New banking restrictions for expats living in Buenos Aires? Did anyone else get an email from their bank? (UIF Resolution 14/2023)

[James Bond]

I just got an email from my bank saying I need to formally register with AFIP. It is citing UIF Resolution 14/2023 which seeks to prevent money laundering and financing of terrorism. It says they need to better understand my financial situation and origin of my income. It says if I don't register with AFIP (either because I'm unemployed, housewife or a student) then I will only be able to credit 4 times the monthly minimum wage. I think that is only around 820,000 pesos per month or so.

I bank with Santander Rio Bank. Does anyone know how to register with AFIP and if this will have any consequences?

I am getting ready to move to Spain in a few months so I might not hassle with this now but want to know what might happen if I come back after Spain.

 

[Wally]

I got the same email yesterday and I also bank with Santander Rio. I have several other bank accounts and didn't hear yet from the others.

 

[Flamingo]

I just got an email from my bank saying I need to formally register with AFIP. It is citing UIF Resolution 14/2023 which seeks to prevent money laundering and financing of terrorism. It says they need to better understand my financial situation and origin of my income. It says if I don't register with AFIP (either because I'm unemployed, housewife or a student) then I will only be able to credit 4 times the monthly minimum wage. I think that is only around 820,000 pesos per month or so.

I bank with Santander Rio Bank. Does anyone know how to register with AFIP and if this will have any consequences?

I am getting ready to move to Spain in a few months so I might not hassle with this now but want to know what might happen if I come back after Spain.

I don't bank with them. But it sounds like Milei's administration is pushing for more changes. When I heard that IRS and AFIP were going to share info I thought it would never happen but it sounds like Milei is serious and will push for this sooner rather than later. Does anyone know what the UIF office does?

 

[Vero]

I don't bank with them. But it sounds like Milei's administration is pushing for more changes. When I heard that IRS and AFIP were going to share info I thought it would never happen but it sounds like Milei is serious and will push for this sooner rather than later. Does anyone know what the UIF office does?

Yes changes are already happening. The UIF acts as a sort of Financial Intelligence Unit. Their main job lies in the detection and prevention of illicit financial activities, notably money laundering, terrorism financing, and tax evasion. Recent discrepancies between your transactional records and income data reported to AFIP have likely prompted a "Know Your Customer" audit from Santander or possibly an order from the UIF for an audit, although the latter seems unlikely given your current transactional allowances.

Both parties involved must provide convincing evidence to Santander to validate the legitimacy of their financial activities. This entails demonstrating that income is lawfully earned and subject to taxation, or if non-taxable, providing substantiated explanations for its origin and exemption status.

If you're getting Social Security or pension payments then a sworn statement -Declaración Jurada electrónica (DDJJ) verifying the source of income as monthly Social Security Insurance (SSI) payments coupled with SSI statements should suffice. Given that the income is non-taxable, the procedure is expected to proceed smoothly, barring any additional undisclosed income sources.

However, if the income source is not as straightforward as SSI checks and potentially involves undeclared income, immediate consultation with a qualified accountant is imperative. Engaging in unreported employment and tax evasion can have severe repercussions, necessitating swift action to rectify the situation.

Regardless of the individual circumstances, this serves as a cautionary tale for individuals contemplating remote work for foreign entities without adhering to local tax regulations. Attempting to circumvent tax obligations and utilizing banking facilities without due diligence can result in dire consequences. Working off the books, receiving income via unconventional channels, and neglecting tax responsibilities are common pitfalls leading to scrutiny from regulatory bodies like the UIF. Prudence dictates compliance with tax obligations, even if modest, to avoid being flagged by financial institutions. The potential repercussions of being blacklisted far outweigh the nominal costs associated with tax compliance.

