Taxpayers should review the new Communique as it provides clarifications on the foreign-exchange regulations.

The Argentine Central Bank (BCRA) issued Communique "A" 6844 on December 6, 2019, establishing a consolidated text of the foreign-exchange regulations in force and introducing some definitions and clarifications. The general guidelines of the foreign-exchange regulations were originally described in Tax Alert 2019-1567.

All transactions routed through the official exchange market must have the participation of financial entities duly authorized by the BCRA. Such entities must verify compliance with the general and specific regulations applicable to the transaction to be conducted. In all cases, the entities must have at their disposal the evidence that allows the BCRA to check the authenticity of the operations and declarations.

The consultations or prior approval requests made by individuals and companies need to be routed through authorized financial entities and must be filed with the BCRA.

Among the definitions and clarifications made by the BCRA are the following:

• "Exports of services" alludes to the payments made by nonresidents to residents for the provision of services; those payments must be entered into the official exchange market and converted into local currency within five business days from the collection date abroad or in Argentina, or from their deposit in foreign bank accounts.
• When disposing of non-financial and non-produced assets, the collection of foreign currency must be entered into the official exchange market and converted into local currency within five business days of when the collections are made from nonresidents.

All of the foreign-exchange regulations will be in force until December 31, 2019. Individuals and companies should monitor the guidance from the BCRA, as the regulations are expected to be extended or amended.

———————————————