Is buying a property and listing a fake price normal in Buenos Aires?

[Tomahawk]

Talk to @BuySellBA and @earlyretirement. I hired them a few times now. I hired them a while back when they were ApartmentsBA and they managed my apartment. One of the owners still manages my property and it still rents consistently. I also used them to sell a few properties there in 2017. It is important to understand how everything works. On 2 apartments that I sold they signed the paperwork for me and I just had the buyer wire to my bank in US. Was much easier than buying.

Thanks! I just contacted them to schedule a meeting. This is all an eye-opener. Many things I didn't think about before.

A part of me says these sellers are trying to squeeze extra cash from the buyer, who if they don't agree to the lowering the written price hope they can manipulate the buyer to offer extra cash to offset the costs. It's a shitty manipulation tactic, to spring an extra expense on someone after an agreement has been reached, but I wouldn't be surprised if that's how some try to justify it. Imagine such a shady seller trying to convince an unsuspecting buyer, "bc I(seller) am paying more in taxes at full sell price, I want you to cover a portion of that difference."

I've had such contractors here in the US try to pull this scam- after agreeing on installation costs of flooring- at the last minute try to sneak an additional charge for the protective coating.

In my case it wasn't the seller trying to squeeze more money. She already signed the written offer and agreed. And then after that the realtor called me to tell me the part about declaring less and being normal. I don't want to use a lower price at all. Even if it is normal here I don't want extra capital gains taxes in the USA. Just seems like a recipe for disaster.

I told the seller I need to research this more but I will probably just look for a different property. I'm bitter about this because I have been looking for over a month now and the buying process here leaves a lot to be desired! I can't tell you how many no shows I have had on property showings.

I wish they had a website like Redfin here. The websites are not dependable or accurate. Even on the apartment that I made an offer on, the monthly expenses were half of the real price listed on zonaprop. Makes me question other things in the listing.

Are property inspections normal here? My realtor said those don't expect here and no one does any and it's what you see is what you get.

 

[Betsy Ross]

A part of me says these sellers are trying to squeeze extra cash from the buyer, who if they don't agree to the lowering the written price hope they can manipulate the buyer to offer extra cash to offset the costs. It's a shitty manipulation tactic, to spring an extra expense on someone after an agreement has been reached, but I wouldn't be surprised if that's how some try to justify it. Imagine such a shady seller trying to convince an unsuspecting buyer, "bc I(seller) am paying more in taxes at full sell price, I want you to cover a portion of that difference."

I've had such contractors here in the US try to pull this scam- after agreeing on installation costs of flooring- at the last minute try to sneak an additional charge for the protective coating.

Funny as that is what I thought when I went through this buying process when I bought mine. I went back and forth negotiating and then once I thought everything was all settled they sprung up the part about using a lower price. Back then there wasn't much information like this forum. So now it is much easier but then no one talked about these kinds of things. ZERO transparency and I thought they were trying to do that to increase the price @FuturoBA but now I realize it is just a crazy part of buying here.

I think it is easier in slower markets like during covid and after it. The market was totally dead and sellers probably didn't have much negotiating power. But now things are flying. My neighbor put her apartment for sale and she sold it quickly and over asking price. I think in a market where things are busy sellers can demand things like this. Locals probably are more willing to do this as they are all accustomed to tax evasion but this is a tougher scenario for those of as that are Americans.

Are property inspections normal here? My realtor said those don't expect here and no one does any and it's what you see is what you get.

Back when I bought I didn't know about any inspection services. I almost feel stupid now not getting one. @Tomahawk you can use the Search feature on this forum and look up certain topics and it works well. You are going to talk to @earlyretirement but he wrote about inspections here.

Apartment buying process confusing in Buenos Aires. Do I need to use the seller's realtor?

