2023-05-17 21:05:20
The Executive Power turned today to Congress a money laundering bill called “Voluntary Declaration of Non-Externalized Argentine Savings”, which will include individuals, undivided estates and companies. This is the initiative that the Minister of Economy, Sergio Massatried to push through at the end of 2022 and then announced that it would be sanctioned during the extraordinary session of Congress, without success.
The goods included in the initiative will be the possession of national and foreign currency in the country or abroad, financial assets, real estate, personal property and other assets in the country or abroad, including creditsdetailed sources from the Palace of Finance.
The project is part of the agreement with the United States promoted by Massa. This is the initiative for the externalization of assets that was analyzed in parallel to the negotiations for a tax information exchange agreement with Washington, which were completed at the end of last year and which formally began to take effect in January of this year.
This agreement will allow the national State to have data on Argentine citizens with accounts in that country as of September of next year.
The project opens a period of 360 calendar days from the entry into force of the law to declare “voluntarily and exceptionally” the possession of assets in the country and abroad.
Between the undeclared assets that can be laundered pesos and foreign currency in the country or abroad, financial assets (from stocks and bonds to cryptocurrencies and crypto assets), furniture and real estate, and credits, also in the country and abroad.
The bill only enables to declare the possession of foreign currency “in countries that comply with internationally recognized standards or recommendations on the prevention of money laundering and terrorist financing” and excludes “countries identified by the International Financial Action Task Force (GAFI) as high risk or non-cooperative.
The project establishes an increasing scale of taxes according to the moment in which the assets are declared: 5% in the first 120 days of entry into force of the law, 10% in the following 120 days and 20% in the last 120 days.
If the assets abroad are not repatriated, in turn, they will pay 7.5% in the first 120 days of the law’s validity, 12.5% in the following ones and 22.5% in the last 120-day stretch. To determine the valuation of assets in foreign currency, the purchasing exchange rate of Banco de la Nación Argentina will be taken as a reference. That is, the official price of the dollar will be used for those who did not declare assets.
The project establishes that, by regulating the law, the Government will determine the minimum percentage of assets abroad that must be repatriated to avoid the additional burden, “which may not be less than 10%.”
News in development
THE NATION
#Government #Congress #project #money #laundering