Ganancias and VAT are only half the bill. Here is how Argentina’s turnover tax, the Convenio Multilateral, withholding regimes, stamp tax, municipal fees and the cheque tax work as of November 2026 — what a services contract really costs in Buenos Aires, and where a Paraguayan structure helps.
Foreign groups looking at Argentina usually model Ganancias (federal income tax, 25–35%), IVA (VAT, 21%) and the 7% dividend tax. The layer underneath is what surprises them: a provincial turnover tax on gross receipts, a stamp tax on signed contracts, municipal fees, a federal tax on every bank movement, and a web of withholding regimes that collect all of this in advance — often more than is due.
None of these taxes looks at profit. On a services business with a 30% margin, the provincial and transactional layer can take around 15% of the margin before Ganancias is calculated. Below: each piece as of November 2026, how the Convenio Multilateral divides the turnover tax, a worked example against a Paraguayan structure, and how to register without building up trapped credits.
| Tax | Who levies it | Base | Typical cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ingresos Brutos (turnover tax) | Each province and CABA | Gross receipts, net of VAT | 3–5% for services |
| Impuesto de Sellos (stamp tax) | Each province and CABA | Value of a signed instrument | 1% in CABA, 1.2% in PBA |
| Tasa de seguridad e higiene | Municipalities (not CABA) | Usually gross receipts | Set by each municipality |
| Tax on bank debits and credits | Federal (ARCA) | Every credit and debit to a bank account | 0.6% in, 0.6% out; partly creditable |
| Withholdings and perceptions | Provinces, through banks, clients and suppliers | Payments received and purchases made | Advance payment, not extra tax — until it piles up |
Ingresos Brutos (IIBB) is levied by each of the 23 provinces and the City of Buenos Aires (CABA) on gross receipts from activities carried on in their territory, whether or not the business makes a profit. For a responsable inscripto (VAT-registered taxpayer) the base excludes the VAT charged. Rates are set every year by each jurisdiction’s tax law, by activity, and increasingly by size: the same activity pays a lower rate below a revenue threshold and a higher one above it.
| Activity in CABA (Ley 6927, amended by Ley 6948) | Rate up to the threshold | Threshold (prior-year revenue) | Rate above |
|---|---|---|---|
| Real estate, business and rental services | 3% | ARS 2,154.3 million | 5% |
| Community, social and personal services, education | 3% | ARS 2,154.3 million | 5% |
| Communications | 3% | ARS 2,154.3 million | 4% |
| Restaurants and hotels | 3% | ARS 2,154.3 million | 4.5% |
| Commerce and repairs | 3% | ARS 391.1 million | 5% |
| Construction; transport | 2% | — | 2% |
| Certain financial, payment and crypto services | 5.5% | — | 5.5% |
For CABA, the tax agency is AGIP. Most professional, consulting and business services fall within the “real estate, business and rental services” heading: 3% for a company whose prior-year revenue stayed under ARS 2,154.3 million (roughly US$1.4 million), 5% above it. The thresholds rose from 1 June 2026. In the Province of Buenos Aires (PBA), the agency is ARBA and the 2026 rates are set by Ley 15,558, again by activity and size; services typically land in the same 3–5% band.
Because it applies at every stage, the tax cascades. A subcontractor pays it on its fee, the agency again on a price that includes that fee, and nothing is credited along the chain. Economists estimate the tax at around 4% of GDP, and in 2025 it made up about 78% of the provinces’ own revenue — which is why it is so hard to reform.
Exports are the main relief. Exports of goods are generally outside the tax, and CABA and most provinces exempt exports of services — services used abroad by a client abroad — following the 2017 fiscal consensus. The exemption does not switch off the withholding regimes (section 04).
Law and practice: CABA: Ley 6926 (Código Fiscal) and Ley 6927 (Ley Impositiva 2026), BOCBA 19 December 2025; Ley 6948, published 19 May 2026, in force from June 2026. PBA: Ley 15,558 (Ley Impositiva 2026). Thresholds refer to the taxpayer’s gross revenue in the previous year.
