Senate of Argentina approves law on income tax | News

The Argentine Senate approved this Thursday the law that modifies the Income Tax, raising the floor of the Non-Taxable Minimum to almost two million pesos, which is equivalent to fifteen minimum, vital and mobile salaries (SMVM) and which will come into force on from 2024.

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The vice president, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, was present at the session. The initiative received the support of 38 votes, contributed by the Frente de Todos, its allies and Federal Unity, while Together for Change demonstrated with 27 votes against, which generated an uproar in the boxes populated by union members, among them Pablo Moyano and Sergio Palazzo.

The project, sent by the Minister of Economy, Sergio Massa, reforms the Income Tax by creating a new tax on income from an amount equivalent to 15 minimum wages, with a progressive rate on the surplus that goes from 27 to 35 percent, which will be updated semiannually.

The main points of the project contemplate the creation of a new "schedular tax on the highest income from work in a dependency relationship, retirements and privilege pensions and others."

Thus, those who obtain the highest income will have the right to deduct only, as a non-taxable minimum, the amount equivalent to 180 minimum wages.

The project determines that the value of the SMVM in force on January 1 must be considered at the beginning of the fiscal period and that the update will be on July 1 of each fiscal year.

It provides that the withholdings made on the highest net income received during the first half of the fiscal year will be adjusted considering the value of the SMVM in force in July.

The new initiative stipulates that in the case of workers in a dependent relationship and for retirees and pensioners included in the tax who live in the provinces of La Pampa, Río Negro, Chubut, Neuquén, Santa Cruz, Tierra del Fuego and the Patagones district, in Buenos Aires, the non-taxable minimum will increase by 22 percent.

The head of the Frente de Todos interbloc, José Mayans, stated that the ruling party decided to "sustain the present State" and added that "these commitments are Constitutional."

"We ratify that salary is not profit and we demand the recovery of the worker's salary. This is a project, nothing more, but it will help workers be a little happier," he added.