Law No. 27,799 on Tax Innocence, promulgated on January 2, 2026 (Decree 933/2025), introduces amendments to the Criminal Tax Regime and the Tax Procedure Law, marking a paradigm shift in the relationship between the State and taxpayers. The law seeks to limit criminal and administrative prosecution to relevant cases, simplify compliance with tax obligations, and promote the formalization of savings, encouraging investment and access to credit.
REFORM OF THE CRIMINAL TAX REGIME
The law introduces substantial changes to the Criminal Tax Regime, drastically raising the thresholds for criminal prosecution. Now, only large-scale tax evasion will be prosecuted. For example:
- Simple evasion: the minimum amount increases from $1,500,000 to $100,000,000 per tax and fiscal year;
- Aggravated evasion (by amount): the minimum amount increases from $15,000,000 to $1,000,000,000;
- Misuse of false invoices: the minimum amount increases from $1,500,000 to $100,000,000;
- Aggravated evasion of social security resources (calculated monthly): the minimum amount increases from $1,000,000 to $35,000,000;
- Misappropriation of taxes (calculated monthly): the minimum amount increases from $100,000 to $10,000,000, among others.
These thresholds are calculated per tax and will be adjusted annually according to the Acquisition Value Unit (Unidad de Valor Adquisitivo or UVA) starting in 2027. The purpose is to reserve criminal intervention for cases of serious and organized evasion, preventing minor violations from leading to criminal proceedings and thus reducing litigation and judicial pressure on the tax system.
BENEFITS OF REGULARIZATION
Incentives to regularize debts before going to trial are reinforced. If the taxpayer pays the outstanding debt in full (principal + interest) before the Federal Tax Authority (Agencia de Recaudación y Control Aduanero or “ARCA”) files a criminal complaint, no criminal action will be initiated (benefit applicable only once per taxpayer).
If criminal proceedings have already been initiated, they will be discharged if the total amount owed plus an additional 50% (fines) is paid within 30 days of notification. In addition, it has been established that criminal proceedings will not continue once the tax authorities’ powers to determine the tax have prescribed.
ADMINISTRATIVE SANCTIONS: UPDATED AMOUNTS
The Law also modernizes the administrative sanctions regime (Law No. 11,683). Fines for formal non-compliance are significantly increased. For example, the fine for failure to file a tax return (Declaración Jurada“DJ”) increases from $200 to $220,000 for individuals and from $400 to $440,000 for legal entities. Similarly, fines for missing information returns are multiplied (from thousands to millions).
Special attention should be paid to the update of the minimum and maximum amounts for grading the fine corresponding to formal non-compliance related to sworn statements on transfer pricing and international transactions, which have been raised to $11,000,000 and $22,000,000, respectively.
On the other hand, there will be no automatic fine. ARCA will implement prior notices: it will send a reminder 10-15 days before the due date and will only apply the fine once that period has elapsed. In addition, the fine will be graded according to the delay (e.g., discount on fines for short delays), rather than immediately imposing a fixed amount on all offenders.
SIMPLIFIED INCOME TAX REGIME
Law No. 27,799 incorporates the Simplified Income Tax Return Regime, an optional regime for individuals and undivided estates residing in the country, whose main purpose is to promote asset formalization and provide greater tax predictability for taxpayers.
The regime has a significant indirect effect: by reducing automatic presumptions and dispensing with traditional asset control within the simplified regime, it reduces the risk of audits based exclusively on unjustified asset growth, focusing solely on income. However, ARCA retains its full powers of control in the event of significant inconsistencies or deviations.
Eligible people and conditions of access
Taxpayers who, as of December 31 of the year immediately preceding the fiscal year for which the option is exercised, and during the two previous fiscal years, meet the following conditions concurrently may opt for this regime:
- Be individuals or undivided estates, resident in the Argentine Republic.
- Have total income of up to $1,000,000,000.
- Have total assets of up to $10,000,000,000.
- Not qualify as “large national taxpayers” according to ARCA criteria.
Failure to meet any of these requirements prevents enrollment in the regime or enables subsequent exclusion.
How the regime works
Under this scheme, ARCA will prepare a simplified income tax return based on the income invoiced and the deductions reported by the taxpayer. The taxpayer may accept the proposed return and pay the corresponding tax, or make any adjustments deemed necessary if inconsistencies are detected. A key aspect of the regime is that, unlike the general regime, personal consumption and changes in net worth are not audited, without prejudice to ARCA’s full powers of control in the event of significant inconsistencies or deviations.
ARCA retains the power to verify compliance with the requirements for access to and permanence in the regime and, if inconsistencies are detected, may exclude the taxpayer and proceed to verify and audit their situation in accordance with the general rules. Once the taxpayer accepts the proposed tax return and pays it on time, the tax obligation for the period is considered definitively satisfied, both formally and materially. This discharging effect means that the tax period is closed and cannot be reopened, unless an omission of income, the calculation of improper deductions, or the use of invoices or other apocryphal documentation is verified.
Likewise, the law incorporates a legal presumption of the veracity of income tax and value-added tax returns corresponding to periods not subject to limitation, provided that they have been filed in a timely manner and in the proper form. This presumption can only be overturned if ARCA detects a “significant discrepancy” in the simplified tax return for the last tax period declared. A significant discrepancy is considered to exist, among other cases, when there is a difference in adjusted tax equal to or greater than 15% of the amount declared, when the absolute difference between the declared tax and the contested tax exceeds the minimum amount established for the crime of simple evasion in the Criminal Tax Law (currently $100,000,000), or when the challenge is based on the use of apocryphal invoices or other documents.
TAX PROCEDURE: MODIFICATION OF STATUTES OF LIMITATIONS
The Law reduces the statutes of limitations for compliant taxpayers: the general term is reduced from 5 to 3 years provided that the tax returns have been filed on time and without significant discrepancies (as defined in the previous section).
For unregistered taxpayers, the special statute of limitations remains at 10 years. In addition, the automatic suspension of the statute of limitations upon initiation of an ex officio determination is eliminated. In practice, this speeds up the closure of tax files and provides greater certainty to compliant taxpayers.
At the same time, the law reformed aspects of the tax procedure to encourage voluntary compliance. As mentioned, ARCA must send prior notices before applying formal fines. It also updates the rules of the game regarding information requests, adapting them to the current economic reality (much higher minimums and maximums than before are introduced).
CONCLUSION
Law No. 27,799 introduces significant changes to the Argentine tax system that directly impact the relationship between the tax authorities and taxpayers. The raising of criminal thresholds, the reformulation of the penalty system, the reduction of criminal litigation, and the incorporation of simplification and tax closure mechanisms point to a more predictable scheme focused on encouraging the use of Argentine savings.
However, although the law is already in force, there are still important aspects whose practical implementation will depend on the regulations issued by the Executive Branch and the operational criteria adopted by the ARCA, particularly with regard to the simplified declaration regime and the effective scope of its liberating effects. In this context, the real impact of the law will have to be assessed in light of its regulatory development and administrative application in the coming fiscal periods.
