In an environment crossed by the request for impeachment against the Court of Cassation, the Chamber of Deputies has begun to deal the creation of a “technological monotribute”. This Tuesday afternoon, the Budget Commission will move forward with the analysis of the project to establish a special regime so that freelancers working overseas can dispose of the dollars they receive, up to a maximum of US $30,000 per year. In other words, they won’t be forced to settle their dollars at the official exchange rate, as other exporters do.
Resisted by software companies and service consultants, it is estimated that the initiative will benefit approximately 6,000 highly skilled and scarce professionals globally: programmers, graphic designers, engineers and system analysts, among many others. And also to those who participate in international video game competitions, who collect prizes and other incentives in hard currency.
“The goal is to regularize those who collect dollars blindly, in accounts abroad or in cryptocurrencies”, says the secretary of the knowledge economy, Ariel Sujarchuk, author of the initiative. With the technological monotribute the Government tries to “formalize” between 1,000 and 1,800 million dollars a year, according to official calculations and the private sector. As long as it thrives in a Congress crippled by the political interiors characteristic of election years.
Linked to the world of technology, the knowledge economy sector (software and qualified services of all kinds) is one of the items that generates the most foreign currency. They export more than $7 billion annually and have more than 450,000 employees, who earn well-above-average salaries. But in pesos.
The technological advance of the exchange gap has favored self-employed and remote work, which is charged in foreign currencies such as the dollar or the euro, considered a haven of value despite the global inflationary explosion. For the local industry it is unfair competition and informal work. The government’s point of view is completely different.
“The new regime would make it possible to justify income and a person who invoices pays taxes to the exchequer. If you are in the black, you have no social assistance or pension,” notes Sujarchuk. Companies reject it due to a chronic business problem (talent shortage) and the loss of competitiveness of the salaries they pay compared to what foreign competitors offer, especially in more developed markets, such as the United States and Europe.
Sujarchuk is the author of another controversial initiative for tech companies: the official wants to create a national software company to lower costs in public administration. “It’s not a matter of taking away work, but of giving them more work”, tried to reassure the official, who is very close to Economy Minister Sergio Massa.
“In large contracts, no small company has enough back. It is better for the state to group all the small companies and enter to sell services,” he said, in defense of the project.
Source: Clarin