300% increase overnight? Wow that is nuts. I do have a few friends in Florida that tell me they can't get coverage there now. Some states have emergency coverage but even that isn't cheap. Seems crazy the amount of inflation in the USA too the last few years. Speaking of insurance, what are...

www.expatsba.com

 

[Oatmeal]

Help. I just found this forum. I am in the middle of buying a condo in Buenos Aires and my offer was accepted by the seller in writing. But now they are telling me that they won't move forward with the transaction unless I use a fake very low price on the title deed! The realtor told me this is normal. The realtor recommended a lawyer to close and that lawyer is also telling me not to worry and this is totally normal here.

This doesn't feel right and I don't know if this is really normal here but the realtor and lawyer said not to worry. Is this really normal here? How can this go on here? The property is $215000 and they want to only use $155,000 dollars on the title deed.

If someone can give me advice.

First off congratulations moving towards home ownership in BA. This is something I plan on doing as well in the foreseeable future. However I want to state a couple of things. What the buyer is doing here is reassigning his obligations to you. At your expense/cost. While this might be common, in short it is playing musical chairs and at some point someone will have to pay. It might or might not be when it is time for YOU to sell. I am not sure if you are fine with how thing do things here but if you are in agreement, there should also be a benefit for YOU.

What I do know from speaking to friends locally, my small amount of research and reading between the lines of other people's experience, there is one certainty. You can not trust anyone in the real estate process to have your interest and to protect you. If anything, expect there is always another agenda in the background at play when it comes to money. In addition, depending on location, it is very VERY common people list a hugely inflated selling price. It is normal to expect a discount. 20-40%. As property sits for a long time, I have personally seen a few houses (which I was interested in) drop listing price of 15% (in a year) by the seller. So I guess what I am trying to say is, don't be surprised and make the aggressive offer but also realize there are plenty of properties if it doesn't work out. The worst they can say is NO. However, keep in mind the real estate agent being 'generally unethical' will lie. Think of the scenarios that might come with this mindset. I have read, someone making the offer, only to be rejected by the agent. When he asked for his deposit back, agent was making excuses. The truth was, the owner did accept, and the agent was playing games to squeeze more money.

I would also consider using some service like @BuySellBA, while I haven't used them, I will for the simple fact on the risks when it comes to your money. Also DO NOT use their escribano. I have even read of escribano refusing to release the funds and almost kept the money for a foreigner. In the end for this person (after threats of calling the embassy and a bunch of stuff), they had to accept a lost of 10% of the amount as escribano and agent said it was an extra fee which was really straight robbery. Even if you have things in writing, sometimes it don't mean sh*t and agents & escribano will just stare at you with headlights. So protect yourself.

Everyone here makes good points but speak to @earlyretirement and hire @BuySellBA for the peace of mind.

Check this out. https://www.deinmobiliarios.com/blog/valor-del-metro-cuadrado-por-barrios-en-caba It tells the average % (selling price) from listing price based on location.

Now I don't know how much true about the discount and reality. This link should be a guideline. I have and owned property in Canada, United States and lived in South America (Colombia) pior to Argentina. South America is quite different from my experience, selling things take a LONG LONG time and buying something and hte actual selling price are very very different. I owned a 2022 BMW in Colombia and when I sold I took a huge loss, while it can be argued it is not a popular car to sell, I had my initial selling price 10% less than the same car being listed in hte whole country for 4 months and it still didn't move. Just many empty promises from car selling agents and dealerships which don't even Buy the car like in the US/Canada.

 

[earlyretirement]

First off congratulations moving towards home ownership in BA. This is something I plan on doing as well in the foreseeable future. However I want to state a couple of things. What the buyer is doing here is reassigning his obligations to you. At your expense/cost. While this might be common, in short it is playing musical chairs and at some point someone will have to pay. It might or might not be when it is time for YOU to sell. I am not sure if you are fine with how thing do things here but if you are in agreement, there should also be a benefit for YOU.

