina’s tax and customs agency complaint targets national football federation over fake invoices

The case is being handled in federal court and remains at an early stage

Argentina’s Revenue and Customs Control Agency (ARCA) has filed a fresh complaint against the Argentine Football Association (AFA), alleging undocumented outflows of money and the use of fake invoices, with a preliminary estimated tax damage of more than 375 million pesos (around USD 262,372.01), according to Argentine media reports.

The filing follows an audit of AFA operations covering March 2023 to June 2025. As reported by Infobae, ARCA’s review flagged fund movements that allegedly lacked sufficient supporting documentation, as well as payments to suppliers identified through the tax authority’s risk-analysis systems.

The case is being handled in federal court and remains at an early stage. TN reported that ARCA described the move as “a new complaint,” rather than an add-on to an earlier case.

Media accounts say the probe included on-site inspections, address checks, banking analysis and cross-referencing tax databases. The alleged pattern involves companies issuing high-value invoices without the economic capacity to provide the declared services—such as lacking staff, infrastructure or a track record consistent with the billed work—raising suspicion that the invoices were used to justify expenditures without real underlying transactions.

AFA, led by Claudio “Chiqui” Tapia, has reportedly challenged the administrative tax adjustments, triggering a deeper “assessment ex officio” procedure—standard when a taxpayer disputes initial determinations.

The new complaint adds to a separate, earlier ARCA filing involving alleged tax and social security evasion that local coverage estimates at more than ARS 19 billion.

ARCA is the agency that replaced AFIP by presidential decree in October 2024, retaining tax, customs and social security collection powers.