ARGENTINA Law and Practice Contributed by: Daniel Rinci, Tomas Cabanelas, Fernando García and Marisa Majul, Rinci & Asociados
6.2 Criminal Penalties Criminal liability can extend to directors, officers, and managers of legal entities who participated in or authorised the evasion. Legal entities themselves can be subject to administrative sanctions, including fines, suspension of tax registrations, and the loss of tax benefits. 6.3 Interaction Between Tax and Criminal Procedures The Tax Penal Regime requires the tax assessment to be issued by tax authorities before criminal charges can be filed; the tax authority files a criminal case once the relevant thresholds and indicators are met and the administrative audit discloses potential criminal conduct. However, the tax assessment may be appealed to the courts and this may run concurrently with criminal pro - cedures. The exception is monetary fines imposed by the tax authorities, which are deferred until the crimi - nal case is settled. Co-ordination between tax authorities and the judi - ciary is maintained through inter-institutional agree - ments and joint working protocols. The courts may also order precautionary measures – such as asset freezes – at the request of the prosecution in signifi - cant tax fraud cases. 7. Administrative Co-Operation 7.1 Legal Framework for Administrative Co- Operation Argentina’s international administrative co-operation in tax matters rests on several legal instruments: • OECD Multilateral Convention on Mutual Admin - istrative Assistance in Tax Matters (MAC) – Argen - tina signed and ratified the MAC. This convention provides the broadest legal basis for information exchange, including automatic, spontaneous, and on-request exchange, as well as the possibility of joint audits. • Bilateral tax treaties – Argentina’s double tax treaties all include provisions on the exchange of
• Fiscal raids – For criminal tax cases, search and seizure operations may be conducted with the intervention of the Public Prosecutor’s Office and, where applicable, the federal police. • Information requests – Information may be request - ed from third parties, including banks and financial institutions, under the bank secrecy lifting ( levan- tamiento del secreto bancario ) mechanism avail - able in tax investigation proceedings. • International co-operation – Federal tax authorities may request information from foreign tax authori - ties through the exchange of information mecha - nisms in Argentina’s tax treaties and TIEAs, as well as through the OECD Multilateral Convention framework. 6. Penalties and Sanctions 6.1 Tax Penalties The main administrative penalties applicable to cross- border transactions include: • omission penalty – a fine of 100% of the unpaid tax for failure to pay taxes on time, rising to 200% when the omission relates to cross-border transac - tions or to transactions with non-cooperative or low-tax jurisdictions; • fraud penalty – a fine of between two and six times the amount of the unpaid tax for deliberate fraud, including the use of false documentation or fraudu - lent schemes in cross-border contexts; • formal infractions – fines for failure to comply with formal obligations (such as filing returns, maintain - ing documentation, and responding to information requests) where previously negligible, have been substantially raised; and • transfer pricing penalties – specific penalties apply for failure to file transfer pricing documentation or for filing documentation that is incomplete or incor - rect. The courts ultimately rule on the validity of the pen - alties imposed by tax authorities and, once ruled, a different court enforces them.
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