What I do know from speaking to friends locally, my small amount of research and reading between the lines of other people's experience, there is one certainty. You can not trust anyone in the real estate process to have your interest and to protect you. If anything, expect there is always another agenda in the background at play when it comes to money. In addition, depending on location, it is very VERY common people list a hugely inflated selling price. It is normal to expect a discount. 20-40%. As property sits for a long time, I have personally seen a few houses (which I was interested in) drop listing price of 15% (in a year) by the seller. So I guess what I am trying to say is, don't be surprised and make the aggressive offer but also realize there are plenty of properties if it doesn't work out. The worst they can say is NO. However, keep in mind the real estate agent being 'generally unethical' will lie. Think of the scenarios that might come with this mindset. I have read, someone making the offer, only to be rejected by the agent. When he asked for his deposit back, agent was making excuses. The truth was, the owner did accept, and the agent was playing games to squeeze more money.

I would also consider using some service like @BuySellBA, while I haven't used them, I will for the simple fact on the risks when it comes to your money. Also DO NOT use their escribano. I have even read of escribano refusing to release the funds and almost kept the money for a foreigner. In the end for this person (after threats of calling the embassy and a bunch of stuff), they had to accept a lost of 10% of the amount as escribano and agent said it was an extra fee which was really straight robbery. Even if you have things in writing, sometimes it don't mean sh*t and agents & escribano will just stare at you with headlights. So protect yourself.

Everyone here makes good points but speak to @earlyretirement and hire @BuySellBA for the peace of mind.

Check this out. https://www.deinmobiliarios.com/blog/valor-del-metro-cuadrado-por-barrios-en-caba It tells the average % (selling price) from listing price based on location.

Now I don't know how much true about the discount and reality. This link should be a guideline. I have and owned property in Canada, United States and lived in South America (Colombia) pior to Argentina. South America is quite different from my experience, selling things take a LONG LONG time and buying something and hte actual selling price are very very different. I owned a 2022 BMW in Colombia and when I sold I took a huge loss, while it can be argued it is not a popular car to sell, I had my initial selling price 10% less than the same car being listed in hte whole country for 4 months and it still didn't move. Just many empty promises from car selling agents and dealerships which don't even Buy the car like in the US/Canada.

Thanks @Oatmeal and everyone else for the kind words. People just MUST understand that buying real estate in Argentina isn't the same as back home. As @Oatmeal mentioned, realtors and even many Escribanos here are very shady. Even something as simple as making a reserva/offer and getting that deposit back can be challenging if you have a bad realtor. My firm has often gotten hired to help people that did not take our advice. There are many occasions when realtors try to cheat foreigners. Same thing with Escribanos. I can tell you many horror stories of people that have tried to hire us after a botched purchase. There are almost no room for mistakes on something like a 100% cash purchase.

@Oatmeal, the making much lower offer is not really happening in desirable areas in the city. Property is mostly priced price per m2 in CABA however, with bigger houses in the northern suburbs the market is much smaller and those houses can sit on the market for years. So out there prices can fluctuate more. It doesn't hurt to make a lower offer at all. Besides people relocating back to Argentina and have kids and want to be out there, we almost never buy real estate out there. Most people that come to Buenos Aires are buying in the center of the city.

The case that @Oatmeal mentioned about the Escribano not wanting to give back the money happens from time to time. As mentioned, it's never a good idea to use the Escribano that the realtor is recommending. Remember the Escribano doesn't get paid a penny until the final closing/escritura. So you have to have an Escribano that is ethical enough to check all the liens and encumbrances of the property and if there is a problem informing you in which case they will make $0. Many escribanos just aren't ethical enough to do that.

 

[Tomahawk]

Back when I bought I didn't know about any inspection services. I almost feel stupid now not getting one. @Tomahawk you can use the Search feature on this forum and look up certain topics and it works well. You are going to talk to @earlyretirement but he wrote about inspections here.

Very helpful! Thank you. I just read it. I will use that company if I move forward with the purchase. I definitely will do an inspection. This is required back home.

First off congratulations moving towards home ownership in BA. This is something I plan on doing as well in the foreseeable future. However I want to state a couple of things. What the buyer is doing here is reassigning his obligations to you. At your expense/cost. While this might be common, in short it is playing musical chairs and at some point someone will have to pay. It might or might not be when it is time for YOU to sell. I am not sure if you are fine with how thing do things here but if you are in agreement, there should also be a benefit for YOU.

