New extraordinary payment on account of income tax for the financial and insurance sector

On September 28, 2023, General Resolution No. 5424/2023 of the General Administration of Public Revenues (AFIP) was published in the Official Gazette of the Nation, whereby a new payment on account of income tax was established for taxpayers engaged in financial intermediation activities and insurance services, and who have reported a taxable income equal to or greater than ARS 600,000,000 in the tax return for the tax period 2022 or 2023, before the computation of losses.

In particular, in order to be covered by this new payment on account, two conditions must be met:

1. To have as main activity any of those detailed in the Item “FINANCIAL INTERMEDIATION AND INSURANCE SERVICES” of the “Clasificador de Actividades Económicas” (CLAE);
2. To have reported a Tax Result equal to or greater than ARS 600,000,000 -without applying the deduction of tax losses from previous years- according to the tax return corresponding to the period 2022 or 2023 -whichever corresponds to the closing month-.

Also, the following are excluded from this new payment on account:

1. Subjects that develop as main activity those contemplated in Code 651310: “Obras Sociales”;
2. Subjects that are registered as Payment Service Providers (PSP) with the Central Bank of the Argentine Republic;
3. Subjects that were reached by the previous payment on account foreseen in AFIP General Resolution No. 5391, dated July 2023
4. Legal entities that have an Income Tax exemption certificate in force for the fiscal years ended between August 2022 and July 2023, under the terms of AFIP General Resolution No. 2681.

The amount of the payment on account will be 15% of the Tax Result of the tax period under assessment, without deduction of tax losses from previous years. That is to say, for those who apply it, it will have to start at a minimum of ARS 90,000,000.

The payment on account must be paid in 3 consecutive and equal installments, according to the following schedule:

This payment on account may not be cancelled by offsetting it with credit balances arising from other taxes or systems, nor may it be considered for the purposes of the estimate made within the framework of the income tax advance payment reduction option.

It should be recalled that, both in August 2022 and July 2023, by means of General Resolutions No. 5248 and No. 5391 of the AFIP, “one-time” payments on account of Income Tax had also been established.

The reasons invoked for the issuance of the measure in this opportunity, as in the previous one, are: “That the National State has been implementing a series of measures aimed at consolidating the economic recovery, within the framework of which it has been observed that the economic actors engaged in financial intermediation, as well as the subjects that are in the category of Payment Service Providers -registered before the Central Bank of the Argentine Republic- have benefited from obtaining extraordinary income for the development of their activity”.

Since it is a payment on account whose liquidation mechanism is direct and expeditious, in the event of non-payment, it is highly probable that AFIP will try to claim its immediate coercive collection through a tax execution lawsuit.

Activities covered by the payment on account