Hiring developers and professionals in Argentina without an Argentine company.

Contractors on the monotributo, an employer of record, or your own subsidiary: what each costs for a developer on US$4,000 a month, how the money reaches them, where misclassification and permanent establishment risks sit, who owns the code — and when Paraguay helps.

You can hire in Argentina tomorrow. The question is how.

Argentina has one of Latin America’s deepest pools of developers and other professionals, in a time zone that overlaps with the US and Europe. A foreign company does not need an Argentine entity to work with them: most start with independent contractors, move key people to an employer of record (EOR) and open their own company only when the team grows.

As of November 2026 the picture is friendlier than for years: individuals who export services can keep their dollars, the 2024 Ley Bases narrowed the presumption that a contractor is an employee, and the 2026 labour reform made severance more predictable. This guide compares the routes on a developer earning US$4,000 a month and covers the traps.

Contractor, employer of record or your own company.

The routes are not exclusive. A common pattern: contractors during a trial phase, the best moved to an EOR after six to twelve months, and an Argentine SAS or SRL once the payroll justifies it.

The simplified regime most freelancers use.

Most Argentine freelancers working for foreign clients are monotributistas: registered in the monotributo, a simplified regime that replaces income tax (Ganancias) and VAT (IVA) with a single monthly payment that also covers the pension contribution and health insurance (obra social). The person registers with ARCA (the federal tax agency, formerly AFIP) under their CUIT tax number and pays a fixed amount by income category.

The categories are indexed to inflation twice a year; this scale applies until the next update, expected in January 2027. Since the 2024 fiscal package (Law 27,743), service providers can use the full scale up to category K, not just up to H as before. At about ARS 1,518 per dollar, a developer billing US$4,000 a month (about ARS 72.9 million a year) sits in category H and pays about US$344 a month. The ceiling of category K is roughly US$83,400 a year, or about US$6,950 a month.

For the foreign client: invoices to you are factura E, the export invoice, issued through ARCA’s online system in dollars or pesos, without VAT. Export income counts towards the category limits. And the caps are in pesos while the contractor earns in dollars: if the peso weakens faster than the caps are indexed, a contractor near the top can be pushed out of the regime mid-year.

Law and practice: Law 24,977 (monotributo), as amended by Law 27,743 (2024); ARCA monotributo scale from August 2026; ARCA guidance on exports of services by monotributistas, including the exemption from export duties on services for monotributistas holding a valid MiPyME certificate.

Above the cap, or by choice.

A professional who earns more than the category K ceiling, or who prefers the general regime, registers as responsable inscripto. Invoices to a foreign client are still factura E without VAT, because exports of services are exempt; unlike a monotributista, the contractor can recover the input VAT on their own costs, such as hardware and coworking. They pay Ganancias on their net income at the progressive rates for individuals, which reach 35%, plus monthly self-employed pension contributions, and file annual returns.

Provincial turnover tax (Ingresos Brutos) is a separate layer for both types of contractor. Each province sets its own rules; it is the contractor’s cost, not yours. For you nothing changes between the two regimes: the contractor invoices, you pay, and Argentina asks the foreign payer to withhold nothing.

Dollars can now stay dollars.

For years export proceeds had to be sold in the official foreign-exchange market (the MULC), from 2023 through the “dólar blend” that let exporters sell 20% through the financial market. The blend was abolished in April 2025.

Individuals were then freed in stages. In September 2025 the Central Bank removed the US$36,000 annual cap on the amount of service-export income individuals could keep without selling it. Since April 2026 individuals are exempt from the obligation to bring in and sell export proceeds for both goods and services, provided the money is credited to a foreign-currency account in their own name at an Argentine bank and the operation is fiscally neutral.

On income tax, the contractor’s fees for work performed in Argentina are Argentine-source income and are taxed through the monotributo or through Ganancias, as above. Make sure the contract names the contractor’s own Argentine USD account for payment; the exemption is for individuals acting for themselves, not for those collecting on behalf of a company.

Law and practice: BCRA Communication A 8227 and Decree 269/2025 (end of the blend, April 2025); BCRA Communication A 8330 (18 September 2025); BCRA Communication A 8417 (April 2026). Companies that export services remain under the general rules described in our guide to Argentina’s FX controls.

An Argentine employer you do not have to own.

An employer of record is a local company that employs the person on your behalf, runs payroll and invoices you monthly. The person is a full employee under the Employment Contract Law (LCT, Law 20,744), with a six-month probation period, the 13th salary (SAC or aguinaldo, paid in two halves in June and December), paid vacation of 14 calendar days in the first five years and more later, and the collective agreement that applies to the activity.

