US Business owners moving to Argentina - Looking for advice.

[gvomfell]

Hi we are planning to move to BA with our family of 4, 2 adults and 2 teenagers, and are trying to get some advice for our situation.

We have an SCorp in the US and are planning to move and stay long term in Argentina while still operating the business remotely in America. Curious if anyone has gone through the process of registering their business and/or using the Autonomo Visa option and what advice/experiences anyone can share.

How did you get the process of registering started? Any recommendations for people/services that helped you with this? Any and all input is greatly appreciated.

 

[antipodean]

Hi we are planning to move to BA with our family of 4, 2 adults and 2 teenagers, and are trying to get some advice for our situation.

We have an SCorp in the US and are planning to move and stay long term in Argentina while still operating the business remotely in America. Curious if anyone has gone through the process of registering their business and/or using the Autonomo Visa option and what advice/experiences anyone can share.

How did you get the process of registering started? Any recommendations for people/services that helped you with this? Any and all input is greatly appreciated.

If your business will be managed from Argentina or meet any other residency requirements, even if incorporated in the USA, it will need to register for and pay taxes in Argentina and so will any resident beneficiaries. Would not do it unless you already have someone you can trust to navigate the complexities and are clear on what you are getting yourself into (through both the good times and bad, that is Argentina with capital controls and without capital controls which come and go like the seasons here and have a major impact on the rules around doing business).

You can of course contact any one of the big legal and accounting firms in Argentina to seek their advice and help, but there will only be so much they can and will do for you and explain to you.
- Salisky Vaena
- BDO
- Russell Bedford
- Crowe
- Lisicki Litvin
- EY
- KPMG
- PwC
- Deloitte

If your business is registered here then you can also register it with migraciones as an employer and then you can hire yourself (but I think you also need to have local partners/ MDs etc to go this route, but local legal or accounting firms can provably provide these nominee functions for you at a cost).

No idea about the autonomo option, but like any country, be careful of later needing to explain to Argentine tax authorities that the business you derive your income from in the US as a freelancer or shareholder is not being managed by you from Argentina. Also like anywhere there are ways around this with the right structure to put a compliant distance between the shareholders and management of a company.

 

[gvomfell]

If your business will be managed from Argentina or meet any other residency requirements, even if incorporated in the USA, it will need to register for and pay taxes in Argentina and so will any resident beneficiaries. Would not do it unless you already have someone you can trust to navigate the complexities and are clear on what you are getting yourself into (through both the good times and bad, that is Argentina with capital controls and without capital controls which come and go like the seasons here and have a major impact on the rules around doing business).

You can of course contact any one of the big legal and accounting firms in Argentina to seek their advice and help, but there will only be so much they can and will do for you and explain to you.
- Salisky Vaena
- BDO
- Russell Bedford
- Crowe
- Lisicki Litvin
- EY
- KPMG
- PwC
- Deloitte

If your business is registered here then you can also register it with migraciones as an employer and then you can hire yourself (but I think you also need to have local partners/ MDs etc to go this route, but local legal or accounting firms can provably provide these nominee functions for you at a cost).

No idea about the autonomo option, but like any country, be careful of later needing to explain to Argentine tax authorities that the business you derive your income from in the US as a freelancer or shareholder is not being managed by you from Argentina. Also like anywhere there are ways around this with the right structure to put a compliant distance between the shareholders and management of a company.

Thank you. I really appreciate the insight and resources.

It's all remote work but registered and licensed in the states, all clients and employees are in the states. Only phone calls conducted with US based clients and then a salary and distributions are paid to a US Bank account. If there's no physical office or work done inside Argentina is the part I'm getting conflicting information on.

Considering the additional details I shared above, if we are planning to come out to Argentina regardless and spending time here long term with no intentions of closing the business in the US does this mean we can just report the salary collected or does the corporation itself still have to record income when no work is not conducted for clients in Argentina ever?

 

[antipodean]

Thank you. I really appreciate the insight and resources.

It's all remote work but registered and licensed in the states, all clients and employees are in the states. Only phone calls conducted with US based clients and then a salary and distributions are paid to a US Bank account. If there's no physical office or work done inside Argentina is the part I'm getting conflicting information on.

Considering the additional details I shared above, if we are planning to come out to Argentina regardless and spending time here long term with no intentions of closing the business in the US does this mean we can just report the salary collected or does the corporation itself still have to record income when no work is not conducted for clients in Argentina ever?

The law in Argentina is similar to that in your own country - like most others - as to having specific requirements that determine whether a company a tax resident or not and the mere presence and roles of its final beneficiaries have a lot to do with it. Where a companies clients are located from an Argentine perspective is entirely irrelevant. You can't just wish the law away with wishful thinking when it is not convenient to what you want to hear. If you are actually serious about doing serious business from Argentina with a US company, I strongly recommend you speak to an Argentine lawyer or tax accountant and not an internet forum.

If however you were "just" a freelancer / consultant sending an invoice to a company each month (up to predetermined limits) you can easily register in Argentina as a monotributista. No idea however how this helps for immigration purposes, but whatever solution you choose, don't go overcomplicating things that are not worth overcomplicating.

While I would be afraid of Argentine corporate taxes due to the complexity and many layers of them that are more trouble than they are worth unless you are talking big business, I would not be afraid of Argentine personal income taxes - 35% as a maximum rate is really not that bad compared to most developed countries albeit it does have low thresholds and lacks scope to make sizeable deductions. What sucks in personal taxation is the global wealth tax that will drain you dry once/ if you stop making money.

 

[gvomfell]

@antipodean thank you very much, we'll be contacting law and tax professionals to ensure we take the correct path.

 

[Caribbean Cool]

Not that the responders are wrong.....but first and formost.....don't do anything. For one....there could be a vast difference between the 'law' and actual practice. There are 'unique' ways of doing things here that you would never learn without being here. And don't think of moving your business out of your U.S. jurisdiction until you know what you are doing...you may be about to exsist in the cloud...who knows?

And, especially immigration 'specialists'....some attorneys claim expertice and they really don't know xxxx. You need to come here traveling light.

 

[Alby]

What sucks in personal taxation is the global wealth tax that will drain you dry once/ if you stop making money.

 

[Alby]

Hi we are planning to move to BA with our family of 4, 2 adults and 2 teenagers, and are trying to get some advice for our situation.

It's a separate issue (or perhaps it's not, and indeed it may be the first issue to consider before worrying about the business structure), but when you have to are planning to move here, have you identified an immigration category under which to apply (or, if not, do you have any pre-existing citizenship rights that make a residency application unnecessary.)?

(Very interesting thread topic, by the way.)