What will happen to the bonus and the Income tax if the fiscal package is approved?

We will analyze the situation of the Supplementary Annual Salary (SAC)known as aguinaldo, in the face of the possible reform of the Income Tax.

Current situation if the “fiscal package” is not approved

Gross remuneration has a minimum deductible for all concepts equivalent to 15 monthly Living and Mobile Wages.

The art. 26 inc. z) of the Income Tax Law establishes the exemption from the complementary annual salary for subjects whose remuneration and/or gross assets (including all amounts received, whatever their denomination, without considering, only, the complementary annual salary ) does not exceed an average monthly gross income, which for the year 2024 amounts to $974,516.

Therefore, to determine whether or not the SAC is subject to tax, it must be established whether the average monthly remuneration and/or gross income for the annual fiscal period exceeds the aforementioned amount.

If the average asset exceeds that amount, the bonus will be fully taxed. If this does not occur, but the bonus, as a result of some specific additional remuneration, exceeds the amount of $974,516, the excess of the exempt bonus will be subject to tax, to the rate in which it falls. on the progressive scale.

We exemplify the determination of a single person since family situations can be different, and not all married or cohabiting people with two children, as is usually reported, enjoy the same deductions, which depend on different issues such as the income they obtain. the spouse or children, their age, their work capacity, their place of residence, among other issues).

In this state of affairs, a single person who earned a constant gross remuneration of $2,340,000 throughout the semester (without other additional income) must pay taxes including the SAC for the total amount of $320,580.

Situation since the reform

The fiscal package proposes the repeal of:

• -The Cedular High Income Tax is repealed, returning to the previous tax settlement scheme.
• – Therefore, deductions for Non-Taxable Minimum, Special Deduction for Personal Work and deductions for Family Responsibilities are again allowed.
• – The single deduction of 15 monthly vital and mobile minimum wages is eliminated
• -The SAC exemption is repealed, but a deduction equivalent to one twelfth of the total deductions that could correspond to the employee is added, in this case one twelfth of the Non-taxable Minimum and the Deduction will be added (for the single person). Special.
• – When the application of the new rules produces an increase in the tax obligation on income received from January 1, 2024 until the last day of the month immediately preceding the entry into force of the new provisions, a special deduction equivalent to the increase in the net profit subject to tax that is generated in said period in such a way as to prevent the new settlement scheme from affecting the remunerations already received.
• -The amount of personal deductions is increased.
• -The scale of the tax is modified in an attempt to accentuate progressivity.

Taking the case already described of a single worker with a constant gross remuneration of $2,340,000, the total tax to be paid accumulated as of June with the SAC included will be $1,155,228.39.

As we can see, the increase in the tax in this income segment will be relevant since in the current situation the tax will affect approximately 30% of the bonus, and if the proposed tax reform is successful, the combined effect of all the modifications will increase that proportion to 90%. % of the bonus.

It cannot be ignored that in the past, for many periods, the income tax absorbed the entire Annual Supplementary Salary, a situation that, given the proposed reforms, could occur again.

Certified Public Accountant. (UBA) Specialist in Tax Law (UBA Law School) Undergraduate and postgraduate professor of Tax Law