 

[Che Vos]

My father accountant. He say that Santander Rio have many expat clients. They get audited and send notice to all the clients. He say all banks will start get stricter with all their clients as the government want to see who has more money and don't declare it. They will start asking all customers to fill out more declarations

 

[Vince]

My father accountant. He say that Santander Rio have many expat clients. They get audited and send notice to all the clients. He say all banks will start get stricter with all their clients as the government want to see who has more money and don't declare it. They will start asking all customers to fill out more declarations

If it Is a blanket email they sent to all their clients that will be good but probably at some point we will all have to fill out additional paperwork which shouldn't be a big deal as the government is mostly looking to avoid illicit activity like drug trafficking and arms dealers but most likely just want to get their slice of assets held abroad. I know many expats only declared their social security payments but have other funds or investments abroad.

They might be having significant funds flowing through their local bank accounts and only declaring a smaller portion. I read on another forum that someone said they filled out a Form called 8-743, "Prevención del Lavado de Activos y Financiación del Terrorismo Formulario Complementario de Perfil de Riesgo - Cuestonario Para Persona Fisica.

I will ask my bank about that form. I guess you can just open up several bank accounts at different banks to get around these maximum limits?

 

[Jeb Spencer]

This is the reason I try to do very little with my local bank account except pay my monthly expenses and utility bills that I can't pay with my credit card. I do very little through my local bank account. I utilize Western Union and also use my cueva quite a bit when I need to get cash here. It is worth it to pay a little bit more and not have to deal with the scrutiny of AFIP.

Does anyone know if WU will have more restrictions as well? Even though I have a DNI I just use my foreign passport to get funds.

 

[Silvia]

This is the reason I try to do very little with my local bank account except pay my monthly expenses and utility bills that I can't pay with my credit card. I do very little through my local bank account. I utilize Western Union and also use my cueva quite a bit when I need to get cash here. It is worth it to pay a little bit more and not have to deal with the scrutiny of AFIP.

Does anyone know if WU will have more restrictions as well? Even though I have a DNI I just use my foreign passport to get funds.

Same. People don't realize but AFIP works with the banks to see all your activity. If you only claim to make 1,200,000 pesos a month but you are spending 3,000,000 pesos per month consistently in your local accounts you are going to have issues. Why do you think they always ask for locals DNI #'s at the check out lanes. This is the reason why so many locals pay everything with cash. They don't want a paper trail of anything.

Does anyone know how closely Western Union payments are scrutinized?

 

[Faith]

I am married to a local and he is always adamant about using cash for most things. All his family is like that as well. Even if we are going to an expensive restaurant they will carry around cash but they said it is better that the government not interfere or know how much they are spending. They all have legitimate businesses but it seems like locals just have that engrained in their minds and it seems like even if you want to do everything 100% in blanco here it is virtually impossible to do that.

My husband also worried because I have some assets outside Argentina which we probably won't declare because Argentina has asset taxes. I am not sure how they would know I own these assets as some are in trusts but my husband freaks out about this all the time.

I would be curious how much autonomy AFIP has with President Milei's administration?

 

[MikeRoss]

But this sounds like it's as simple as just filling out a form yes? Is underreporting income or tax evasion that common here??

 

[Wally]

But this sounds like it's as simple as just filling out a form yes? Is underreporting income or tax evasion that common here??

Ha! Yes. Very few (if any) locals declare what they actually make. There are many companies that pay their employees in black or at least a big portion of their employees salaries are under the table to avoid taxes.

This is a huge problem in Argentina. I would say this is the norm here and even the few people that declare everything, they probably would find it a nightmare to be scrutinized. Most of my friends also pay cash for everything they can.

 

[No Pesos]

I also got the email today from Santander Rio. I got worried at first but after reading this post it seems like they are sending it to everyone. I don't use my account too much at all. Are all of you following up or filling out paperwork? I would rather avoid that. Is any action needed on our parts? I do not work in Argentina or earn income here at all but I do have income in the US that I don't declare at all in Argentina and I don't think it makes sense to declare this income as I pay taxes in the US.

