Dollar controls getting stricter

[katti]

In fact all they are doing is attacking the black money in Argentina and stopping the dollar flight. If you can proof where your money comes from or why you need dollars there is no problem.

That is what happened in the 1st world countries 20-30 years ago. I still remember the times when "our" parents/granparents took their money to switzerland or Luxembourg. Now that is completely impossible and unthinkable, unless you are really big and put on off shore companies. Today if you want to "exchange" dollars in Belgium you must deposit it on your bank. They will never give you cash in return. If it is more then a certain amount you have to justify the origin.

It is annoying if you have black money, which you can't exchange today (unless on the black market). But on the other hand it was quite strange that there were these 'unofficial' casa de cambios where you could exchange without being asked anything. It was easy to violate the 10.000 USD/month and it didn't matter where the money came from.

Finally Cristina is doing something, trying to attack black money and the dollar flight (which is serious). And again, we complain. We complain about Argentina being a 3th world country, but when it tries to get closer to the 1st world, we complain...

 

[sesamosinsal]

In fact all they are doing is attacking the black money in Argentina and stopping the dollar flight. If you can proof where your money comes from or why you need dollars there is no problem.

That is what happened in the 1st world countries 20-30 years ago. I still remember the times when "our" parents/granparents took their money to switzerland or Luxembourg. Now that is completely impossible and unthinkable, unless you are really big and put on off shore companies. Today if you want to "exchange" dollars in Belgium you must deposit it on your bank. They will never give you cash in return. If it is more then a certain amount you have to justify the origin.

It is annoying if you have black money, which you can't exchange today (unless on the black market). But on the other hand it was quite strange that there were these 'unofficial' casa de cambios where you could exchange without being asked anything. It was easy to violate the 10.000 USD/month and it didn't matter where the money came from.

Finally Cristina is doing something, trying to attack black money and the dollar flight (which is serious). And again, we complain. We complain about Argentina being a 3th world country, but when it tries to get closer to the 1st world, we complain...

The problem is how poorly the government has implemented these measures; so poorly, in fact, that people with legitimate sources of income have been denied dollars (unjustifiably) by the AFIP. The regulations weren't (and to some degree still aren't) clear. I don't think anyone here is criticizing the government for going after those who evade taxes or those who launder money. Rather, it's the lack of planning that's being criticized.

 

[PhilipDT]

Its actually absurd. Say you come here as a tourist. To rent an apartment, you have to pay cash in USD, when you get to the country you find out you cant actually get USD, so you have to go to an ATM and get pesos, BUT OH WAIT you can only get out 1000 a day from most ATMs, then, days later, you have to go to a bank to change the pesos back to dollars (they were dollars to begin with), THEN you might get told you need an argentine tax id to do so.

The tourism sector should be howling. I've been all over the world and I think Russia, has been supplanted by argentina as the least tourist friendly country i've been to.

 

[katti]

Its actually absurd. Say you come here as a tourist. To rent an apartment, you have to pay cash in USD, when you get to the country you find out you cant actually get USD, so you have to go to an ATM and get pesos, BUT OH WAIT you can only get out 1000 a day from most ATMs, then, days later, you have to go to a bank to change the pesos back to dollars (they were dollars to begin with), THEN you might get told you need an argentine tax id to do so.

The tourism sector should be howling. I've been all over the world and I think Russia, has been supplanted by argentina as the least tourist friendly country i've been to.

I think it is absurd that they want the rent to be paid in dollars. Is that legal? did anybody question that? Can't you just refuse it and pay in pesos?

 

[Utopos]

In fact all they are doing is attacking the black money in Argentina and stopping the dollar flight. If you can proof where your money comes from or why you need dollars there is no problem.

I have proof of my income, which was accepted by the government for my pensionado visa last July. I have a rental contract stipulating payment in U.S. dollars. This will not allow me to exchange pesos for dollars.

THERE IS A PROBLEM. Today (for the first time) I was unable to exchange pesos for dollars.

All banks are now directly tied into AFIP. Without their approval, no currency exchange is permitted. If you are not a permanent resident of Argentina, you will no longer be able to get dollars. Not legally.

I spent most of the day dealing with this. The bank understands why I want to exchange money each month, but the decision is no longer theirs. I got my CUIL today, and tomorrow I'll go to AFIP hoping to convince them to put me on there accepted list.