Thank you so much Oatmeal. I agree it is musical chairs. Good way to look at it. I can't afford to get stuck paying huge capital gain here and the USA. I heard property prices could double in the next few years. Imagine that capital gains tax plus the fake gains by using a low price. Thanks for the well wishes. I hope I can make this work out.

Thanks @Oatmeal and everyone else for the kind words. People just MUST understand that buying real estate in Argentina isn't the same as back home. As @Oatmeal mentioned, realtors and even many Escribanos here are very shady. Even something as simple as making a reserva/offer and getting that deposit back can be challenging if you have a bad realtor. My firm has often gotten hired to help people that did not take our advice. There are many occasions when realtors try to cheat foreigners. Same thing with Escribanos. I can tell you many horror stories of people that have tried to hire us after a botched purchase. There are almost no room for mistakes on something like a 100% cash purchase.

@Oatmeal, the making much lower offer is not really happening in desirable areas in the city. Property is mostly priced price per m2 in CABA however, with bigger houses in the northern suburbs the market is much smaller and those houses can sit on the market for years. So out there prices can fluctuate more. It doesn't hurt to make a lower offer at all. Besides people relocating back to Argentina and have kids and want to be out there, we almost never buy real estate out there. Most people that come to Buenos Aires are buying in the center of the city.

The case that @Oatmeal mentioned about the Escribano not wanting to give back the money happens from time to time. As mentioned, it's never a good idea to use the Escribano that the realtor is recommending. Remember the Escribano doesn't get paid a penny until the final closing/escritura. So you have to have an Escribano that is ethical enough to check all the liens and encumbrances of the property and if there is a problem informing you in which case they will make $0. Many escribanos just aren't ethical enough to do that.

Thank you for all the advice. I am looking forward to speaking to your office.

 

[Wally]

First off congratulations moving towards home ownership in BA. This is something I plan on doing as well in the foreseeable future. However I want to state a couple of things. What the buyer is doing here is reassigning his obligations to you. At your expense/cost. While this might be common, in short it is playing musical chairs and at some point someone will have to pay. It might or might not be when it is time for YOU to sell. I am not sure if you are fine with how thing do things here but if you are in agreement, there should also be a benefit for YOU.

This is a good way to describe it. It is the last sucker that can't use a fake price. Also one of my friends who is an escribano just told me the government is cracking down on this. He told me that they have threatened them with possibly losing their license if they get caught up in this. With Milei they are making things more efficient and cutting down on fraud. What might have been ok for decades could be changing.

I don't know what penalties and risks there are for a buyer but for the escribano there is a huge risk of losing their license. Argentina is changing.

 

[Digital Nomad]

I don't know what penalties and risks there are for a buyer but for the escribano there is a huge risk of losing their license. Argentina is changing.

It seems to be so widespread here to underreport the price. I looked at a few places and on 2 that I was serious about, I specifically asked about this and in both of them they said I would need to use a much lower price. Anyone have any idea what the penalties are if the government catches you using a lower price?

 

[Piranha]

It seems to be so widespread here to underreport the price. I looked at a few places and on 2 that I was serious about, I specifically asked about this and in both of them they said I would need to use a much lower price. Anyone have any idea what the penalties are if the government catches you using a lower price?

I talked to a British guy that got busted for using a lower price. He told me he was using a ridiculously low price. About 45% of the real price. He told me that many years went by and they called him in to question him. They told him there were consequences if he lied and asked him to be honest if he did use a fake price. I guess the lawyer got busted in another case and they looked at all the past transactions. He was applying for his permanent residency and was on his last renewal. He said he already had his temporary residency and didn't want to lie.

AFIP made him pay all the past taxes and penalties and some huge interest amount. He said it wasn't so much the actual fees but he got hit with huge penalty and interest payments. He didn't face any other legal problems since he was honest.