The 2026 labour reform (Law 27,802, in force since 6 March 2026) changed the economics of the route. Severance under LCT article 245 is still one month of pay per year of service, but the base now excludes the SAC, vacation pay and non-monthly bonuses, and statutory severance is the only remedy for dismissal without cause. From 1 November 2026 employers also pay into a severance fund (FAL), offset by lower social-security contributions. New hires with no registered private job can carry 5% contributions for four years under the RIFL regime until April 2027 — rarely a senior developer. The details are in our guide to the labour reform.

Employer contributions are 18% (SMEs) or 20.4% (larger employers, as EOR providers usually are), up to a monthly ceiling of ARS 4,691,748 for September 2026, plus 6% health insurance and work-accident insurance. The main providers charge about US$599 a month on top.

Law and practice: Law 27,802 (Boletín Oficial 6 March 2026); LCT arts. 92 bis, 121, 150 and 245; Law 27,541, art. 19 (contribution rates); ANSES Resolution 257/2026 (contribution ceiling); Decree 315/2026 (RIFL); Decree 408/2026 (FAL).

One developer, US$4,000 a month gross, six ways.

The EOR row works like this. At ARS 1,518 per dollar, US$4,000 is about ARS 6.07 million a month. Contributions of 20.4% apply to the capped base of about ARS 4.69 million; 6% health insurance and an assumed 2.5% for work-accident and life insurance apply to the full salary; the SAC adds one-twelfth of salary with its own charges. That gives an employment cost of about ARS 8.17 million a month, or 1.35 times gross, before the provider’s fee. Under RIFL the 20.4% becomes 5% and the multiple falls to about 1.22.

Severance after three years of employment without cause comes to three months’ pay plus one month of notice, about US$16,000, before the proportional SAC and vacation — subject to the statutory cap, which cannot cut it below 67% of real pay. Contractors look cheaper because they carry their own tax, pension, health cover and job security — exactly what a judge looks at if the relationship ends badly.

Law and practice: Exchange rate of ARS 1,518 per dollar as used in our labour-reform guide (16 October 2026); work-accident insurance varies by insurer and risk, 2.5% is an assumption; EOR fees vary by provider and contract. Paraguay: IPS 16.5% employer and 9% employee, aguinaldo of one month a year without IPS.

When a contractor is really an employee.

Argentine labour law starts from a presumption: if someone provides services to another, there is an employment contract unless the facts show otherwise (LCT article 23). This relación de dependencia presumption is why foreign companies feared long-term contractors. Ley Bases (Law 27,742) of 2024 added an exception, and the 2026 reform kept it: the presumption does not apply to contracts for works or professional services when invoices are issued or payment is made through authorised banking channels — and the exclusion extends to social security.

That helps, but it is not a safe harbour. Courts still apply the primacy of reality: a contractor with fixed hours, your equipment, a manager and no other clients looks like an employee whatever the contract says. Some labour courts have already declined to give the new wording weight where the facts pointed to dependence. If a claim succeeds, the worker can recover severance and the employment entitlements; the social-security authority can claim unpaid contributions. Ley Bases did repeal the old statutory fines for unregistered employment. The practical rule: anyone full-time for you for years, in your org chart, on your laptop and email, belongs in an EOR or your own company.

Law and practice: LCT arts. 2 and 23 as amended by Law 27,742 (Ley Bases, 2024) and Law 27,802 (2026).

When your people create a taxable presence.

The second risk is for the foreign company itself. Since the 2017 tax reform, Argentina’s income tax law contains a full definition of establecimiento permanente: a fixed place of business, a person who habitually concludes contracts or plays the principal role in concluding them on your behalf, and services provided in Argentina through employees or contracted personnel over prolonged periods. It pays Ganancias on the profit attributable to it.

Developers writing code for a product sold abroad rarely create one. Commercial roles do: a country manager, a sales executive who negotiates and signs with Argentine customers, or a team working from an office you rent can turn into a permanent establishment — whether they are contractors or EOR employees. Argentina has around 23 tax treaties, which narrow the definition for residents of treaty countries; there is no treaty with Paraguay. Keep contract signing abroad, avoid leases in your name and give people titles that match what they do.

Law and practice: Income Tax Law (Law 20,628, consolidated 2019), art. 22, as introduced by Law 27,430.

Who owns the code.

