Thank you so much! I really appreciate your thorough analysis and experience. So just to clarify, if I use Western Union to direct deposit into our Argentine account, we will still get the blue dollar rate, correct? And then we can use our argentine bank debit card to pay for the electrodomesticos that we are about to need to purchase for our apartment? Also, if we have no credit history in Argentina I am assuming that it will be hard for us to qualify for credit especially if all our income is earned abroad? Or does owning cars/homes help? It still seems better to transfer money this way for these purchases. I knew it would be complicated dealing with basic things like buying stuff here and bringing in dollars but not this complicated
No problem, I'm always happy to help as much as I can, I know it was a learning curve for myself as well
I will preface my responses by saying that I'm not an accountant nor lawyer, and will try to give you my opinion plus what you're officially supposed to do, I promise it will be as clear as mud afterwards haha.
If I use Western Union to direct deposit into our Argentine account, we will still get the blue dollar rate, correct?
You will receive what's called the CCL (previously it was the CCL libre, but this is changing, I'll explain in a second), minus a couple percentage points WU keeps for themselves as profit. It's lately been well above the blue, by around 8%, but earlier this year it was well below, so it's important to remember it can vary, but it's usually close to the blue exchange rate, and it's what most people on BA Expats use.
The CCL Libre was the market determined exchange rate for USD to ARS based on the resale price of dual listed securities, i.e. stocks, ADRs, bonds, etc. that are traded on both the NYSE and Merval and send by brokers between the two countries. Previously, it was much higher than the regular CCL exchange rate you see when checking dolar hoy because the BCRA would buy bonds and ADRs to maintain a target rate, while the CCL libre's value was determined by what a private seller/buyer was willing to pay (and had different regulatory requirements/rules). However, since the election, the BCRA have stopped intervening in the CCL (because it can't afford to piss away precious dollars on such foolishness), letting a sort of "CCL devaluation" occur to eliminate the gap between the CCL Libre and CCL itself. As of Sunday, November 21st, the official exchange rate is $100.51, the blue is $198.50, the CCL is $214.74, and WU is $211.95. I predict on Tuesday it will go up, and the CCL libre will more or less disappear as it went from a $186 sell rate before the election to a $220.03 sell rate today.
And then we can use our argentine bank debit card to pay for the electrodomesticos that we are about to need to purchase for our apartment?
Yes, but it's important to remember that debit cards have low limits here (mine has a max daily spend of 100K or less than $500 USD for example) and
all transactions made via debit/credit/transferias, etc. are visible to AFIP, and just like if you're spending money you're not reporting an income for in the US, AFIP here, like the IRS, will want to talk to you, along with your bank and AGIP or provincial tax authority.
That being said, if the dollars you are pesifying via Western Union are from savings, passive income, or labor performed
prior to Argentina becoming your country of tax residency,
or you will only be spending less than 6 months a year here, then you might just need to make a declaration of assets/networth/etc,
again, I'm not an accountant nor a lawyer, but I believe this is what some of the retired folks on here have done.
Some people here have been sending money via WU monthly for years and never had an issue with AFIP or their bank, but like everything else here, your mileage could greatly vary.
Now, if you or your husband are working remotely abroad as a digital nomad/freelancer/or employee,
and you will be living here for 6 months of the year or more, officially Argentina will become your country of tax residency, and you will be required to pesify your dollars via the MULC at the official exchange rate, issue factura category E for the export of services (I believe in CABA at least you don't need to pay Ingresos Brutos for exporting services, but this could be different in other provinces), register as a monotributista, contract an obra social, pay your monotax/ANSES contributions monthly, and pay ganacias if you make over a certain threshold, and possibly even charge IVA.
Do the tens of thousands of Argentines working remotely in dollars or euros follow the MULC regulations and such? No, few, if any do. The people that tend to get caught are the ones that get greedy and pay no taxes, or are foolish and make a very clear paper trail. I've read first hand accounts from these people, they're basically locked out of the financial system for violating KYC regulations, doing something like turning their dollars in to crypto, sending it from abroad to their account here, and then selling it on an AFIP registered exchange for pesos only to have their bank accounts, MercadoPago, etc. ask where they're getting their money from then banned/locked out for failing to reply or not providing acceptable proof of how they legally acquired the money. The last 2 stories I read of this were never charged, but they were put on a money laundering watch list by the BCRA, which is punishment in the sense that no financial institution is going to want to lend to them or deal with them.
I say this not to scare you, but to let you know what the law is (more or less), the reality, and what happens if you chose to flout it.
Also, if we have no credit history in Argentina I am assuming that it will be hard for us to qualify for credit especially if all our income is earned abroad?
Yes and no, I had no credit history and Santander gave me a credit card, not a great limit, but I can build a good Veraz history with them for the future. Also, this is why I went in to detail about whether you're working remotely or not. Lots of people do this like I said, and have access to credit. If you are doing this/plan on doing this, and are not going to be rentistas/retired, I
strongly encourage you to speak with an accountant who will help you navigate the pros and cons of different approaches to AFIP, as well as advise you on compliance.
Or does owning cars/homes help?
Do you own vehicles/homes here? If so, potentially; I would again speak with an accountant and then your account manager at your bank, they will help you and your husband identify the requirements to access credit, keeping in mind that you should follow your accountant's advise as to what exactly to disclose to bank.
