They analyze by allowing freelancers to charge in dollars and settle at the MEP price

The government is considering making trading measures more flexible so that freelancers can do so bill directly in dollars and charge at an exchange rate close to the value of the MEP or the blue dollar.

With this passage that is being analyzed between the Ministry of Productive Development, the Central Bank and AFIP, an attempt is made to cover the hole through which they are leaving the country. $ 1.8 billion annuallyas due to the exchange rate gap, service exporters prefer to charge via digital wallets so you don’t lose more than $ 80 for every dollar you bill.

The knowledge economy has spawned exports from $ 6.8 billion in 2021. The sector is the third largest exporter complex in the country, after agriculture and the automotive industry.

But as happens with tourism, here it is the exchange gap conspires against the entry of dollars. It happens that those who work as a freelancer for companies abroad, despite having the agreed salary in dollars, are obliged to pay it through the official exchange rate. So for every dollar that comes in, it becomes $ 125, versus the $ 207 they could get if they sold it at the value of the MEP dollar, which is listed on the Buenos Aires stock exchange and is very close to the blue dollar.

To avoid this delay many freelos choose to upload via digital wallets and cryptocurrencieswith which they receive a dollar value closer to blue, but at the same time stop liquidating currencies in the country, which aggravates the service account deficit.

According to the estimates of Argencon, the chamber that brings together companies in the sector, the exchange rate gap causes 1,800 million dollars a year to flee the country. But it also generates a further problem, namely that companies in the sector have difficulty in retaining employees, as professionals find it more interesting to work on their own and sell their services abroad.

For this reason, the House asked the Government for a solution to the question.

“We have an armed proposal, we are discussing it with the Central Bank“María Apólito, Undersecretary of the Knowledge Economy, told Bloomberg Online. The Ministry of Productive Development has worked on the issue together with the Ministry of Economy and AFIP.

What one seeks, according to the official, is “to generate a schema so that the freelancer can enter their dollars in a legal and traceable way“.

According to reports, the scheme being worked on aims to allow freelancers to collect directly from their dollar accounts and withdraw or settle them through the MEP. Today they cannot do any of these things, as the amount is immediately weighed at $ 125, the value of the official retail dollar, without withholding taxes and the PAIS tax.

Incentives for companies

Apólito also pointed out that they are working on a scheme so that companies it can keep workers through some incentive.

One of the possibilities is that it is applied to companies in the sector a similar pattern that the government recently launched for oil companies. To encourage investment, oil companies that have increased their exports by up to 20% in the past year have been allowed to dispose of 20% of the dollars they generate.

What is sought is that companies benefit from this they can pay their employees a portion of their salary directly in dollars as an incentive to keep them and prevent them from joining the ranks of freelos.

Dall’Argencon indicate that the growth of the sector is limited by the continuous flight of talent which in some cases – as in the IT sector – has forced companies to replace 100% of the staff over a three-year period.

In the third quarter of 2021 the sector totaled 454,000 jobs, a figure that represents 7.35% of total national private employment. But this figure is reached because the flight of senior talent is offset by the entry of junior employees.

Within the knowledge economy sector, not only the software industry is grouped, but also biotechnology, audiovisual post-production and digital marketing, among others.

To encourage exports, in 2020 the government eliminated the 5% withholding tax that it applied to the sector and thereby seeks to ensure that by 2030, exports of services reach $ 10,000 million and add 500,000 jobs.

AQ