Starting A Business?

[Chet]

Anybody actually started a legal business here?
I found this site;
http://www.doingbusiness.org/data/exploreeconomies/argentina/starting-a-business
and I have a quote from a lawyer but I am wondering what experiences people have with red tape and costs.

 

[sleslie23]

Anybody actually started a legal business here?
I found this site;
http://www.doingbusiness.org/data/exploreeconomies/argentina/starting-a-business
and I have a quote from a lawyer but I am wondering what experiences people have with red tape and costs.

David will be along to answer your question as soon as he recovers from fainting after reading that someone would actually ask this question.

 

[thorsten]

My girlfriend works for a tax accountant and they offer a service for new companies to make the registration. I don't know what's included, nor how much it is, but if you are interested send me a PM and I'll ask her to contact you.

 

[Davidglen77]

I used to own a business here and here's my story......www.escrachados.com

There are businesses that work here, but you sure has better know what you are doing and I also recommend having a partner, as it's impossible to handle all of the bureaucracy on your own.

I personally would never consider it again. Best of luck!

 

[Chet]

David will be along to answer your question as soon as he recovers from fainting after reading that someone would actually ask this question.

haha well it is not that I don expect a red tape nightmare, just trying to figure out how it scales relative to other parts of the world.

 

[citygirl]

Yes I did. It was I started an SRL for a US company back in 2008. It was set up relatively quickly and was profitable and yes, was 100% in white. What type of business are you looking to start (industry)? That will determine the complexity of the start-up/on-going cost/headaches.

It's a lot, a lot, a lot of paperwork. You need a really good accountant that you trust. You can use a lawyer to set it up but I would advise strongly that if you do, make sure you understand the costs of using him/her and make sure they don't stay involved on an on-going basis.

 

[toongeorges]

Argentina is one of the 4 countries where the total tax rate is higher than 100% of the (official) commercial profits,

http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/IC.TAX.TOTL.CP.ZS?order=wbapi_data_value_2013+wbapi_data_value+wbapi_data_value-last&sort=desc
http://www.pwc.com/g...tables-2014.pdf

don't try to understand the logic behind it, things are just the way they are in Argentina. However, this implies that if you want your business to survive, you may have to earn part of your income in black.

 

[Chet]

Don't we all love paperwork??
I ran companies in the US and in Europe - europe, at least where I was had it by the mountains.
Anyway, primarily tech stuff is the general idea, all depending on how complicated things get.

 

[Montauk_Project]

its doable, you need a good accountant and understand how things work here. My accountant gave us some good advice--when you are making money, set up the company, not before (unless you have start up capital, which we didn´t have). This assumes that you don´t need to hire people right away and that the services you need can just give you facturas (ie, no one works for you full time). You can also run a big company as a person and never incorporate as a "monotributista" and if you make a lot of money you become "iva inscripta" as sole proprietor, no incorporation needed. The advantage is that you have lower costs.

 

[Davidglen77]

Setting up the business is not the hardest part, I had a good accountant and escribano, so besides having to pay and sign a bunch of papers, that was the least of it. I was also very lucky in terms of employees, I had 3 very good ones, who never gave me a problem at all. That is usually the biggest nightmare. What is unbearable is if you have suppliers or need to order merchandise, that is a nightmare, between strikes, shortages and people simply not showing up when they are expected to, you needing enough merchandise to sell can be a huge problem. All in all my business was profitable!! I turned a profit every single month and paid (most) of the taxes I was supposed to - and there were many being responsable inscripto for IVA. Then came the corrupt inspectors and their demand for bribes......that was the nail in the coffin.........I think society here has to evolve a few more generations for the "quid pro quo" mentaility to become the exception rather than the rule.