Argentina tax payments going digital

All tax payments in Argentina must be made electronically from next year, the country's tax authority Afip said.

The move is part of a process to increase banking penetration and combat tax evasion, Afip head Alberto Abad was quoted as saying by state news agency Télam.

From 2018, "all agencies that collect payments must have a posnet [card payment machine] that permits paying the tax with a debit or credit card," Abad was quoted as saying.

Afip plans to launch within two months a non-cash payment mechanism for the registration of properties. To promote the use of this mechanism, those who pay via electronic means will be charged a smaller transaction fee to those who pay by cash.

Abad said the number of new posnets in the country grew by about 20,000 from January-June.

Panama and Argentina this year agreed to start exchanging tax information from 2018.