This Friday, the Customs Control and Collection Agency (ARCA) regulated the Consumer Tax Transparency Regime which will come into force on January 1, 2025. According to this regulation, merchants must include in the tickets, invoices and vouchers they issue a breakdown of the national taxes paid by the consumer, including VAT.
Although the resolution states that the implementation of the -mandatory- measure will be done in a phased manner, extending until the beginning of April, thehe supermarkets came out to warn that, at this time of the year, it is quite difficult to put it into practice on schedule.
The Association of United Supermarkets (ASU) recognized that the initiative is “satisfactory” since it “allows the consumer to visualize the tax burden they are paying.” But “the change implies modifications in the systems of the obligated chains that, together with the time of year in which it must be implemented, with greater sales, generate extraordinary IT stress and enormous operational difficulties to try to resolve in a very limited period (11 business days) given that effective and complete tests can only be carried out after the publication of the standard with its details and particularities,” said the entity that brings together the main chains in a statement. .
For this reason, the entity pointed out that “in this difficult context, the greatest efforts are being made, and where appropriate, the particular situations derived from what was previously expressed must be considered,” it noted.
Furthermore, the entity warned that “over-information on shelf straps can generate distortions in the effect that such a laudable initiative seeks.” And reaffirmed that “experience indicates that “Overinformation can end up leading to misinformation.”
Finally, ASU recalled that several of its members maintain administrative and judicial resources to reverse the distortions that the tax burden at the provincial and municipal level has on the activity and the final price paid by consumers.
On the other hand, the Argentine Chamber of Commerce and Services (CAC) came out to express “its positive assessment of the tax transparency regime” provided for in the Law of Palliative and Relevant Fiscal Measures No. 27,743 (known as “Fiscal Package”) and which recently It was regulated by an ARCA resolution.
In this regard, the head of the CAC, Natalio Mario Grinman, said: “The very high tax pressure registered by the national economy is a hindrance to the growth of companies, the generation of employment and economic and social progress. We Argentines have suffered from the fiscal voracity of numerous governments that have had a key ally: the opacity of the burden. I mean that many taxes are not clearly perceived by citizens.”
According to Grinman, “workers’ complaints regarding the Income Tax are numerous – and understandable –; while a tax as relevant as VAT, which often has a much greater impact than that on the family economy, It often ‘goes under the radar’ of end consumers.. This tax is not detected and frequently They blame merchants for prices they consider excessively high, when in reality, to a large extent, commerce, more than a seller of a product, acts as a kind of delegation of the collection agencies of the different levels of the State,” he also stated in a statement.
“Clarifying a situation is progress to then correct it; Demonstrating the excessive tax burden is the first step towards future reduction. We do not expect tax pressure to drop substantially overnight. But it will help so that little by little, when circumstances make it possible, the burden of taxes will be reduced, benefiting the country as a whole,” Grinman considered.