I am in the process of trying to get myself set up to be able to issue invoices outside the country via the monotributo system. My accountant assures me we can do it, though I am not so sure that it is going to be as easy as he is thinking - or even possible in the end. According to him I will be able to have an account in dollars here and will be able to "import" my full monthly reported earnings directly into my bank account, in dollars, straight from the US - instead of bringing in the money in "gray" and depositing the amount I claim every month in pesos into my account. Right now, the limit on monotributo is 450K pesos a year, or 37.5K a month (close to $2,500 USD a month). My accountant says that they are working on raising the monotributo limit to 600K per year (50K pesos, $3,200 USD per month).
It would be so cool to be able to bring any dollars into the country legally, straight into a bank account. I'm going through some tramites to enable all of this - I'll let you all know if it actually works, and if it works, how well; though I wouldn't expect an answer for a month or two at least
As far as bribery moving more smoothly here since the advent of Macri, I'd have to agree with Noesdeayer and disagree with Ben. I know a person who was in the business of being a facilitator (a gestora), but not in the legal sense of just getting you through the legal paperwork. She has made a good amount of money in the last 10 or so years by having some seriously good connections at all levels of government, unions, etc, and by knowing with whom, and for how much, to apply the grease to get things done (she's an ex-cop, PFA. The story of how she became a cop to begin with is interesting in and of itself...but that was a couple of decades ago). And I'm not talking about just making things easier - I'm talking getting things done in days, with no paperwork, that take people a month or more of tramites to get completed - most usually without the required items that everyone else has to present.
This person has found herself pretty much out of work since Macri has taken over as president. She can no longer make deals with anyone that can help her - they are very worried about doing something that will get them caught. There is a real push to make things legitimate in this country, I've seen it through her and some of the business dealings that friends of mine have, over the last 6-8 months or so, as far as how things have changed. The problem I see (and here, Ben is correct) is that things are actually more difficult to get done, in some cases, because you actually can't pay your way out of the delay any more. I'd hope that Macri and his administration also streamline things, and not like the post office's door-to-door policy, which is a disaster and worth laughing over - if you're not involved directly, in which case it merely brings tears of frustration.
And look at the Uber decision the other day. Granted this wasn't something that completely frees Uber to operate in Argentina now, but to me it's a pretty big deal that a judge found that there was no criminality in their actions. Would this have happened under Cristina?
Last year, before Cristina was officially out and Macri in, we were all talking about how difficult things were going to be this first year at least, maybe more. I see written here (and hear in person a lot more) how bad things are now that Macri has taken over. It surprises me how quickly people forget and in turn are willing to think that the terrible corruption of the previous administration, especially with the amount it seems that they were robbing the country, is preferable to what's happening today. Forgetting that it was this corruption and incompetence that lead to the problems we are now experiencing.
Macri is not a king. He's not a person connected to a father figure of legend like Cristina is, with a wealth of idiots who believe that the end justifies the means (for those of Cristina's ilk who were true believers and made things move at the grass roots) He can't just sign a piece of paper and make everything the way he would have it. He has to deal with a congress that is still with a majority of votes against him in many big things. He has to deal with a population who doesn't think like we do, the majority of whom really think that the State should be taking care of them. He has to deal with a bureaucracy that is partially made up of people from the previous administration's, and of the one before that, appointees; even with the ones that have been thrown out, as ñoquis or duplicate positions, etc, there are still those that perhaps don't have great sympathy toward Macri and his policies. As far as why the door-to-door service is so bad, well, even then this isn't one of the biggest issues Macri is facing and it could well be that this will be fixed in the near future when it becomes apparent that it doesn't work.
Give the poor guy a break already!
It would be so cool to be able to bring any dollars into the country legally, straight into a bank account. I'm going through some tramites to enable all of this - I'll let you all know if it actually works, and if it works, how well; though I wouldn't expect an answer for a month or two at least
As far as bribery moving more smoothly here since the advent of Macri, I'd have to agree with Noesdeayer and disagree with Ben. I know a person who was in the business of being a facilitator (a gestora), but not in the legal sense of just getting you through the legal paperwork. She has made a good amount of money in the last 10 or so years by having some seriously good connections at all levels of government, unions, etc, and by knowing with whom, and for how much, to apply the grease to get things done (she's an ex-cop, PFA. The story of how she became a cop to begin with is interesting in and of itself...but that was a couple of decades ago). And I'm not talking about just making things easier - I'm talking getting things done in days, with no paperwork, that take people a month or more of tramites to get completed - most usually without the required items that everyone else has to present.
This person has found herself pretty much out of work since Macri has taken over as president. She can no longer make deals with anyone that can help her - they are very worried about doing something that will get them caught. There is a real push to make things legitimate in this country, I've seen it through her and some of the business dealings that friends of mine have, over the last 6-8 months or so, as far as how things have changed. The problem I see (and here, Ben is correct) is that things are actually more difficult to get done, in some cases, because you actually can't pay your way out of the delay any more. I'd hope that Macri and his administration also streamline things, and not like the post office's door-to-door policy, which is a disaster and worth laughing over - if you're not involved directly, in which case it merely brings tears of frustration.
And look at the Uber decision the other day. Granted this wasn't something that completely frees Uber to operate in Argentina now, but to me it's a pretty big deal that a judge found that there was no criminality in their actions. Would this have happened under Cristina?
Last year, before Cristina was officially out and Macri in, we were all talking about how difficult things were going to be this first year at least, maybe more. I see written here (and hear in person a lot more) how bad things are now that Macri has taken over. It surprises me how quickly people forget and in turn are willing to think that the terrible corruption of the previous administration, especially with the amount it seems that they were robbing the country, is preferable to what's happening today. Forgetting that it was this corruption and incompetence that lead to the problems we are now experiencing.
Macri is not a king. He's not a person connected to a father figure of legend like Cristina is, with a wealth of idiots who believe that the end justifies the means (for those of Cristina's ilk who were true believers and made things move at the grass roots) He can't just sign a piece of paper and make everything the way he would have it. He has to deal with a congress that is still with a majority of votes against him in many big things. He has to deal with a population who doesn't think like we do, the majority of whom really think that the State should be taking care of them. He has to deal with a bureaucracy that is partially made up of people from the previous administration's, and of the one before that, appointees; even with the ones that have been thrown out, as ñoquis or duplicate positions, etc, there are still those that perhaps don't have great sympathy toward Macri and his policies. As far as why the door-to-door service is so bad, well, even then this isn't one of the biggest issues Macri is facing and it could well be that this will be fixed in the near future when it becomes apparent that it doesn't work.
Give the poor guy a break already!