Bank accounts reported to AFIP

[Che1990]

Hello! I posted this in the WU thread, but as it's important, I guess it warrants it's own thread.

I'm sharing this information out of good will to help fellow expats, as it seems not a lot of people know about this.

I am not an expert so please no one attack me for posting this. It's really only an FYI, use this information as you please.

https://www.lanacion.com.ar/economi...-los-bancos-informen-movimientos-nid26012022/
https://www.cronista.com/finanzas-m...-que-me-investiguen-y-no-me-congelenlacuenta/
https://www.iprofesional.com/econom...astos-con-tarjeta-de-debito-en-febrero-desde-

Basically, if you have more than 90,000 pesos go through your local bank account, or transactions for over 30,000 it's automatically reported to the AFIP.

So I guess that means we should be careful WU transactions etc.

I've had no problems in my 6 years, but I've seen lots of news about AFIP recently, seems they are going big on evasion. And I've heard the following things from different expat groups:

1. One expat has had their account frozen and has to justify income
2. Another is having random AFIPs deductions come out
3. Another has a red warning message on their MercadoPago, so screenshots below.


Again this is just an FYI and Im not an expert. Just sharing what I've heard, make of it what you willl.

What a nightmare!

 

[Quilombo]

It you're a retiree living here you have nothing to worry about as your justification for income is simple, it's your pension or passive income.

If, as is the case for 99.99% of Argentines who post about this happening and similar screenshots in Spanish every week I see online, it's the following, and I just laugh because these people are so committed to trying to screw AFIP they screw themselves:

- They work remotely and are paid in dollars or Euros or pesos en negro
- They pay absolutely nothing in taxes
- They don't collect any planes or receive any form of state aid
- They then do something like use a non anonymous P2P crypto exchange (i.e. selling a PayPal balance for a Mercado Pago transfer) or depositing the pesos from a cave in cash to a bank account
- They then make a purchase(s) or spend money doesn't make sense for someone who has no income or financial aid
- They then cry about losing the money and/or being locked out of their accounts

Remember, even Tony Soprano paid taxes; I literally saw a guy say he wasn't giving AFIP a cent because the Ks are a bunch of comes and he recently asked what to do when being asked for an AFIP compliant form justifying transfers because he doesn't have any.

Live by the sword die by the sword.

 

[gringoexpress]

The third one is a standard proof of funds request, any money services business anywhere in the world will ask for this. It isn't tax related.

 

[Aztangogirl]

Or ,have no bank account here. I don't and never will.

 

[earlyretirement]

So true story. I lived and worked in Argentina for 9 years. I moved out of Argentina about 11 years ago but kept open my HSBC account both US dollar and peso account to pay bills as I own a few properties in Buenos Aires. Once I moved out of Buenos Aires, I just used the accounts to pay bills.

I used to go to Buenos Aires once or twice a year but with COVID and other life happenings (death in family, medical illness, etc) I hadn't been to BA in 4 years. Back 4 years ago, HSBC suddenly shut down both my US dollar account and Argentine peso account. When I called or emailed, they would only say that I needed to come and discuss it in person. They assured me that the funds would be ok and I could withdraw it if I wanted to but they insisted I had to come personally.

As mentioned, with COVID I couldn't go back until recently. I went in and showed them a 4 year old bank statement and the lady helping me was like, "can you prove the money is still in there after all these years?". I was like WTF? I told her the situation. Long story short, it took about 1.5 hours dealing with her and other managers, but I finally got my money out.

Keep in mind I have had my DNI for a long time. I could even get my passport if I wanted from Argentina but no real advantage to that so I never did. But the lady told me that if I wasn't working or making income in Argentina there is a no law that you can't own a bank account.

I was HSBC Premier with them. I'm HSBC Premier in USA, UK, Mexico and a few other places. I explained to her that I'm retired but she was adamant that you had to have income in Argentina to keep a bank account open with HSBC.

I was just fortunate that I got my money out as I had over $10,000 US In that account. I do need to open up another account somewhere else but I didn't have time this trip to deal with it. Surely there has to be a way to open up a bank account there without working in Argentina.

 

[FrankPintor]

gringoexpress reported yesterday here how to open a bank account: https://baexpats.org/threads/i-just...-passport-no-dni-or-precaria-heres-how.45484/

HBSC have quite a reputation in expat circles for closing accounts without warning and sequestering the money. I wouldn't touch them with a bargepole.

 

[SanTelmoForever]

...Surely there has to be a way to open up a bank account there without working in Argentina.

tl;dr If you have a DNI and you don't have any Argentine bank account, you can open a no fee Cuenta Gratuita Universal online in just a few minutes without ever talking to anyone.

earlyretirement, sorry to hear about your (hardly surprising) Argentina horror story.