A company that earns income in several jurisdictions from what is economically a single business — an office in CABA serving clients in Córdoba and Mendoza, a warehouse in PBA selling nationwide — does not pay IIBB in full everywhere. The Convenio Multilateral of 1977, an agreement among all provinces and CABA, divides one tax base among them, and each applies its own rate to its share. It is administered by the Comisión Arbitral (COMARB).
General regime (art. 2)
The base is split 50% in proportion to income from each jurisdiction and 50% in proportion to expenses incurred there, using the figures of the last financial year closed.
Special regimes (arts. 6–13)
Construction, insurance and finance, transport, liberal professions and some other activities use fixed or specific allocations instead of the 50/50 formula.
Start of activities (art. 14)
In the first year there is no prior balance, so income is attributed jurisdiction by jurisdiction until a closed year with at least 90 days of activity there exists.
Filing runs through SIFERE, COMARB’s web system: monthly advance returns (CM03) and an annual return (CM05) that recalculates the coefficients. The trap for foreign-owned start-ups is registering as a local taxpayer in CABA, signing clients in other provinces, and discovering a year later that those provinces were owed their share — with interest — while CABA was paid too much.
Law and practice: Convenio Multilateral of 18 August 1977, arts. 1, 2, 6–14 and 35; COMARB General Resolutions on start of activities (RG 6/2016, amending RG 91/2003). SIFERE, SIRCREB, SIRCAR, SIRPEI and SIRTAC are COMARB systems.
Provinces do not wait for the monthly return. They appoint banks, large clients and suppliers as collection agents. A client paying your invoice deducts a retención (withholding); a supplier selling to you adds a percepción (perception) to its invoice; and every credit into your bank account can suffer a deduction under SIRCREB, the bank-credit collection system run by COMARB. Imports bear a perception at customs through SIRPEI, typically 2.5% — see our guide to importing into Argentina.
Rates by risk, not by activity
SIRCREB ranges from 0.01% to 5% of each bank credit. In CABA withholdings run from 0% to 4.5% and perceptions to 6%; in PBA from 0% to 8%.
Risk categories
AGIP and ARBA rate each taxpayer from 0 (very low) to 4 (very high) using filing history; a new company with no track record or a late return can land high.
The result: saldos a favor
Collections above the tax due become a saldo a favor (credit balance). It carries no inflation adjustment and can take months to recover.
Exporters hit hardest
A service exporter whose income is exempt still sees SIRCREB on every dollar converted, unless it is excluded from the padrón (collection register).
The scale is not trivial: the Argentine Industrial Union reported ARS 41,285 million of trapped credits among 107 companies at 31 March 2024. The cure is procedural: keep returns on time, apply to ARBA for a lower collection rate (“atenuación”), ask AGIP to review the risk category, and request a certificado de exclusión or zero-rate listing where income is exempt or not taxed. Credits can then be offset against later IIBB or other provincial taxes, or refunded online — through ARBA with tax key, through AGIP via the TAD platform.
The Impuesto de Sellos (stamp tax) is levied by each province on onerous acts and contracts formalised in an instrumento — a document signed by the parties that by itself shows the contract was concluded. It applies where the document is signed or where it has effects. The general rate is 1% in CABA and 1.2% in PBA; real estate transfers and leases have their own rates and exemptions, and CABA cut the rate on second homes to 2.7% in 2026. In PBA the tax is due within 15 business days of signing.
Each party is liable for its share and the parties are jointly liable for the whole, so contracts usually say who pays. On a three-year agreement the base is the whole contract value, payable up front.
The common technique is the offer by letter: one party sends a signed offer, and the other accepts by conduct — starting work, issuing a purchase order, paying the first invoice — rather than countersigning. Without a single document showing both parties’ consent, there is no instrument. The Supreme Court rejected provincial attempts to tax offers with “deemed acceptance” clauses again in Kia Argentina (29 May 2025), holding that the instrument must reflect both parties’ agreement by itself. Done properly, the technique is lawful. Done carelessly — an acceptance email that quotes and confirms all the terms, or a later countersigned copy — it creates the instrument after all.