I am not sure how they would have proved it if he didn't confess but they asked him to see his bank statements and he said he would have gotten busted anyway if they saw it because outgoing wire transfers were sent. He did get permanent residency too. It sounds like they just wanted the money.

 

[JonJLA]

I talked to a British guy that got busted for using a lower price. He told me he was using a ridiculously low price. About 45% of the real price. He told me that many years went by and they called him in to question him. They told him there were consequences if he lied and asked him to be honest if he did use a fake price. I guess the lawyer got busted in another case and they looked at all the past transactions. He was applying for his permanent residency and was on his last renewal. He said he already had his temporary residency and didn't want to lie.

AFIP made him pay all the past taxes and penalties and some huge interest amount. He said it wasn't so much the actual fees but he got hit with huge penalty and interest payments. He didn't face any other legal problems since he was honest.

I am not sure how they would have proved it if he didn't confess but they asked him to see his bank statements and he said he would have gotten busted anyway if they saw it because outgoing wire transfers were sent. He did get permanent residency too. It sounds like they just wanted the money.

I don't know anything about this but in many places it's not the actual original amount but the penalties and interest that could kill you. Doubt Argentina is going to throw anyone in jail for this sort of thing. They would have to lock up most people that bought a property. Still this is the reason why most lawyers won't go too low. It just opens the door for problems in the future if it's too unbelievable.

My accountant here in Argentina told me Argentina doesn't need any more taxes. The issue could be solved if they just collected the legitimate taxes that are on the books but no one wants to pay them.

It makes sense asking good questions before buying. I have gone through the buying process here a few times but amazed that people won't research in detail and just going along with things the realtor say.

 

[Betsy Ross]

I talked to a British guy that got busted for using a lower price. He told me he was using a ridiculously low price. About 45% of the real price. He told me that many years went by and they called him in to question him. They told him there were consequences if he lied and asked him to be honest if he did use a fake price. I guess the lawyer got busted in another case and they looked at all the past transactions. He was applying for his permanent residency and was on his last renewal. He said he already had his temporary residency and didn't want to lie.

AFIP made him pay all the past taxes and penalties and some huge interest amount. He said it wasn't so much the actual fees but he got hit with huge penalty and interest payments. He didn't face any other legal problems since he was honest.

I am not sure how they would have proved it if he didn't confess but they asked him to see his bank statements and he said he would have gotten busted anyway if they saw it because outgoing wire transfers were sent. He did get permanent residency too. It sounds like they just wanted the money.

I have heard of similar type of incidents. From what I have heard, sometimes AFIP will audit transactions. They already check listing prices of a property vs. closed prices. It probably isn't difficult to check the difference and if the % is vastly different they might check. Apparently, AFIP inspectors would go to realtors or lawyers that handled the transaction and they could probably pay some fee to avoid issues. Lots of stories of AFIP blackmailing business owners if they didn't pay.

Now that they are reforming AFIP maybe this sort of thing will not be common. Flip side is they will probably utilize technology more and can automate the process if people are too far below. I think it would be difficult to know for sure because there is no way to prove it if all parties stick to the same story. But it might get to be like the USA where people just fear the IRS and that fear prompts them not to try to cheat.

 

[Pink Panther]

I talked to a British guy that got busted for using a lower price. He told me he was using a ridiculously low price. About 45% of the real price. He told me that many years went by and they called him in to question him. They told him there were consequences if he lied and asked him to be honest if he did use a fake price. I guess the lawyer got busted in another case and they looked at all the past transactions. He was applying for his permanent residency and was on his last renewal. He said he already had his temporary residency and didn't want to lie.

AFIP made him pay all the past taxes and penalties and some huge interest amount. He said it wasn't so much the actual fees but he got hit with huge penalty and interest payments. He didn't face any other legal problems since he was honest.

I am not sure how they would have proved it if he didn't confess but they asked him to see his bank statements and he said he would have gotten busted anyway if they saw it because outgoing wire transfers were sent. He did get permanent residency too. It sounds like they just wanted the money.

