Argentine Citizen Moving To Argentina With Customs Concerns

[sab15]

You really are complicating things you know? hahaha. I don't think anyone will try to tax you anything because even if you have new stuffs, they are for personal use, not to resell. Afip has a website.. let me paste it below: http://www.afip.gov.ar/turismo/

Now, in there it says:

"Argentinos que retornan al país luego de haber residido más de UN (1) año y menos de DOS (2) años en el exterior"
Efectos personales y del hogar, nuevos o usados, destinados al uso del beneficiario o de su grupo familiar: Importación libre de impuestos"

(in case you dont speak spanish, it basically says Argentinians that return to the country after living abroad between one year and less of two, personal efects, new or used, destinated to personal use or family group: import free of taxes. There is another entry for more than 2 years, same thing)

Now, I believe that in papers, you are an Argentinian, not a foreign citizen who got permanent residence. As your father is from Argentina, you are one too. So.. if you were living outside the country for more than one year, which you were, you can bring your personal items with you.

Just in case, print that page and show it to the officer if anyone looks for a bribe, but I don't believe anyone will expose like that.

Cheers

Thanks you so much Inferno!!!! This is what I wanted to hear!!! Haha. You are right about me overcomplicating it. But this is what happens when you don't have knowledge about something.

 

[sab15]

Hey Inferno, what about the Declaración de Aduanas? Do you know if I need to bother to list everything, since I know it will be exempt anyway?

Declaración:
Todo viajero que arribe al territorio aduanero deberá efectuar sin excepción la Declaración de Aduanas, completando todos los campos previstos en los formularios OM-2087/G3 para vía Aérea o Marítima y OM-2087/G4 para vía Fluvial o Terrestre.

 

[Iznogud]

If you are bringing in guns, now is the time. Same with a car. This franchise works just once.

 

[Inferno.]

Hey Inferno, what about the Declaración de Aduanas? Do you know if I need to bother to list everything, since I know it will be exempt anyway?

Declaración:
Todo viajero que arribe al territorio aduanero deberá efectuar sin excepción la Declaración de Aduanas, completando todos los campos previstos en los formularios OM-2087/G3 para vía Aérea o Marítima y OM-2087/G4 para vía Fluvial o Terrestre.

In the flight they are going to give you that paper before landing.. but the reality is that people don't usualy fill it if they don't have anything to pay for. Even if they do, they sometimes take their chances and leave it blank or throw it out. If you bought a 1,000 USD laptop, you *should* fill that so that they can make you pay the difference, in this case around 350usd (300 free of taxes, 50% of the rest). As you were living abroad and are exempt of charges.. I wouldn't fill it, but that's me. It's like,stating you need to pay but you wont because you are exempt. I don't know if the person that could ask you something read their own company manual.

They target people who are living in argentina, go to the US -mostly- and bring back expensive equipment. I suppose you are going to bring back a lot of items from your house, so if someone ask you to open the bag and give the form, you can just tell politely that you don't have anything to declare, that you are moving to argentina and are bringing your stuffs with you. Sometimes they may be even curious and they will ask you some quick questions because they are bored. They only problem you may have is if you have like 4 new closed ipad boxes to resell.

You are going to see that sometimes an official site will say that you need to do this, and that, and this other thing, but in reality, they don't bother to follow their own rules. It's kinda like that book, follow your own adventure, do you know it? You need to make choices and decide what you would like to do, you will need to read page X or page Y based on that. In this case is the same, even if the afip site says you are exempt from personal items, if you have too many new items that may gave them the impression that you will sell them here, they will charge you. If they don't like your attitude because you treated them bad and they are also having a bad day, they will try to charge you for any stupid thing regardless of what their site says.

For example, I travel with a lot of technology with me. In the bag I take with me to the plane, I have always 3 laptops (personal, work, small homeserver), external 3tb drive, camera, ipad, wdtv, among other things, so I'm checked in every security checkpoint. I fill a form before leaving the country declaring all this to avoid paying taxes when I come back (I'm not from the US, I'm just here because I like the forum and I like to give a hand if I can). When I do come back,, they should check that the serial numbers and models match the report (which they do), but they don't even bother to see that. It's like, "okay, go on, I don't want to lose time here". Btw, I dont fill that form you put in your response even if it says I should.

I'm sure you are going to be okay

 

[StuckLikeGlue]

Reviving an old thread, but I have a similar question ... my husband is Argentine, and we left Argentina a year ago and now live in the States. He has permanent residency in the U.S.

How does that work with customs when we come to visit Argentina? We each have our own electronics (new-ish Macbooks, iPhones, etc) that we'll be bringing on our visit in December. Can/Will they try to charge him since they aren't things we had and could register the last time we left Argentina?

 

[lucha54]

StuckLikeGlue welcome back!! I don't think they can charge you guys for 1 or 2 personal items especially since you are just coming for a visit! and now are residents of the states.

 

[Girino]

StuckLikeGlue welcome back!! I don't think they can charge you guys for 1 or 2 personal items especially since you are just coming for a visit! and now are residents of the states.

I think the Argentinians are more concerned whether he is still a resident here, as well.
When we were planning to move here, it turned out that my husband never notified Argentinian authorities that he moved abroad 24 years ago (he was a child, his mother should have done that). Therefore he couldn't use that duties exemption on our stuff for citizens returning to the country after an absence of 2 or more years.
The Arg. Consulate in our home country then said he just had to prove he had been living in Italy for more than 2 years - he brought at the Consulate his residency certificate from his Italian city of residence, where it was stated that he registered as a resident back in the '80s.

That was all. A lot of people come and go without bothering to straighten their position with their former country of residence, but this might lead to some issues in the future - not to mention that until you are a resident you should file taxes (and maybe even pay them).

Anyway I agree with lucha54 that it is very unlikely that he will get questioned - he should have stamps on his passport showing that he has been abroad for a long time, this should demonstrate he is no "electronic mule".

 

[StuckLikeGlue]

I think the Argentinians are more concerned whether he is still a resident here, as well.
When we were planning to move here, it turned out that my husband never notified Argentinian authorities that he moved abroad 24 years ago (he was a child, his mother should have done that). Therefore he couldn't use that duties exemption on our stuff for citizens returning to the country after an absence of 2 or more years.
The Arg. Consulate in our home country then said he just had to prove he had been living in Italy for more than 2 years - he brought at the Consulate his residency certificate from his Italian city of residence, where it was stated that he registered as a resident back in the '80s.

That was all. A lot of people come and go without bothering to straighten their position with their former country of residence, but this might lead to some issues in the future - not to mention that until you are a resident you should file taxes (and maybe even pay them).

Anyway I agree with lucha54 that it is very unlikely that he will get questioned - he should have stamps on his passport showing that he has been abroad for a long time, this should demonstrate he is no "electronic mule".

Thanks guys! We will check in with the Argentine consulate here in Houston to see about officially changing his residency (and replacing his DNI from when he lost his wallet ).