Law and practice: Federal tax-sharing Law 23,548, art. 9(b)(2) (stamp tax limited to instruments); CSJN, Kia Argentina S.A. c/ Provincia de Misiones, 29 May 2025. Consenso Fiscal 2021 (Law 27,687) caps the general stamp-tax rate at 2% in adhering provinces.
Municipalities in the provinces charge their own levies on businesses. The most important is the tasa de seguridad e higiene (safety and hygiene fee), nominally payment for inspecting premises but usually calculated as a percentage of gross receipts. Each municipality sets its own rate and minimums, and the Convenio Multilateral (art. 35) caps the total base municipalities in one province can share. CABA, as a city-state, has no separate municipal turnover fee.
The legal weak point is that a fee must pay for an actual service. In Gasnor (2021) the Supreme Court struck down a fee where the municipality could not show a concrete, individual service to the taxpayer, and later cases have kept the question open for businesses with no premises in the municipality. The federal government has pressed the point too: in January 2025 the Economy Minister wrote to all provinces calling many municipal fees illegal and arbitrary.
The federal impuesto sobre los créditos y débitos en cuentas bancarias — universally called the cheque tax — takes 0.6% of every credit to an Argentine bank account and 0.6% of every debit. A payment received and paid out again costs 1.2%. Its revenue funds the social security agency ANSES, one reason it has survived 25 years.
Credit against Ganancias
Large companies can credit 33% of the tax against income tax; the rest is a deductible cost.
SMEs
Micro and small companies registered as MiPyME can credit 100%; medium-sized manufacturers in tranche 1, 60%.
Reform
Making it fully creditable has been floated; as of November 2026 the rate and the 33% remain.
Law and practice: Law 25,413 and Decree 380/2001; Decree 409/2018 (creditable percentages); RG ARCA 5847/2026 (2026 payment dates).
Take a consulting contract worth US$100,000 a year (before VAT) with a client in CABA, delivered with US$70,000 of costs. Three structures: an Argentine SAS in CABA, a Paraguayan company billing the same Argentine client, and a Paraguayan company billing a client outside Argentina.
| US$100,000 services contract, 30% margin | Argentine SAS in CABA, client in CABA | Paraguayan EAS, same CABA client | Paraguayan EAS, client outside Argentina |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ingresos Brutos | US$3,000 (3%) | None | None |
| Stamp tax, company’s half of 1% | US$500 | Avoidable: no signed instrument in CABA | None |
| Cheque tax (0.6% + 0.6% on about US$121,000 with VAT) | about US$1,450, of which 33% credited against Ganancias | Borne by the Argentine client on the payment | None in Paraguay |
| Argentine withholding on the fee | — | US$31,500 (31.5%), unless grossed up by the client | None |
| Corporate tax | about US$5,900 (25% band, after the cheque tax credit) | IRE 10% on any profit left: none here | US$3,000 (IRE 10%) |
| VAT | 21% charged to the client, creditable | 10% Paraguayan VAT the client cannot recover, plus 21% reverse charge in Argentina | 10% Paraguayan VAT unless under services maquila |
| Dividend to a foreign owner | about US$1,340 (7%) | — | US$4,050 (IDU 15%) |
| Owner keeps, of US$30,000 margin | about US$17,800 | A loss of about US$1,500 | US$22,950 |
The CABA column shows the layer at work: about US$4,500 of IIBB, stamp tax and non-creditable cheque tax — 15% of the margin — before Ganancias. Total tax takes about 41% of the US$30,000 margin.
The second column is the lesson most founders learn the hard way. Advice provided from abroad and used in Argentina is Argentine-source income, and with no tax treaty between Argentina and Paraguay the client must withhold 31.5% of the fee from a beneficiario del exterior (non-resident). Add Paraguayan VAT the Argentine client cannot recover and transfer pricing on every transaction, because Argentina treats Paraguay as a low-tax jurisdiction. A Paraguayan company is not a way to serve Argentine clients more cheaply.
The third column is where Paraguay works: clients outside Argentina, a team and management really in Paraguay, no turnover tax, no cheque tax, and 10% corporate tax. A services maquila programme can also remove the 10% VAT on export invoices — see our guide to running a services export company from Paraguay. An Argentine company exporting services pays no IIBB either, but still bears the cheque tax and Ganancias at 25–35%.