 

[Rick]

I have just about had it with this country. So much corruption and things don't make sense at all. I have family that is going through the process for residency here and it is almost impossible to even open up a bank account to comply with regulations from Migraciones so they can get a DNI. None of the banks will open a bank account without the DNI first. It's a daisy chain of confusion.

We had to ultimately hire an attorney to deal with this bureaucracy. So many things like this here. I read about some others experience opening up a bank account under threats but that hasn't worked for them. Half the time I think the system is all purposely crazy and corrupt on purpose here.

 

[Vince]

I have just about had it with this country. So much corruption and things don't make sense at all. I have family that is going through the process for residency here and it is almost impossible to even open up a bank account to comply with regulations from Migraciones so they can get a DNI. None of the banks will open a bank account without the DNI first. It's a daisy chain of confusion.

We had to ultimately hire an attorney to deal with this bureaucracy. So many things like this here. I read about some others experience opening up a bank account under threats but that hasn't worked for them. Half the time I think the system is all purposely crazy and corrupt on purpose here.

For sure things here can be confusing but there have been recent posts about people opening up a bank account without having a DNI. But I don't know if things have changed lately. My sister in law works with the government and she said the past week or 2 many changes have been coming, She said Milei is uncovering corruption and rampant theft of government funds in just about everything. She said they are all shocked at the level of theft by the previous administrations so they are clamping down and changes are coming down pipeline she said. What changes I am not sure. Over the long run these changes should all be good.

 

[Wally]

For sure things here can be confusing but there have been recent posts about people opening up a bank account without having a DNI. But I don't know if things have changed lately. My sister in law works with the government and she said the past week or 2 many changes have been coming, She said Milei is uncovering corruption and rampant theft of government funds in just about everything. She said they are all shocked at the level of theft by the previous administrations so they are clamping down and changes are coming down pipeline she said. What changes I am not sure. Over the long run these changes should all be good.

It sounds like Milei and his team are cracking down on undeclared income. I am reading online of some expats that have been wiring in funds with Western Union to their local bank account for many years and their bank has notified them that the jig is up and they have not declared any income with AFIP. I would assume that banks are going to start shutting down bank accounts with this scenario. The funny thing is a member on the old forum admits to tax evasion and has a photo of his face. Sheer stupidity!

Many people are getting emails or letters. I am copy and pasting a post I saw from a poster called Quilombo on the old forum.

Click to expand...

Not a lawyer/accountant as always:

So, this is exactly the scenario I've been warning people on here about happening, not judging, but you need to sort this out ASAP before you get the UIF on you, they can blacklist you from ever having any bank accounts or digital wallets, close all your accounts, seize your digital assets, and refer you to AFIP for prosecution. This doesn't appear to be the case yet, it's just your bank knowing you've been bullshitting them and evading taxes, so take advantage of this to at the very least be in gris.

Some things to keep in mind are as follows:

- You need to register as a Monotributista
- You need to get a pre-paid medicine plan if you don't have one, it's a requirement if you're a Monotributista
- You need to register with AGIP or ARBA if you're in CABA/PBA to pay the provincial taxes
- You can get up to 12K USD a year in SWIFT payments, the rest will be pesified, and the rate has been 80% at the BCRA rate, and 20% at the CCL rate
- You need to work with an accountant that is familiar with the forms to complete; the pesification requirement occurs AFTER the 12K limit
- Each SWIFT payment is expensive (min $80), and you have to triple check the forms so the transfer isn't pesified or blocked
- You have 5 business days to enter the cash in to the country after receiving payment
- The limit you can currently bill as a Monotributista is about 12,000,000 pesos/year
- Your 12K USD counts against this, and any pesos over it. Once you surpass this amount (or whatever it is in June once updated) you must enter the simplified/general regime and charge VAT (21%) and make retirement contributions for yourself

