The Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation resolved this Thursday a case that establishes jurisprudence on the collection of municipal taxes, a tool used by thousands of mayors throughout Argentina to increase their collection in times of economic crisis due to a drop in activity.
The decision is especially relevant due to the dispute that the national government faced against the mayors Peronists from the Buenos Aires suburbs, who overloaded electricity, gas and fuel prices with municipal taxes to ensure their effective collection and a better time in the midst of the fiscal adjustment faced by Javier Milei.
The supreme judges granted a complaint by Banco Galicia against the municipality of Córdoba, declared its extraordinary appeal admissible and revoked the appealed ruling of the Superior Court of Justice of the province of Córdoba.
The case originated in 2008, 18 years agowhen the mayor of Córdoba determined a tax adjustment to Banco Galicia for the “Contribution that affects Commercial, Industrial and Services activity”, provided for in article 231 of the Municipal Tax Code, for the periods from December 2001 to October 2005, plus interest and a fine.
The taxpayer appealed to the provincial court of justice, which validated the rate, and complained to the Supreme Court, understanding that the basic characteristics of a tax to be considered a rate were being ignored, since it does not correspond to the provision of a specific service (not diluted in the mass of administered), effective (not formulated in a potential way) and individualized (provided individually to each of the taxpayers).
Judge Horacio Rosatti, with his vote, and the recurrence of Carlos Rosenkrantz and Ricardo Lorenzetti, They revoked the sentence of the highest court in Cordoba.
“The tax regulations of the City of Córdoba use a taxation formula of enormous laxity”, The judges evaluated, and recalled a similar previous case, that of the Gasnor distributor against the municipality of La Banda, Santiago del Estero, where “instead of determining the services for which the rate that is created is intended to be charged, it constitutes an alibi to tax activities of taxpayers for whom no service or benefit is provided.”
In his vote, the president of the Supreme Court recalled the guidelines for a municipality to create a rate: