On July 21, 2023,through the publication in the Official Gazette of General Resolution No. 5391/2023, 5391/2023, the Federal Administration of Public Revenues (AFIP) created a new payment on account of Income Tax for taxpayers who have recorded a Taxable Income equal to or higher than AR$600.000.000, before the computation of losses, and who have not determined tax payable for the fiscal year 2022 or 2023.
This measure affects those taxpayers that close the fiscal year between August 2022 and July 2023 and only if the double condition of:
- To have reported a tax result equal to or greater than AR$600,000,000 -without applying the deduction of tax losses from previous years-;
- The tax return corresponding to the period 2022 or 2023 -depending on the closing month- does not show any determined tax.
The amount of the payment on account will be 15% of the Taxable Income of the period under assessment , before the computation of losses. That is to say, for those to whom the payment on account applies, it will have to start at a minimum of AR$90,000,000.
The payment on account must be paid in 3 consecutive and equal monthly installments, according to the following schedule:
| Year-end closing | Expiration date | |
|---|---|---|
| August to December 2022 | 22/8; 22/9; 22/10 | |
| January to May 2023 | 22/12; 22/01; 22/02 | |
| June 2023 | 22/01; 22/02; 22/03 | |
| July 2023 | 22/02; 22/03; 22/04 | |
This additional payment on account may only be computed against the tax resulting from the affidavit to be filed for fiscal year 2023, for those taxpayers who must determine the payment on account according to their affidavit for fiscal year 2022; or for fiscal year 2024, for those taxpayers who must determine the payment on account according to their affidavit for fiscal year 2023. 2023.
In addition, this payment on account may not be cancelled by offsetting it with credit balances 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 in August 2022, by means of General Resolution No. 5248 of the AFIP, a “one-time” payment on account of Income Tax was also established. On that occasion, the reasons givenwere the “general and extraordinary increase in international prices, especially of commodities, food and energy” as a consequence of the war in Eastern Europe.
Now, in this new version 2023, it is argued that in the context created from the “implementation of various public policies aimed at consolidating the economic recovery, the country began a stage of economic growth that was sustained throughout the year 2022 and continues to the present (…) it has been observed that some economic actors have benefited by obtaining extraordinary income from the production and/or marketing of certain products as well as the provision of certain services”..
Notwithstanding the reasons invoked, the use of the “payment on account” instrument ends up being a tool used by the National Executive Power to create a new tax without a formal law of Congress authorizing it, since it is an excuse to declare inapplicable the rules for the computation of losses that the Income Tax Law itself provides, and whose main purpose is to avoid inequalities in the liquidation of the tax derived from the temporary rules for the attribution of profits, by considering the economic cycles of positive and negative results for its liquidation.
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 by means of a tax execution lawsuit.
However, there are strong grounds to proceed with its preventive challenge in court.
