Earnings: specialists say the new wage floor should be raised this month to $ 312,000 so the tax doesn’t reach more workers

Changes to Revenues reviewed by the government could be left in half. Sergio Massa on Friday demanded that wages be brought in which workers pay tax at $ 265,000 gross and the Ministry of The economy confirmed on Sunday that the increase would be expected in May or June without specifying a new amount, but specialists believe that the order is not enough.

For taxpayersthe new amount of salary that begins to suffer discounts should rise in March to $ 281,000 and in May to $ 312,000 from the current level of $ 225,937 gross. These are increases of 23% and 38%, higher than the 17% requested by Massa in the letter he sent last Friday to the Minister of the Economy, Martín Guzmán.

The calculation comes from adjusting the current value through the average salary index of registered workers (RIPTE), a mechanism used once a year -from October to October- to update the non-taxable minimum, special deductions, family charges, excluding Christmas bonuses and fees with increased deductions (the “floor” salary).

“If you take the latest data from March 2022 and compare it to October of last year, it will give you a 24% increase in RIPTE, so the expected increase should be about $ 281,000. And If you show the index variation from October to May, the new floor should be $ 310,000“, he said Alberto Mastandreapartner of BDO.

Due to the reopening of the joint ventures, Congress approved in April 2021 increasing the special deductions for compensation up to $ 150,000 gross so they would provide zero income, and allowed the Executive to raise it by decree. Then, after an electoral defeat in September, the President raised that amount to $ 175,000.

In January of this year, the salary floor was adjusted by RIPTE to $ 225,937 for the 2022 fiscal period. And now, the Executive has been empowered to anticipate the increase scheduled for January 2023 due to changes in December to the Personal Assets Law, which allows for the increase of special deductions for employees in a dependency relationship and the exemption from the Christmas bonus.

“It always takes from October to October and is updated in January, this year is over and you’re always three months behind. Originally, the idea was good, but there was never 60% inflation, but instead, joint ventures put more workers back on the Income radar. than expected because the salary is faster than the tax, ”Mastandrea said.

The idea that led in 2021 to raise the “floor” wage on which the tax is paid is that incomes reach only 10% of workers and a small sector of retirees, those with higher incomes. Thus, the reach of the universe has decreased from 2.3 million in 2020 to 950,000 in 2021. However, due to the advancement of paritarias, the scheme began to become obsolete.

According to an official report, which seems to be circulating in the offices of AFIP and Economy, the number of workers affected by the tax ranged from 740,000 in February to 850,000 in April, an increase of 110,000 people (15%) in just two months. AT, if left unchecked, the tax could affect 1.3 million people in 2022, 36% higher than in 2021.

For Sebastián Domínguez, the law should be changed so that the adjustment of Revenues is semi-annual, automatic and due to inflation accumulated in the year, so that it is not dependent on the decisions of the Executive. According to his calculations, considering inflation in May of 5/6%, the expected increase in 2023 should be greater than what is evaluated.

“If one adjusts the special deduction for the accumulated CPI variance, which was 23.1% on April 30, the amount should be $ 278,000, but that is April. If you last until May, the increase should be close to 40% and the amount is $ 312,000so that the increase in wages that do not pay Revenues is followed by inflation, ”said the tax specialist from SDC Tax Advisors.

Domínguez also marked the limits of the changes by decree. “The non -taxable minimum cannot be handled by the decree, the only thing the Executive Branch can do is handle the increased deductions, which It has no effect for the self-employed and even on the independents under the monotax regimebecause the tables are not updated, ”he said.

For this reason, the balances will remain unchanged, as the change is a special deduction in compensation so that they provide zero profit, in this case those up to $ 225,937, which can be deducted at $ 265,000.

This will benefit dependent employees with a salary up to that amount and those earning a little more, to whom other deductions will be applied.