Western Union money transfer

[Quilombo]

What "law" (and specificially which letters) are you referring to?

That money being sent is for familiar support, which is why I send it to his account and not mine.

That being said, I've yet to find what the limit is/what's considered too much to be sent to a recipient.
I don't want to cause issues with AFIP.

 

[steveinbsas]

That money being sent is for familiar support, which is why I send it to his account and not mine.

Are you doing this becaue you beleive that the funds you are sending to your husband are not subject to income tax in Argentina because the puropse is "family support?"

I send funds to myself every month via Western Union and the declared purpose is "family support" because that's the only option

being said, I've yet to find what the limit is/what's considered too much to be sent to a recipient.
I don't want to cause issues with AFIP.

At the present time, the threshold for paying income tax in Argentina is $150.00 pesos per month (yearly average).

If you have been sending your husband $1,500 USD per month the amount of pesos credited to his account is about $285.000.

If funds received for family suport are not subject to income tax in Argentina, he should not have to pay tax on it, but I'm not sure if and under what conditions he would have to declare it.

If he is receiving the funds in an Argentine bank account, I think the bank is more likely to ask questions before AFIP would take any interest., but that's just my opinon, based on my belief that the bank would ask your husband about the deposits before they notified AFIP. Of course AFIP can now track all bank (and WU) activities, so they could start asking questions first..

My Santander Rio Bank statements show that the deposited funds are from Western Union and the purpose is family support, but they don't show who sent the funds. My first two transsfers were sent by my sister-in-law two years ago. I've sent all of them since then.

They never asked any questions about the transfers, but the monthly amounts have always been below the amount I told them I would deposit when I opened the acccount in 2012...and those deposits have always been below the average monthly income subject to income tax in Argentina.

The only "issue" I ever had with AFIP was resloved quickly by an Argentine accountant who filed the appropriate declarations.

I only had to pay the accountant a small fee. I didn't have to pay AFIP anything.

The one issue I can imagine that you might have is if AFIP claims the funds you are sending to your husband are taxable if you have established "tax residency" in Argentina (by living here for more than one year as (at least) a temporary resident).

The one question I cannot answer,. however, is actually how much you can send to your husband without creating an "issue" with the bank or with AFIP. A transfer of $700.000 in one month might not make any difference at this point, but you'll only know afterwards.

 

[Quilombo]

Are you doing this becaue you beleive that the funds you are sending to your husband are not subject to income tax in Argentina because the puropse is "family support?"

If funds received for family suport are not subject to income tax in Argentina, he should not have to pay tax on it, but I'm not sure if and under what conditions he would have to declare it.

I'm doing it because that's what the rules permit/I only recently got my bank account setup here and most bills are already in his name anyways.

I took a look and I'm already on the nose, 149K ARS/month, so we're going to exceed it anyways as it's only October. I'm not opposed to paying a bienes, I guess I'm more interested in avoiding an audit or something if a single transfer for ~3K would transfer it.

I asked my accountant if he knew if ayuda familiar is taxable and he's not sure as other clients haven't been on the receiving end, usually sending abroad.

 

[steveinbsas]

I took a look and I'm already on the nose, 149K ARS/month, so we're going to exceed it anyways as it's only October. I'm not opposed to paying a bienes, I guess I'm more interested in avoiding an audit or something if a single transfer for ~3K would transfer it.

Just to be clear, I've been writing about income taxes, not the bienes personales. The bienes personales are taxes on assets and would not apply to the money you are transferring to your husband.

If my information is correct, income taxes are about (if not well over) ten times more than the bienes personales, but I am not sure of the exact ratio as I pay neither.

I'm sure you meant "trigger" an audit, but I have no idea what amount would. I have a hunch 3K wouldn't raise an eyebrow, but I can't be certain.

The question I suggest you ask your acccountant (if you haven't already) is if you owe any income tax on the funds that you are sending to your husband, (as well as the rest of your foreign income) even if he does not have to pay any taxes on the funds you send him.

PS: Just because money is deposited in a bank account in Argentina doesn't mean they are taxable. It's up to the individual to make the declarations and pay the taxes, but I don't know the level of compliance. Many comments in this forum indicate it's not very high, but anyone who has a bank account would obviously show up on AFIP's radar. They probably don't have the resources to go after the smaller fish.

 

[jblaze5779]

I transfer about 2.5-3k a month. I did 5k one month when I bought a car. haven't heard from anyone

 

[Quilombo]

Just to be clear, I've been writing about income taxes, not the bienes personales. The bienes personales are taxes on assets and would not apply to the money you are transferring to your husband.

If my information is correct, income taxes are about (if not well over) ten times less more than income taxes., but I am not sure of the exact ratio as I pay neither.

I'm sure you meant "trigger" an audit, but I have no idea what amount would. I have a hunch 3K wouldn't raise an eyebrow, but I can't be certain.

The question I suggest you ask your acccountant (if you haven't already) is if you owe any income tax on the funds that you are sending to your husband, (as well as the rest of your foreign income) even if he does not have to pay any taxes on the funds you send him.

Apologies for the confusion, yes I meant personal income tax not net assets. Thankfully (unfortunately?) we don't have combined let alone individual assets world wide worth 2 million ARS. I'm going to ask my accountant to ask some colleagues, as for my income taxes, I'm making my payments to AFIP each month, we've managed to sort that out.

Thanks for your insights Steve.

I transfer about 2.5-3k a month. I did 5k one month when I bought a car. haven't heard from anyone

Thanks for the feedback!

 

[steveinbsas]

Apologies for the confusion, yes I meant personal income tax not net assets. Thankfully (unfortunately?) we don't have combined let alone individual assets world wide worth 2 million ARS.

I'm guessing you meant 2 million USD as 2 million ARS is only a little more than 10K USD, but what I am wondering is if the 2 million USD is the threshold applies to the "one time" wealth tax, which was levied to cover the cost of dealing with covid and is different from the bienes personales.

I may not have the latest info, but the bienes personales applied to worklwide assests of tax residents of Argentina and, perhaps at one time, the rate started at zero, albiet with an exemption for property that was occupied by the owner.

When I bought my first apartment in CABA in 2006 the exemption was a little over $300K AR and the exemtion has gradually increased since then.

The last time I spoke with my accountant was 2.5 years ago and she told me the exemption had increased to $14.000.000 ARS.

I don't know all of the conditions of the bienes personales now, only that I don't have to pay them on any of my assets in Argentina.

I don't have to pay the bienes personales on assets outside of Argentina, either, but that's because I don't have any.

 

[Cordoba]

Family support is a gift. It isn't income. I don't believe gift taxes exist in Argentina. Just the wealth tax.

If your grandma wants to send you $10k a month and you spend it like Brewster's Millions what would AFIP care.

 

[Zetaphor]

I transfer about 2.5-3k a month. I did 5k one month when I bought a car. haven't heard from anyone

Same, been transferring thousands of USD per month for multiple years now and have never heard a word from Santander Rio, Brubank, Western Union, or even AFIP in all of that time

 

[sesamosinsal]

Has anyone else noticed that they've started charging a fee? I used to be able to transfer from my bank account in the U.S. without any fee...