During the pandemia and cuarentena, I finally decided to try (again) to open a bank account in Argentina. I'm a long-time permanent resident with a DNI. I tried opening an account a couple of times in the past, but the banks always gave me a real hassle, and it has always been easy enough to use my wife's account, so I didn't push the issue.

I went to the Banco Nación website to open the account. I don't remember what the options were, but I chose a simple savings account. I think it took me about 10-15 minutes to fill out the form. At one point I hit a snag, where I was being asked to provide information from the IRS to prove my income (It offered me choices of specific US form numbers). I finally figured out that I could choose "none" and continue. It asked me for my monthly income, and I entered 30,000 pesos, just to put a number (the dollar was somewhere around 120 at the time, if I remember correctly). I wasn't asked for any type of proof.

I never had to talk to anyone, and the account was approved in a couple days. I received my debit card a couple weeks later. I deposited a couple thousand pesos to cover monthly fees, and forgot about the account for about a year.

Finally, I decided that I must owe some money for fees, since fees had gone up several times during the year, and I decided to pay what I owed and close the account, since I wasn't using it, and I didn't want to pay monthly fees and all the other transaction fees that I would incur if I actually started to use the account (according to the fee schedule on the bank's website).

I put the debit card in the ATM to find out how much I owed ---- and my initial deposit was still sitting there.

I believe what I have is a "Cuenta Gratuita Universal (CGU)," but I'm not sure. This is the type of account I was trying to open, but it was not offered in the menu. However, it seems to match all the criteria. Once I saw that I wasn't paying monthly service fees, I started using the account and discovered that I wasn't paying fees for anything. So now I use it for everything. Including receiving transfers from Western Union and MoneyGram. Up to this moment, I've never paid a single centavo to use this account.

If you have a DNI and you don't have any other bank account in Argentina, you have the right to open a CGU account. I have read that you can open it in any Argentine bank, by law, but you may find that the bank tries to give you a hard time. My wife's nephew (who is Argentine) tried to open a CGU account in the Santander branch in his small town, and they told him they didn't offer it, until my wife called the bank and told them that she was going to denounce them. Then they opened the account.

If you have a DNI and no bank account, this may be a good solution for you.

 

[earlyretirement]

tl;dr If you have a DNI and you don't have any Argentine bank account, you can open a no fee Cuenta Gratuita Universal online in just a few minutes without ever talking to anyone.

earlyretirement, sorry to hear about your (hardly surprising) Argentina horror story.

During the pandemia and cuarentena, I finally decided to try (again) to open a bank account in Argentina. I'm a long-time permanent resident with a DNI. I tried opening an account a couple of times in the past, but the banks always gave me a real hassle, and it has always been easy enough to use my wife's account, so I didn't push the issue.

I went to the Banco Nación website to open the account. I don't remember what the options were, but I chose a simple savings account. I think it took me about 10-15 minutes to fill out the form. At one point I hit a snag, where I was being asked to provide information from the IRS to prove my income (It offered me choices of specific US form numbers). I finally figured out that I could choose "none" and continue. It asked me for my monthly income, and I entered 30,000 pesos, just to put a number (the dollar was somewhere around 120 at the time, if I remember correctly). I wasn't asked for any type of proof.

I never had to talk to anyone, and the account was approved in a couple days. I received my debit card a couple weeks later. I deposited a couple thousand pesos to cover monthly fees, and forgot about the account for about a year.

Finally, I decided that I must owe some money for fees, since fees had gone up several times during the year, and I decided to pay what I owed and close the account, since I wasn't using it, and I didn't want to pay monthly fees and all the other transaction fees that I would incur if I actually started to use the account (according to the fee schedule on the bank's website).

I put the debit card in the ATM to find out how much I owed ---- and my initial deposit was still sitting there.

I believe what I have is a "Cuenta Gratuita Universal (CGU)," but I'm not sure. This is the type of account I was trying to open, but it was not offered in the menu. However, it seems to match all the criteria. Once I saw that I wasn't paying monthly service fees, I started using the account and discovered that I wasn't paying fees for anything. So now I use it for everything. Including receiving transfers from Western Union and MoneyGram. Up to this moment, I've never paid a single centavo to use this account.

If you have a DNI and you don't have any other bank account in Argentina, you have the right to open a CGU account. I have read that you can open it in any Argentine bank, by law, but you may find that the bank tries to give you a hard time. My wife's nephew (who is Argentine) tried to open a CGU account in the Santander branch in his small town, and they told him they didn't offer it, until my wife called the bank and told them that she was going to denounce them. Then they opened the account.

If you have a DNI and no bank account, this may be a good solution for you.

Thanks for this really HELPFUL information. This is what these boards are for. The sharing of valuable information. I will try that. I doubt anything is simple and easy these days but I'll try it.

 

[Neil]

I got one with just my DNI and filling out the online form from Galicia Cuenta universal ,zero fees