AFIP makes a database of large fortunes available to Heller

The head of the AFIP, Mercedes Marcó del Pont, revealed this Friday that she is working with the deputies of the ruling party to make available to them the database of the great fortunes in Argentina to advance with a new extraordinary tax that allows a collection specifically to finance the health fight against the coronavirus.

The official said that the AFIP is working on two different tasks, but they go in parallel: first, to identify the undeclared accounts of Argentines abroad; and second, to make the information available to Congress to determine what the tax base could be.

“The tax goes in parallel, it is working within the scope of the National Congress. It is being coordinated by deputy Carlos Heller. And we are working with them to be able to make a good analysis of the information,” said the tax collector.

Marcó del Pont clarified that “it would be unconstitutional” to focus the new tax only on those who externalized their capital in 2016 with the initiative promoted by the then Mauricio Macri administration, so it is necessary to aim at “all the great fortunes and riches”.

“Any tax that is thought has to be on all the expressions of great wealth and fortune of companies and human persons,” said the official.

On the other hand, Marcó del Pont said that the AFIP is in the beginning of an investigation process to detect bank accounts of Argentines abroad that were not declared before the local treasury.

Between December and March, the AFIP found 2,600 million dollars in 950 accounts located outside the country and that were not declared before the Argentine treasury.

“It is the first result that surprised us. They had (the macrismo officials) the bases a couple of years ago and they were not used,” said Marco del Pont.

According to the official added, the current government “seeks greater progressivity in what is tax and collection policy. Especially in what is the way out of the crisis that has now deepened.”

“We said: let’s look at what really reflects taxable capacity, which is the Personal Property Tax. We found several surprises, for example, that the database of what was laundering in 2016 had been under-exploited. And we got to work at those crossings, “he said.

And, he indicated, more information also appeared from an agreement with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which allows AFIP to access account data abroad.

“Obviously we are just in the investigation stage. Our fundamental objective is that those taxes that were evaded, that were evaded, return to the treasury. Basically, to see that it arises from all these crossings that will continue,” said Marcó del Pont.

He added that the outcome that is sought from all this is to have the capacity of the State to collect taxes that were not previously collected.

“They are paths that go in parallel with what is being discussed in Congress, which is an extraordinary tax on large fortunes and to be efficient, you must have a good information base to know the tax base,” he added.

In this sense, Marcó del Pont said: “We have to exploit all the sources of information to the maximum in order to capture these great fortunes.”

Find out the latest on digital economy, startups, fintech, corporate innovation and blockchain. CLICK HERE