Global Courant
The bloc of deputies from the Civic Coalition seeks to eliminate the tax as of 2024, with the exception of the soybean complex, which would drop to 31% and then be gradually reduced over 5 years until reaching zero.
The block of deputies of the Civic Coalition presented a bill prepared by Elisa Carrió to eliminate withholdings on grains as of 2024, with the exception of soybeans and their by-products, which will be reduced to 31% (today they are at 33 %) and then gradually until its final elimination in a period of 5 years.
The bill presented bears the signatures of deputies Juan Manuel Lopez, Maximiliano Ferraro, Victoria Borrego, Marcela Campagnoli, Monica Frade, Ruben Manzi, Leonor Martinez Villada, Paula Oliveto Lake, Mariana Stilman and Mariana Zuvic.
“Withholdings constitute a tax that falls on the gross value of exports and that does not exist in almost any country in the world. There are less than 15 countries that apply it, and less than 5 that have tax rates and collection levels equal to or higher than those of Argentina. They are an anomaly in the world tax structure and generate a direct disincentive to the production of exportable goods, the effect of which is doubly distorting since it penalizes the largest supplier of foreign currency in a context of financial fragility,” the project stated. .
On this conceptual and general framework, the work highlighted that the particular situation that the Argentine agro-industrial sector is experiencing, hit by the greatest drought in decades, is added.
Currently, he pointed out that export rights represent annual resources for the equivalent of 2% of GDP. This is approximately 10% of the resources collected by the AFIP.
Differentiated system for soybeans
The rates currently levied on exports of soybeans and their by-products will be gradually reduced until their total elimination within a period of five years from December 31, according to the project.
“The only immediate changes in terms of rates will be carried out within the soybean complex to harmonize the weight of the tax and eliminate differentials that, in practice, imply income redistribution mechanisms between links in the chain, from producers to exporters. “, the text detailed.
The proposal is to unify all the products and by-products of the soybean complex in a rate of 31%.
This measure, he added, will be accompanied by a compensation bond issuance mechanism. These bonds will be issued annually by the national Treasury during the period in which the export duty rates continue to exist (five years) and delivered to each one of the producers in the magnitude equivalent to the differential between the international market value and the effective value. received at the time of marketing its production.
In practice, the State would be reimbursing the withholdings paid by producers via bonds that can be immediately sold in the secondary market, used to pay taxes -accepted at nominal value- for a percentage of what they invest in new investment projects. or preserved for collection from the national State within a period of 5 years from its issuance.
From the tax point of view, it was clarified, by virtue of article 21, subsection “g” of the Personal Assets Tax Law, these assets are exempt from the payment of said tax.
“From the point of view of the balance sheet, and given the incidence of withholdings on tax revenues, the issuance of these bonds will obviously increase public debt, in a context in which due to de facto and legal macro restrictions (commitments with multilateral organizations) the horizon should be one of deleveraging.To this end, this initiative will have as a prerequisite the commitment to rapidly achieve fiscal balance, in such a way that the sustainability of the public debt is guaranteed.Regarding the incidence of the profile of maturities, logically the nature of a 5-year bullet type bond would in principle help to configure this horizon”, he explained.
