The Collection Agency of the province of Buenos Aires (ARBA) detected more than 10 million square meters built without declaring in luxury properties located in different parts of the Buenos Aires territory, during a series of audits carried out in high-income sectors to combat Real Estate Tax evasion.
In a statement, Cristian Girard, director of ARBA, explained that “This figure corresponds to the set of operations that we carried out in the last two years, through satellite inspection tools and face-to-face controls focused on segments with high tax capacity”.
“Product of these actions of ARBA on luxury buildings located in countries, closed neighborhoods and other open urbanizations throughout the Province, we were able to recover more than $1.2 billion in revenuewhich were previously evaded in the Real Estate Tax”, highlighted Girard.
In this context, the director of the Collection Agency emphasized that “we are talking about a lot of money and a situation that is very unfair, because although not all the people who live in these neighborhoods are rich, they do have an economic pass that is much higher than the average of people who live in the suburbs and other areas of the province of Buenos Aires”.
“For our government – he added – it is essential to repair these situations of fiscal injustice. For this reason, since Axel Kicillof took office as governor, we have intensified inspections in all sectors with higher incomes, high concentrations and big players in the economy, to attack evasion with force, but starting with those who have the most”.
The cadastral inspections of the Collection Agency covered constructions in gated communities, residential areas, high-rise properties and other luxurious homes located in the most exclusive locations throughout the province.
In dialogue with the press, Cristian Girard highlighted that “The important thing is that the taxpayers get up to date with the declaration of square meters to prevent debts from accumulating.
“The Agency has the ability to see and claim up to five years ago the undeclared meters built, and the positive thing is that the response rate is very high: in more than half of the cases that are notified there is rectification of affidavits”.
Among the undeclared constructions detected by ARBA in Buenos Aires territory are included more than 350,000 built square meters corresponding to Bahía Blanca, that were recently discovered during a series of operations that focused on 1,507 real estate items in that district.
The evasion was detected in both closed and open urbanizations of the party, high-rise buildings, hotels, offices, sheds, gyms and residences with and without swimming pools, that were surveyed by the ARBA inspection teams, first through satellite images and then through face-to-face actions.
We carry out an operation #monitoring in closed neighborhoods, countries and open urbanizations in #White Bay and we found 350,000 m2 without declaring between buildings, sheds, houses, pools and reforms.
i ️ We have already detected 10 MILLION m2 since the beginning of our management. pic.twitter.com/B3GTP5FE6k— Cristian Girard (@cristiangirard) November 24, 2022
Many of the luxury properties detected were characterized for being declared by their owners as vacant land when, in reality, they were houses of more than 300 square meters, with architectural details of category, that had the works completely finished and had been inhabited since last year or even before.
Among the cases found, stand out 17,000 square meters built without declaring in three closed neighborhoods of Bahia, corresponding to 82 houses located in La Reserva, in Bosque Alto and in Solares Norte.
These are luxury constructions that were completed and in habitable conditions, but they were never regularized, reason for which those responsible must face the back taxes and the fines derived from the infraction.
