Bimonetary economy: what changes are analyzed to make payments in dollars (including salaries)

The banks and wallets virtual ones analyze the application of mechanisms that allow expediting payments in dollars, in light of the results of laundering, which has boosted deposits in foreign currency to nearly US$31 billion.

The idea is to resume the efforts of a point that was repealed by the ruling of the Supreme Court that declared unconstitutional the reform that Javier Milei’s government intended to make in terms of labor legislation. Over there Wallets were enabled to credit salaries in foreign currency, among other issues.

During the Monetary and Banking Conferences organized by the Central Bank at the Libertad Palace, Osvaldo Gimenez, vice president of Mercado Pagoprecisely analyzed the possibility of making salary paymentsamong other issues, with dollars.

“We will see that the mass of dollars that have been deposited begins to move,” he said, referring to money laundering. He maintained that ““It seems important to build the rails so that later you can pay in both pesos and dollars.” This is not new for Argentine companies, especially for technology companies..

The problem that is evident with this situation is that, as the dollar is not legal tender and therefore is considered in kind, payments in kind cannot exceed 20% of what an employee earnsas indicated by the Employment Contract Law. This has sought to limit the ability of companies to pay most of their salaries with vouchers or supermarket tickets. But that is not the case today. The possibility of a contingency with an employee who is paid in dollars would be null.

Towards a bimonetary system?

But the Government plans at some point to apply a bimonetary system, similar to that of Uruguay or Peru, and for this the only thing you have to do is get legislative support for a law that says that the peso is no longer mandatory currency. If you achieve that, the payment of salaries in dollars will no longer be “in kind” and fewer legal loose ends would be left for companies.

As he pointed out to Scope the lawyer specializing in tax and fiscal issues Diego Fraga, in Argentina “You can legally” make payments in dollars. He points out that the wider the gap between the official dollar and the parallel dollar, the more convenient it is for a company. pay in dollars, because the payment of taxes linked to salaries is taken at the official exchange rate. Since fewer taxes are paid, the company can pay you a slightly higher dollar equivalent, and then both parties benefit.. The employee earns a little more when making the conversion.

On the other hand, there is also benefit for those who charge fees, which are monotributistas or self-employed. When receiving dollars and converting to pesos to taxes associated with billing, such as VAT, the amount is lower, or for the monotributista, the billing equivalent converted to pesos is lower and therefore it takes longer to exceed the category ceiling or the limit to be excluded from the system

Fraga commented that ““It would be good if the Government allowed those who laundered to pay salaries in dollars in CERA accounts.” that employees would have to open.

Payment in dollars: it is not new

The reality is that There have already been companies that have paid salaries in dollars, on the technological side. The companies of foreign origin have not made that option due to what the Employment Contract law stipulates.

Some analysts consider that in the future, the most important problem that the Government will have to solve in an economy in which dollars and pesos are managed, is that of accounting, both of public accounts and that of companies and banks.

It must be remembered that during the convertibility period there was a large mismatch between deposits in pesos and credits in dollars, which led at one point to cutting off external financing and imposing a “corralito” prior to the collapse of the system. In other words, saying that you have dollars is not the same as saying that you have the equivalent in dollars.