The first stage of money laundering aimed at promoting construction, in which a 5% income rate applies to the funds used for that purposewill close this week, and from November 22 The next tranche will begin with a higher rate of 10%.
At the end of last August, the Government extended for one year the Argentine Investment, Construction and Production Incentive regime through Decree 522/2022 and the Federal Administration of Public Revenues (AFIP) regulated the procedures to enter money laundering with a tax rate of 5% until November 19 this year.
Shortly after the end of the first stage, partial data from the AFIP indicate that they entered more than 7,500 million pesos ($40 million), with a collection of around 379 million pesos.
Real estate developers estimate that the figure entered in this stage is greater than the amount mentioned, due to the movement and operations that generated the incentive and given that the law stipulates terms to deposit the capital to be invested in special accounts.
The president of the Business Chamber of Urban Developers (CEDU), Damián Tabakman, told Télam that “many are rushing trying to take advantage of this week” and that “a lot of members of the Chamber have had many transactions” for money laundering.
I consider that the regime “adds value” to the activity and that the investments were oriented to the residential sector.
Alejandro Ginevra, president of the developer GVN Groupindicated that money laundering at this stage “worked for us, it boosted quite a lot of important sales; in our project in Puerto Madero with two buildings we have signed several tickets.”
“We have several operations to sign this week,” he added.
Speaking to Télam, Ginevra stressed that “it is the most beneficial laundering of recent times” and that “it costs 5% to the official dollar, it costs almost half and it is very easy to do it; although the first tranche is due, the second tranche is not that expensive either, it is quite advantageous.”
He also valued that “the advantage it has is that it goes to the economy because it turns to construction, which generates a lot of labor.”
He said that so far more has been allocated to premium buildings and he considered that “more information is needed” so that “people know about this possibility” and there may be “quite a few more operations in the second tranche.”
what does the rule say
The normative enables the voluntary declaration of possession in national and foreign currency until August 17, 2023 for investments in real estate developments.
The special tax rate was set at 5% for externalization of savings made until November 19 of this year; while for the period from November 22 to February 19 of next year the rate rises to 10%, and from February 20, 2023 it will be 20%.
The funds that are declared must be used only for the development or investment of new real estate projects or with an advance of no more than 50% in the country.which are carried out before December 31, 2024.
On Monday, the enactment of the Argentine Federal Construction Incentive Law and Access to Housing No. 27,679, which extends the Money Laundering Regime for Construction for one year, will be published in the Official Gazette. pic.twitter.com/kCq1PIDyPV
– Sergio Massa (@SergioMassa) August 20, 2022
How to proceed to register
These must be deposited in a Special Deposit and Cancellation Account for Argentine Construction and may be applied, temporarily, to the purchase of national public securities; then they must affect the development or investment in real estate projects in the country.
On the declared amount, adherents will be exempt from the following taxes: Earnings, including undocumented departures, Transfer of Real Estate, Credits and debits in bank accounts, VAT, Personal Assets and Special Tax on the capital of cooperatives.
Likewise, the declared sum will be released from all civil, commercial, tax criminal, foreign exchange criminal, customs criminal and administrative infractions that may correspond.
The affidavit will be taken as presented once the payment is registered in the AFIP and the procedure to access the tax benefits is carried out through the service with tax key “Normalization of holding in currency Law 27,613”, as follows.
In the first instance ite must register the existence of the holdings, the accreditation in the special account and its valuation, through form 1130where the tax is determined.
After charging is complete, the taxpayer must press the “End of registration” buttonand later you must generate the Electronic Payment Flyer (VEP) of the special tax and pay it, which will allow the affidavit to be sent automatically.
