ARGENTINA

On April 8 the Senate passed the bill that exempts workers who earn up to 150,000 pesos from paying Income Tax with 66 affirmative votes and 1 abstention. Now, the text will be sent to the Executive Branch for its enactment.

During the debate, Senator Luis Petcoff Naidenoff (UCR – opposition), pointed out that “we support this bill as a relief, but every day the gap widens” because “this measure will be a patch, but not for the middle sectors. The social reality of Argentina shows us that this step benefits a sector that will become privileged”. Additionally, he concluded that “our responsibility is to look at the millions of Argentines who have no way out, and not to generate a patch with an electoral outlook”.

In turn, Senator Anabel Fernández Sagasti (Frente de Todos – ruling party), highlighted that “the issue of income tax is a very expensive issue for Juntos para el Cambio, because it was one of the great electoral scams that the Argentine people faced”.

At the same time, Senator Oscar Parrilli (Frente de Todos – ruling party) pointed out that “now Cambiemos says that it supports this reduction that we are making today in the income tax. Welcome, in good time. But it would be good for them to reflect on what they did”.

The text of the Income Tax Law indirectly raises the tax floor by updating the percentage that corresponds to the special deductions (article 30 clause c) of the ordered text. For workers who have a liquid remuneration higher than 150 and lower than 173 thousand pesos, the bill empowers the Executive Branch to increase such special deduction in order to “prevent the tax burden of this tax from neutralizing the benefits derived from the present measure”.