Argentina’s copyright law (Law 11,723) protects software. Since 1998 its article 4(d) gives the employer the rights in software that employees hired to write it produce in the course of their work, unless agreed otherwise. That is a work-for-hire rule for employees only. For a contractor, the default is the opposite: the author owns the code until it is transferred in writing.

A contractor agreement therefore needs an express assignment of all economic rights in the deliverables, present and future, worldwide, with a licence back of any pre-existing tools the contractor uses, a moral-rights waiver to the extent the law allows and a duty to sign registration documents. Through an EOR, make sure its contract passes the rights on to you: the statutory rule gives them to the EOR.

On data, Argentina’s Personal Data Protection Law (Law 25,326) is supervised by the AAIP, and the European Commission has recognised Argentina as providing adequate protection since 2003, so EU personal data can flow to Argentine developers without extra safeguards from the EU side. Data leaving Argentina for a country without adequate protection needs a contractual basis; the AAIP has published model clauses for that.

Law and practice: Law 11,723, art. 4(d), added by Law 25,036 (Boletín Oficial 11 November 1998); Law 25,326, art. 12; Commission Decision 2003/490/EC; AAIP Disposition 60-E/2016 (model transfer clauses).

When an entity makes sense.

An Argentine subsidiary costs the same per employee as an EOR without the provider’s margin, but adds a company to run: registration of the foreign parent under article 123 of the companies law with the IGJ or provincial registry, incorporation, CUITs, bank account, monthly returns, an annual audit and Central Bank reporting. Allow four to eight weeks for the registrations and up to eight more for the bank; our company guide covers each step.

The break-even is usually five to ten people, or earlier if you sell in Argentina or want the tax benefits of the Knowledge Economy regime (Law 27,506), which requires an Argentine company. The subsidiary then bills its parent for development at arm’s length and pays Ganancias on that margin.

Where a Paraguayan company helps, and where it does not.

Contracting Argentine developers through a Paraguayan company works exactly as above: the Paraguayan company is the foreign client, the developer invoices it with factura E and collects in their own USD account in Argentina. It does not change Argentine labour law, which applies to work performed in Argentina wherever the contract was signed (LCT article 3). A Paraguayan employer cannot employ someone living in Buenos Aires under Paraguayan law.

Where Paraguay changes the numbers is when the person moves. A developer who relocates to Asunción and joins a Paraguayan company costs about 1.25 times gross salary. The company then bills foreign clients with 10% Paraguayan VAT on exported services, unless it operates under the services maquila regime: a 1% single tax and VAT-free export invoices. The detail is in our guide to software exports from Paraguay; for founders leaving Argentina themselves, see moving a business from Argentina to Paraguay.

Routing Argentine work through a Paraguayan company so the developer is “paid in Paraguay” does not work: if the person lives and works in Argentina, the income is Argentine, and Argentina treats Paraguay as a low-tax jurisdiction.

A checklist for a clean contract.

• ✓

  Parties and status

  An independent business with its CUIT and tax regime, kept current.

• ✓

  Scope by deliverables

  Projects, milestones or a service, not a job title and a reporting line.

• ✓

  Autonomy

  The contractor decides how, when and where, with agreed overlap hours.

• ✓

  Own tools

  Own equipment; your accounts only where security requires.

• ✓

  Freedom to work for others

  No exclusivity; confidentiality and a narrow non-solicit instead.

• ✓

  Fees and invoicing

  US dollars against factura E, to the contractor’s own local account.

• ✓

  Taxes

  Each party bears its own; monotributo, Ganancias and Ingresos Brutos are the contractor’s.

• ✓

  No authority to bind

  No negotiating or signing for you.

• ✓

  Term and termination

  Notice periods, not severance-style payments.

• ✓

  IP and data

  Written assignment of all economic rights, licence of pre-existing tools, processor clauses under Law 25,326 and the GDPR.

Review each arrangement once a year. A three-month project that became three full-time years is the moment to move the person to an EOR — not the day the claim arrives.

Where the rules come from.

ARCA — exports of services by monotributistas · iProfesional — monotributo scale from August 2026 · BCRA Communication A 8417 · Allende & Brea — FX changes for exporters, April 2026 · Estudio O’Farrell — BCRA A 8330 for individuals · Abogados.com.ar — end of the export blend (Decree 269/2025) · CPCE Salta — summary of Law 27,802 · CPCECABA — contribution ceiling, September 2026 · Law 25,036 (software in Law 11,723) · Commission Decision 2003/490/EC (Argentina adequacy)

Straight answers.

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