TAX NEWS - June 2010

Argentina Tax: Bill to be effective in tax evasion

Despite the World Cup having halted Parliamentary sessions, sideline debates at the Congress reached the Lower House, for the Finance Committee held a meeting to debate the official bill of financial entities law reform, filed by Carlos Heller, as well as other bills filed by opposition leaders. Tax Regulation Scheme was the key debate for the Criminal Legislation Committee.

Aside from the activity in the Finance Committee, the Criminal Legislation Committee, led by Civic Coalition Deputy Juan Carlos Vega, started debating a bill which aims at amending the Tax Regulation Scheme by adding new qualifications for aggravated tax evasion.

This last bill was sent by the Executive branch and outlines a new scheme for the applied-sentences to be effective in tax evasion cases.

What the Executive branch is after, through proposing this bill to be debated, is to eliminate the probation period and to implement a more benign law.

This bill was expected to be debated last week, however, the meeting was suspended for an agreement to be reached. This resolution increases from two to six years the sentence and adds the "aggravated tax evasion" figure for those who "make fake statements or lie on the already-declared amounts of money."