Even if they do, the bank will have to give me a special exception to exchange currency. Only customers can exchange currency, and you need to be a permanent resident to open an account. But if I was a permanent resident, I would not need an account to exchange currency.

Anyone ever read Catch-22???

 

[Ashley]

Apparently, it is legal if you have it stated in a contract. I think you can come to an agreement with the owner to pay the peso value but a lot of owners really kick up a stink about it, making it unpleasant (if not illegal).
I've heard that a lot of argentines who were planning to travel abroad have been hit hard. Also, it doesn't take into account people who have saved up their legitimate earnings and want to exchange them for dollars. The AFIP have established a monthly "allowance" for exchange per person that has been calculated according to that person's monthly income and their personal outgoings (I read that they take into account rent, expenses, school fees)! I would imagine the allowance is pretty low. Anything about that (house purchase, car purchase, etc) involves a considerable rigmarole at the AFIP office.
The main problem I have with it is that the govt has been merrily buying dollars for years...it get's itself into a fix and now prevents ordinary people from making any attempt to save their peso savings from a possible devaluation. The negro market has been going on happily unregulated for years...this has nothing to do with coming down hard on those people but on, once again, making ordinary people deal with the backlash of incompetent governing.

 

[davonz]

I wonder what will happen if an expat, who has a property here, sales the property, and then wants to take the money out of the country is going to do ?
I have heard it was hard enough before, you got paid in US$ for the apartment when sold, you then had to change it into peso, and then it was transferred back into what ever currency you wanted when it was transferred out of the country - a cut/fee was taken at each conversion of course..

 

[davonz]

The main problem I have with it is that the govt has been merrily buying dollars for years...it get's itself into a fix and now prevents ordinary people from making any attempt to save their peso savings from a possible devaluation. The negro market has been going on happily unregulated for years...this has nothing to do with coming down hard on those people but on, once again, making ordinary people deal with the backlash of incompetent governing.

I thought the gov has been buying peso's for years, and selling US$. From what i have read it was US$1.8b in oct alone, to stop the peso from devaluing.

And this is probably why all the controls are in place. They need the US$, and they cant afford to keep on buying peso's.
Basically they now have control of the changing of pesos to dollars, and this should stop the large amount of selling of the peso's, which will save the central bank from having to buy those sold peso's to prop up the peso..

 

[Gringoboy]

It's a fucking nightmare and we should have seen it coming; but we didn't.
Yesterday, we went through the fiasco of buying a house and signing the escritura in a bank in the centre.
LUCKILY, we had bought the USD before this fascist move by this govt and were able to complete the purchase just in time.
My wife is an accountant/auditor here and is Argentine.
One of her best clients is a casa de cambio and believe me when I say, the shit has hit the fan and don't be surprised if some of these well established businesses fold.
Thanks Cristina!

 

[Mano Negra]

Sure she is.... Behaving like she was a Benito Mussolini's granddaughter...Who the hell she thinks she is?

Actually politically she is in the opposite pole of that, also the idea is to reverse that black market tendency. The disastrous and incarnated argentine culture of buying dollars at the slight occasion that the monopolistic controlled media start to agitate the fear flag people rush to buy dollars like they are buying pure 24 carats gold, the damn idiots, it's like an incurable cancer and as such it should be operated and extirpated once for all. I'm glad they are doing at last something about this, it was long overdue.

No one do this thing in any country but Argentina, this is also highly regulated in a developed country by law and is not permitted in any circumstances dealing in other currency but the legal tender of that country. As all you know in others countries you can't buy physical gold or make any transactions in other currency but the country's, but here it's like nothing happens, how come?, how can be such stupidity went along for such long time and without any intervention or control from the government?...Now because they are starting to intervene and control it that is raising some feathers in those corrupted corporations and individuals used in dealing in such unpatriotic and unfair activities as expected they don't like it very much therefore they cry as mad at every opportunity...well, f@&* them.

It could actually be sorted out quite rapidly be not allowing domestic contracts to be written in foreign currency. Then devaluation would be positive for most of the economy, As there is a huge amount of agricultural goods that re sold in dollars, central bank reserves would increase. Argentina has a relatively low level of external debt and a relatively high level of exports. Devaluation is excellent for everyone who does not care about buying foreign brands...perhaps 95% of the country?