Among all the changes to economic activity foreseen in the bill presented on Wednesday by President Javier Milei, there is room for new tax benefits for businesses that maintain digital payment methods.
After the DNU released last week by the president deregulated the rates and fees that credit and debit cards can charge merchants per transaction and this has generated a resumption of promotions and discounts for cash payments, the bill proposes exclude small businesses from withholding taxes that operators in the payment means segment can do.
Within chapter V of the bill “Bases and starting points for the freedom of Argentines”, which deals with the fiscal aspect, it is established in article 213 relief from withholding taxes on electronic collections by small taxpayers.
To define which small businesses are reached, the legislative project establishes a monthly billing of up to 10,000 UVAS (Purchase Value Unit). If the latest value of the UVA index published by the Central Bank were taken into account, today there would be companies with a monthly billing of less than $4,580,300.
Furthermore, the article provides that “entities managing debit, credit, purchase and similar cards, groupers, aggregators and other processors of electronic means of payment”, at the same time as financial institutions must provide monthly reports “on collections with the payment methods managed by them.”
Specifically, the project provides for: “Entities that manage debit, credit, purchase and similar cards, groupers, aggregators and other processors of electronic means of payment, for payments made through the systems they manage, process or operate; and financial institutions, for payments made by way of settlement corresponding to payments made through the systems administered, processed or managed by the above, can only make tax withholdings, when required by the national tax authorities or competent local authorities, provided that the amounts processed exceed the amount equivalent to 10,000 units of purchase value per month.”
Currently there is a tangle of retentions that the various players in the financial system charge for the management of digital payments. For example, from 2021 the Central Bank has established that credit card transactions are taxed at 1.8% of the sale amount and debit cards at 0.8% of this amount.
Source: Clarin