All this being said, the above is how you do things 100% en blanco, now, nobody does this, and AFIP knows that, but, and I'm just guessing here, you've been doing things 100% en negro, and that's why you've got caught, you bill nothing, you're in your prime working years, and you get hundreds of thousands or millions of pesos each month in your bank account. You can simply chose to live en negro, up to the amount the bank will let you have (I don't recommend this) or you work with an accountant to be en blanco or gris. In the in term, the less you do that is trackable (i.e. more WU transfers) the better until you rectify your tax situation. Use your debit card, and accept the reduced exchange rate as a cost associated with having flaunted the tax rules. (Again, not judging, just saying)

The good news is due to the deal with the IMF, the peso is expected to float in June/July so it's possible the requirement to enter all funds via the MULC could disappear like during the Macri years, but we'll have to see. Milei also wants to return the Monotributista regime back to where it was in the 90s where the upper limit was around 50K USD a year instead of the under 20K it is now (it's been greatly decreasing each year).

This advice is for everyone doing the same: PAY SOMETHING; being 100% en negro is what always causes issues for people here. We can debate what is fair in terms of taxes (and yes, pesifying at the BCRA rate is a tax IMO) but you are putting yourself in a position of creating a paper trail of tax evasion when you don't pay anything, make monthly transfers to a bank account, spend money with debit/credit/digital wallets/etc.

 

[Che Vos]

Today my father say that President Milei instructed all banks to go through all client transactions with all banks to try and see people that declare no or very little money and have a lot transactions or high level activity in their bank accounts. Now government will change things to find people that have lot money and pay no taxes.

 

[Faith]

Today my father say that President Milei instructed all banks to go through all client transactions with all banks to try and see people that declare no or very little money and have a lot transactions or high level activity in their bank accounts. Now government will change things to find people that have lot money and pay no taxes.

I can confirm this is probably happening. My husband got a letter yesterday from our bank asking about some deposits we made in November and December 2023. I made the mistake of depositing some cash in our account to pay for some expenses and also a friend asked a favor to pay something for her and I did it.

It is a good idea not to do any large deposits in your bank account unless you want scrutiny from the bank. This is not aimed at only expats but it seems like anyone that has a bank account here. My husband always told me not to deposit large amounts and only use cash here. I guess he was right.

 

[import export]

My novia also got an email from Santander asking for more details and they want documentation for funds that I sent her in December. I had a work colleague that was heading to Buenos Aires so I asked him to bring some funds. He couldn't meet up with her since she was in Brazil that day he was there so he exchanged cash at a cueva and just deposited the cash into her account. Big mistake. Now they want more details but there are really no details to give.

Apparently she made a big purchase after that with her account and she declares no income on her taxes so they are now going to close her account. This all seems to be new developments in the past few days.

 

[Betsy Ross]

I get the government wants to cut down on undeclared income by locals or people that have bank accounts inside Argentina but I dat on't understand how the pensionista visa process will work now. I have a friend going through the process now and she is complaining because that process requires that she send in a wire transfer every month that is exceeds at least 5 X the minimum salary for Argentina. Presumably this is going to exceed the limit. How will this all work now?

Everything is a mess in Argentina.

 

[Vince]

I get the government wants to cut down on undeclared income by locals or people that have bank accounts inside Argentina but I dat on't understand how the pensionista visa process will work now. I have a friend going through the process now and she is complaining because that process requires that she send in a wire transfer every month that is exceeds at least 5 X the minimum salary for Argentina. Presumably this is going to exceed the limit. How will this all work now?

Everything is a mess in Argentina.

I was hoping this improved with Milei but sounds like his administration is pushing to get rid of people that aren't declaring income and assets.
I am interpreting it similar to you @Betsy Ross. Ask your friend how she is dealing with this. I don't think it's possible to show deposits of 5X the minimum salary with the purpose to apply for the pensionista or rentisa visa without registering monitributo to get around the 4 times minimum salary limit that these banks are saying.

I am damn glad I got permanent residency years ago. It sounds like it will be more difficult now.