Seen in this way, money laundering is a kind of novation of omitted tax obligations, which are extinguished and replaced by a special regularization tax.
It is worth mentioning that this special tax is not always paid, either due to the application of the minimum non-taxable amount of USD 100,000 or because there are exclusions to the tax base, when the regularized funds are kept in a Special Asset Regularization Account (CERA), within a bank or a LAC, either in money or invested in a wide range of financial assets and new or almost new real estate works.
Furthermore, it should be noted that, with said novation, there may also be the completion of an administrative process, in the sphere of the National Treasury (e.g. inspection or ex officio determination), in which the correct compliance with tax obligations is verified. Novated Thus, the RRA is an abnormal way of terminating these processes.
In light of the above, the National Treasury recently proceeded to instruct the different areas with the work methodology to be applied in inspection procedures, agency verifications and ex officio determinations, when the taxpayer has adhered to the aforementioned RRA..
Guidelines for inspection and verification
The regulation issued is General Instruction 8/2024, it is internal in scope, that is, for application by the officials of the collection agency, which is why it is not published in the official bulletin, but without a doubt its knowledge is useful for taxpayers. because it affects your rights.
For the National Treasury, these types of regulations contribute to the uniformity of criteria and the standardization of processes.
With regard to the operational procedure contained in General Instruction 8/2024, which must be followed to analyze the application of money laundering in ongoing verifications, inspections and ex officio determinations, the most relevant thing is the classification of cases in the following possibilities :
a) “Technical” adjustments. Those in which the taxable matter is duly externalized and declared by the taxpayer must be categorized as such, with the adjustment originating from differences in criteria, that is, in the interpretation of the law and its regulations. Some examples that we can cite are the following: whether a transaction is exempt or not, whether a certain income is taxed or not. In other words, there are no undeclared assets.
b) Adjustments for periods not included in the Asset Regularization Regime. That is, situations after 12-31-2023.
c) Adjustments linked to apocryphal invoices. It is worth remembering that Decree 608/2024, in its art. 21 eliminates the application of money laundering benefits to expenses, tax credits and the tax on undocumented outflows from invoices classified by the National Treasury as “apocryphal”.
d) Detection of assets that were property as of 12-31-2023 – of subjects who joined the RRA, but that had not been declared or regularized within the framework of said regime, provided that these exceed the 10% threshold for the loss of the benefit of the “tax cap”.
e) Rest of cases, which do not fit into any of the previous situations.
Cases that fall under alternatives a), b), c) and d) above must continue with the normal inspection process, given that the benefits of money laundering do not apply.
Cases that fall under alternative e) will have the benefits of money laundering.for which the internal work guideline of the organization provides that the audit must request the taxpayer to attribute the ownership and/or externalized assets to the tax base of the tax(s) corresponding to the adjustment in question.
It is not in vain to mention that, once the imputation is made, it cannot be applied to another adjustment or ex officio determination.
The imputation of the regularized amounts by the taxpayer must be duly recorded in a record signed by the acting officials or be communicated by the taxpayer to the acting officials through a digital presentation.
If the adjustment is greater than the tax release resulting from the externalized amounts, the difference must be determined and claimed according to the usual procedure. In other words, if the taxpayer does not accept the inspection adjustment, the ex officio determination will begin.
There are some even more operational particularities, also contained in this standard, for the discharge of actions, depending on whether it is a verification, inspection or ex officio determination.
In summary, the important thing is that the internal work guideline for the closure and discharge of cases where the taxpayer intends to assert money laundering, already exists and is applicable.. Thus, those who have joined the RRA and have inspections in progress will soon receive the formal closure of the inspection.
Protection of information from money laundering
In addition to what was mentioned above, this instruction also makes it clear that money laundering information is not easily accessible to employees of the Collection Agency (ARCA). Only Directors or Regional Directors, as their replacements, can consult information about the RRA in the system, which is limited to taxpayers in their jurisdiction. This is really a peace of mind for many citizens.
A Director will be the one who receives the request for consultation from the heads of the different areas, which will be processed through a reserved file.
The rule makes it clear that the information resulting from these consultations must be used exclusively to verify the imputation and/or determine the amount of adjustment linked to the closure of the cases mentioned above.
At the same time, it is mentioned that all those involved must comply with the duty of confidentiality in the processing of information, respecting fiscal secrecy (Law 11,683, art. 101).
Public accountant. @mrcaranta Partner – Lisicki Litvin
Source: Ambito
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