This Monday, as the Government had anticipated, Sergio Massa signed a tax information agreement with the United States, in an act shared with the North American ambassador in Argentina, Marc Stanley.
During the event, the economy minister He explained: “We do not want Argentines to use the financial system of the United States as a tax haven to evade their obligations to the Argentine treasury,” so, according to what he said Sergio Massathe agreement will be “a tax transparency agreement.”
“We break the hunt at the zoo. We are not going to look for those who always paid, but the AFIP will look for those who evaded, who did not pay“, asserted Sergio Massa.
Within this framework, the minister explained that, with this agreement, the country will be able to access data from undeclared accounts of Argentines in the United States automatically, which will help AFIP to detect Argentine dollars abroad and increase tax collection.
“This is an agreement of mutual trust and cooperation, this is a huge gesture of trust from the Government of the United States towards the Argentine Government,” said the head of the Palacio de Hacienda.
In parallel, the minister is preparing a project to send to Congress, so that the funds declared are used for productive investment, for which he invited legislators to advance the debate on this initiative.
“We want to implement legislation that promotes the possibility of externalization but also punishes with the full force of the law those who, after completing the steps of the externalization process, do not launder or do not externalize their possession of money abroad,” said the mandatary.
What is the agreement with the United States?
The agreement implies that the Government of Joe Biden provides for nine months, that is, until September 30, data on all the accounts of Argentine citizens in the North American country. This covers both natural and legal persons.
The minister explained: “The United States will provide the financial information of the declarable accounts, with identification of the account holder, identification of the financial entity, gross amount of interest and dividends received from the income, and Argentina will do the same process.” According to official estimates, it is estimated that about 1,000 million dollars a year will be added to the reserves thanks to this agreement.