Natacha Esquivel
07/16/2021 11:43 AM
Clarín.com
Economy
Updated 07/16/2021 11:46 AM
The Senate approved changes to the Personal Property and Income Tax on Thursday.
The objective?
A titanic task
in the midst of a context of 50% year-
on-
year inflation:
promoting savings in pesos.
In practice, the rule extends the exemptions in these Taxes for financial investment assets in national currency.
When it was sanctioned by Deputies, this initiative lost its most controversial point: the third article, which allowed fixed terms to be encumbered with Personal Assets unless they were deposited for more than 275 days.
Without this controversial article, the rule modifies, on the one hand, the Income Tax: from now on, the
interests that generate investments in instruments issued pesos
intended to promote productive investment, established by the Executive Power,
will be exempt
.
"In this way, interest for
fixed terms adjustable by UVA
that are currently taxed
, as well as other instruments to be created in the future
, are exempt
," explains Sebastián M. Domínguez, partner of SDC Asesores Tributarios.
"The benefit is positive but
very limited
due to the fact that today the part of the fixed term that is updated by inflation is already exempt and
it would only cease to be taxed on what the yield,
" says the specialist.
To have a reference, the interest of a fixed term adjustable by pre-cancelable UVA
is only 1% TNA.
Anyway, this type of fixed term is among the most popular, because they are the only options to beat inflation.
Fixed terms in foreign currency continue
without the benefit
of the exemption.
Regarding the
Personal Property
Tax
, the law adds the following exemptions:
-
Negotiable obligations
(corporate bonds) issued in national currency that meet the requirements of article 36 of Law No. 23,576.
- Instruments issued in pesos intended to
promote productive investment
, established by the National Executive Power.
- The
shares of Common Investment Funds
(FCI) and the certificates of participation and securities representing the fiduciary debt of
financial trusts,
placed by public offering with authorization from the CNV, and whose main underlying asset is integrated, at least,
in a percentage To be determined in the regulations of the law,
for certain deposits and goods exempt from the personal property tax.
These assets are
titles, bonds and other securities
issued by the national State, the provinces, municipalities and CABA;
deposits in pesos
and in foreign currency (at fixed terms, in savings accounts or in special savings accounts) made in local financial entities; negotiable obligations in pesos; instruments designed to promote productive investment.
The accountant Marcos Zocaro gives an example in the case of mutual funds: "If an FCI is made up only of national public securities and its composition does not vary during the calendar year, any person who acquires or subscribes shares of that FCI
will be exempt as of December 31, its holding in the Personal Property Tax
(since the percentage of composition of the FCI in the referenced instruments would be 100%) ".
On the other hand, he maintains, if the regulation establishes that the minimum integration of the FCI with instruments in pesos is 75% and an FCI is composed of 50% of shares listed on the local Stock Exchange and 50% of obligations throughout the year Negotiable in pesos, in this case if a person is the holder of shares of this FCI, they will
not enjoy the exemption,
since the FCI was not made up of 75% of some of the exempt instruments during the year.
"We
will have to wait for the regulations to
determine what this percentage actually is: I could say that it is 75% or 50%," Zocaro clarifies.
Domínguez affirms that "although the incentive may be relevant when deciding investments from the tax point of view, if a favorable environment is not generated, it will
hardly be possible to incentivize investments in pesos
even favoring them with exemptions."
And Zocaro agrees: "The real impact will depend on the economic context and the constant devaluation of the national currency. How many people will stop investing in dollarized instruments and will switch to assets in pesos when the depreciation of the peso is constant and can hardly be compensated with a lower tax burden? ".
NE
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