Law and practice: Illustrative. Assumes an ordinary large company (33% cheque tax credit), revenue below the CABA threshold, Ganancias in the 25% band, stamp tax split equally, costs in the same country as the company, and no gross-up clause. Withholding under Income Tax Law art. 104. Paraguay: Ley 6380/2019 (IRE 10%, IDU 15% to non-residents).
The national government calls Ingresos Brutos the worst tax an economy can have and has repeatedly invited provinces to cut it, but it cannot touch it: it is a provincial tax. The governors, for their part, have asked for a new pacto fiscal and a reopening of federal tax-sharing in Congress, but as of November 2026 no agreement has been signed and none is before Congress. The July 2026 national plan focused on Ganancias, VAT and the cheque tax, not on provincial taxes.
What exists is the 2021 fiscal consensus (Law 27,687), which caps IIBB rates by activity and the general stamp-tax rate at 2% in the provinces that adhered; CABA did not sign. Beyond that, cuts are provincial and piecemeal — Río Negro, Chaco and Mendoza for some sectors, CABA’s higher thresholds from June 2026. Plan on current rates.
Law and practice: El Cronista, 3 March and 14 April 2026; Law 27,687 (Boletín Oficial 4 October 2022).
The company obtains its CUIT (tax ID) from ARCA after incorporation, with tax key and an electronic tax domicile.
List provinces with clients, staff, premises or expenses; set the NAES activity codes that drive the rate. One jurisdiction: local IIBB. More than one: Convenio Multilateral.
Local: AGIP for CABA, ARBA for PBA. Convenio: CM01 registration through COMARB’s Padrón Web, choosing a headquarters jurisdiction.
Check your SIRCREB and provincial collection rates monthly; apply for atenuación or exclusion before credits pile up.
Decide which contracts need signatures, and use offer-and-acceptance where it fits.
Before opening premises outside CABA, register for the tasa de seguridad e higiene and confirm the base.
For the company-formation steps that come before this — IGJ, CUIT and the bank — see our guide to opening an Argentine company with a foreign shareholder.
CABA Ley 6927 (Ley Impositiva 2026) · CABA Ley 6948 (2026 thresholds) · Argentina.gob.ar — COMARB systems · Marval O’Farrell Mairal — Kia Argentina stamp-tax ruling · Marval O’Farrell Mairal — Consenso Fiscal 2021 · El Cronista — withholding regimes and credits · El Cronista — room for tax cuts (March 2026) · El Cronista — governors and a new fiscal pact · El Cronista — RG ARCA 5847/2026 on the cheque tax · iProfesional — Gasnor ruling on municipal fees
A provincial turnover tax on gross receipts, levied by each province and the City of Buenos Aires whether or not the business makes a profit. Services typically pay 3–5%.
For most business and professional services, 3% if prior-year revenue was up to ARS 2,154.3 million and 5% above, under Ley 6927 as amended by Ley 6948 from June 2026.
When it earns income in more than one jurisdiction from a single business. The base is then split among the provinces, under the general regime 50% by income and 50% by expenses.
CABA and most provinces exempt them, but banks may still withhold under SIRCREB unless the company is excluded from the collection register.
The general rate is 1% in CABA and 1.2% in the Province of Buenos Aires, on the total value of a signed contract. Contracts concluded by offer and acceptance without a single signed document are generally not taxed.
0.6% on each bank credit and 0.6% on each debit. Large companies can credit 33% against income tax; micro and small companies 100%.
Not efficiently. With no tax treaty, the Argentine client must withhold up to 31.5% of the fee, and Paraguayan VAT and transfer pricing also apply. Paraguay works for clients outside Argentina.
Not nationally. It is a provincial tax; as of November 2026 there is no new fiscal pact, and cuts are made province by province.
Ganancias, what is law and what is only promised.
IGJ, SAS or SRL, CUIT and the bank.
Tell us what you will sell in Argentina, to whom and from where. We map Ingresos Brutos, the Convenio, stamp tax and the withholding regimes, and compare a Paraguayan structure where it fits — fixed quote within one business day.
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