I also know some purchases they check even if many years later. I spoke to a foreigner that also had something similar happen. The issue seems to be that locals are much better liars than foreigners. Foreigners have their heads wired to be scared when dealing with tax authorities and tax evasion back home can involve jail time. He also had to pay some penalty. They did not check until he was selling his property.

I don't think the difficult part is getting cash here with cuevas. Anyone can do that. The difficult part seems to be if they check how the cash entered Argentina. If it wasn't legal and they check when you sell your property that seems to be where people run into problems. He had to pay some big penalty before he could sell his property.

People should talk to a good Escribano when buying and understand all the risks. Many people breaking the law just out of the sake of the excuse that everyone does it which is not an excuse.

 

[earlyretirement]

Many great points on this thread. All of you are correct about some people thinking they are in the clear because years go by and then later getting asked about a transaction. The key in Argentina to note is not how easy something is when you are buying or who the President is in office when you bought it. It is really a matter of who is President when you sell the property. Property rights are well respected here in Argentina and I've never seen any cases in 22 years where an individual had issues with the property.

However, we have received many emails and phone calls of foreigners that are having issues when they sell the property because they listened to bad advice from the Realtor or Escribano. Most of the time these people just want you to close so they can make their commission. They often times just lie and give you bad advice.

Many times they just say that "everyone does it this way" and even though it's illegal "you will be fine". In many cases we have seen, this has gotten the buyer into trouble later or especially when they sell. President Milei has eased restrictions and foreigners no longer have to get a permit to sell their property. This was great. But there is no guarantee that the next administration won't change things back. This is why it's especially important to do things legally and structure things to avoid problems. I've purchased for myself and my clients over 700+ properties now over 22 years in Argentina. None of them had issues when buying or selling and that is because things were structured properly.

This isn't to say anyone will have issues. But Argentina is a complicated country and it's best to structure things so that you are following the laws. Things like declaring much lower prices while common is still illegal so you have to follow good judgement and make sure it's not too low. Also, you have to take note of how you brought the cash into Argentina.

Argentina has had strict currency controls in place for many years. It is important that you do things as clean as possible to avoid problems later. And remember the most important person in the process is the Escribano. They have a very important role in making sure that they are checking not only the property but also to see if the building administration has any liens/encumbrances with anyone including contractors, utility providers (water/gas/electricity). Once you close with an issue, it's very difficult to solve after the fact.

 

[Finance Prof]

First off congratulations moving towards home ownership in BA. This is something I plan on doing as well in the foreseeable future. However I want to state a couple of things. What the buyer is doing here is reassigning his obligations to you. At your expense/cost. While this might be common, in short it is playing musical chairs and at some point someone will have to pay. It might or might not be when it is time for YOU to sell. I am not sure if you are fine with how thing do things here but if you are in agreement, there should also be a benefit for YOU.

What I do know from speaking to friends locally, my small amount of research and reading between the lines of other people's experience, there is one certainty. You can not trust anyone in the real estate process to have your interest and to protect you. If anything, expect there is always another agenda in the background at play when it comes to money. In addition, depending on location, it is very VERY common people list a hugely inflated selling price. It is normal to expect a discount. 20-40%. As property sits for a long time, I have personally seen a few houses (which I was interested in) drop listing price of 15% (in a year) by the seller. So I guess what I am trying to say is, don't be surprised and make the aggressive offer but also realize there are plenty of properties if it doesn't work out. The worst they can say is NO. However, keep in mind the real estate agent being 'generally unethical' will lie. Think of the scenarios that might come with this mindset. I have read, someone making the offer, only to be rejected by the agent. When he asked for his deposit back, agent was making excuses. The truth was, the owner did accept, and the agent was playing games to squeeze more money.

Correct @Oatmeal. I think buying here in Argentina is a crazy process with all this cash. I was surprised when I was buying my apartment in BA there is no escrow service that holds the money. Just about everything is different here and most foreigners just go along with it and don't understand things. The advice of a very good lawyer/escribano is very important and remember they need to do all of these checks with the property before you do the down payment because this money is going directly to the seller!

