Does Argentina tax foreign pensions?

[rdcooper]

Does Argentina tax foreign pension income for US expats? I'm getting ready to retire in a few years, and I'm looking at moving to Argentina. I understand the US doesn't have a tax treaty with Argentina, and I'm concerned about double taxation.

 

[Alby]

If your pension income (with or without any other income you may have) exceeds the minimum threshold (which will change over time) for the ganancias tax, once you become a tax resident in Argentina (which you will do after completing 12 months temporary residency in the category of pensionista--unless you spend more than 90 days outside Argentina during the 12 months, and continue to do so in each subsequent 12 months), your pension technically becomes declarable and taxable under the Ley de Ganancias 20.628. Articles 116 and 117 describe the rules for tax residency. They contain no exemption for US or any other foreign pension income:

InfoLEG - Ministerio de Justicia y Derechos Humanos - Argentina

(I paid good money to a taxation lawyer here to get that information, and have shared it here previously.)

Others here will provide anecdotes from accountants and even from ACRA (the tax agency) staff to say that in practice the law is not applied to foreigners. That may well also be true. For now.

 

[Quilombo]

Obligatory not a lawyer/accountant:

What Alby said is important to keep in mind about Argentina broadly (the law vs. real life), and, the later part even more so: I've yet to hear of/meet a single retiree here whose had to pay ganancias or any sort of tax. That being said, they've all been average Joes with Social Security checks, nothing to brag about.

Now, if you want to own real estate, spend thousands of dollars a month, have a new car (or even used in this economy) etc. it will likely be worth meeting with an accountant to figure out your options.

The only tax I've heard retirees here ever having to pay is IIBB (ingresos brutos) and that's because they have no declared income and make purchases with debit or credit cards/receive money from WU so the provinces apply the 5% auto deduction for any deposits/tranferencias received.

 

[David_HaSofer]

There does seem to be an exemption under article 20 section (i) of this law that would apply to a pension or payment resulting from disability. It seems to apply to either annuity or lump sum. Probably not the case for most retirees or pensioners, but maybe useful for some. When I went through the process getting set up to pay taxes here, I tried to do it myself and made quite the mess of it. I was classified as a Monotributista, and I would send myself a factura whenever I would transfer myself money from outside of Argentina. This was not the correct way to do things apparently and I paid a small fine when I got my job here in Argentina and changed my classification with AFIP. That is my long way of suggesting investing in a professional to sort these things for you if you can. I did a lot of research, and still managed to screw up. YMMV.