08/02/23

SOUTH AMERICA: Argentina removes 15 jurisdictions from “non-cooperative” list.

As published on step.org/industry-news, Wednesday 8 February, 2023.

Argentina’s tax administration (Administración Federal de Ingresos Públicos, AFIP) has announced the removal of 15 jurisdictions from the government’s list of low- or no-tax jurisdictions for the purposes of tax implications, pursuant to Decree 48/2023 (Decreto 48/2023).

The Decree, which amends the Income Tax Act (Ley de Impuesto a las Ganancias), was published in the country’s Official Gazette on January 27, 2023 and will apply to fiscal periods following that date. The government has removed Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Cape Verde, Jordan, Kenya, Liberia, the Maldives, Mauritania, Mongolia, Montenegro, Namibia, Oman, Paraguay, Swaziland and Thailand.

The Decree sets out that “non-cooperative jurisdictions” are those jurisdictions that do not have an agreement in place with Argentina to exchange information on tax matters or to avoid international double taxation with a broad information exchange clause. “The agreements and conventions…must comply with the international standards of transparency and exchange of information in tax matters to which the Argentine Republic has committed,” it states.

Some of the jurisdictions removed from the list have committed to the OECD multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters. AFIP confirms that all agreements in place must comply with the international standards of transparency and exchange of information. Countries that have such agreements but do not adequately comply will be considered non-cooperative.

AFIP further notes that there will now be a lower transfer pricing administrative burden for taxpayers carrying out operations with the jurisdictions removed from the list.

Eighty jurisdictions remain on the current list of non-cooperative jurisdictions, including several in Latin America: Bolivia, Guyana, Honduras, Nicaragua and Suriname.