Lots of cons here and most of them won't benefit you as the buyer. Currency controls don't sound like they aren't going to be lifted until next year so there is still a while before it will be easy. Don't just go with a realtor's advice to just wire in with a cueva. That might be a solution but you have to understand that is technically illegal.

 

[muchacho]

Help. I just found this forum. I am in the middle of buying a condo in Buenos Aires and my offer was accepted by the seller in writing. But now they are telling me that they won't move forward with the transaction unless I use a fake very low price on the title deed! The realtor told me this is normal. The realtor recommended a lawyer to close and that lawyer is also telling me not to worry and this is totally normal here.

This doesn't feel right and I don't know if this is really normal here but the realtor and lawyer said not to worry. Is this really normal here? How can this go on here? The property is $215000 and they want to only use $155,000 dollars on the title deed.

If someone can give me advice.

It's the 70/30 rule.
You pay 100 but report only 70.
You pay tax on 70. The buyer pays capital appreciation tax based on the lower report sales value: the 70. When it comes time for you to sell the property, you do the same.

 

[Finance Prof]

It's the 70/30 rule.
You pay 100 but report only 70.
You pay tax on 70. The buyer pays capital appreciation tax based on the lower report sales value: the 70. When it comes time for you to sell the property, you do the same.

Yep, this is almost always how it is done. When I bought my place I had a 30% boleto down payment. I didn't even notice at the time that this 70%/30% rule corresponds to the boleto. Makes sense. All the paperwork matches and they destroy the initial offer and they made me and the seller bring the boleto that we signed and the lawyer destroyed it right in front of us. It is funny how that works.

I was also told you are supposed to pay 21% vat tax on the realtor's fee and the legal fee. I balked at this and the realtor quickly agreed not to charge it but they did not give me any receipt. The lawyer told me they had to charge 21% but she made it on paper like she was charging me less.

Crazy country when it comes to tax evasion.

 

[fetch rover]

It's the 70/30 rule.
You pay 100 but report only 70.
You pay tax on 70. The buyer pays capital appreciation tax based on the lower report sales value: the 70. When it comes time for you to sell the property, you do the same.

It has been like this for a long time. My brother in law is going through the buying process now looking to buy a condo in Buenos Aires and he is facing the same thing with owners wanting to declare fake lower prices.

 

[Avocado]

It's the 70/30 rule.
You pay 100 but report only 70.
You pay tax on 70. The buyer pays capital appreciation tax based on the lower report sales value: the 70. When it comes time for you to sell the property, you do the same.

Is like this. Some people now want to declare full price for make white money and clean it now but people always try use lower price.

 

[Tomahawk]

Thank you to everyone that gave me advice on this post. I just met and did a consultation and I understand things now. It was very confusing, especially on understanding everything with the payment of an apartment in cash. Thank you to all for all the good advice.

 

[Mother Russia Argentina]

This also my experience. Just remember that some notaries that handle the closing want to see how you bring in cash. Some don't care how you bring it in and say you're problem but one notary I talked to said she needs declaration form signed that cash was brought legally so she doesn't have liability later. I don't know if all notary have same form.

 

[Wally]

This also my experience. Just remember that some notaries that handle the closing want to see how you bring in cash. Some don't care how you bring it in and say you're problem but one notary I talked to said she needs declaration form signed that cash was brought legally so she doesn't have liability later. I don't know if all notary have same form.

My wife's brother is an Escribano. He said the government has emphasized penalties if they break the law. I don't think the government really cared too much before but they are getting more and more careful about things. I asked him if people will ever stop declaring lower and he said with mortgages now becoming bigger part of transactions they will start using true prices on all of those. On other transactions he said it still isn't wise to go less than 70%. He won't do any for less than that.

Best is if you can find a seller with foreign account. If not, you'll have to go through a financial company and use the bond market and they will charge you a fee for that. But it is legal. The problem is not all sellers want to go that route. Most just want cash without having to provide much paperwork. If you go through the bond route there is a lot of paperwork that the seller needs to provide too.