TABLE OF CONTENTS 3

TABLE OF CONTENTS 3
Table of Contents
About the Global Forum . 5 Executive Summary . 7 Introduction11 Information and methodology used for the peer review of Argentina.11 Overview of Argentina. 12 Recent developments17 Compliance with the Standards 19 A. Availability of Information 19 Overview 19 A.1. Ownership and identity information 20 A.2. Accounting records 38 A.3. Banking information 42 B. Access to Information . 45 Overview 45 B.1. Competent Authoritys ability to obtain and provide information . 46 B.2. Notification requirements and rights and safeguards. 54 C. Exchanging Information 57 Overview 57 C.1. Exchange of information mechanisms 58 C.2. Exchange of information mechanisms with all relevant partners 68 C.3. Confidentiality 70 C.4. Rights and safeguards of taxpayers and third parties. 75 C.5. Timeliness of responses to requests for information 76
PEER REVIEW REPORT COMBINED PHASE1 AND PHASE 2 REPORT ARGENTINA OECD 2013
4 TABLE OF CONTENTS Summary of Determinations and Factors Underlying Recommendations. 85 Annex 1: Jurisdictions Response totheReport . 89 Annex 2: List of Exchange of Information Mechanisms 91 Annex 3: List of Laws, Regulations and Other Relevant Material . 96 Annex 4: Persons Interviewed During the On-Site Visit . 97 Annex 5: F low Diagram of the Process of Management Applicable to Incoming Requests. 98
ABOUT THE GLOBAL FORUM 5
About the Global Forum

The Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes is the multilateral framework within which work in the area of tax transparency and exchange of information is carried out by over 120 jurisdictions, which participate in the Global Forum on an equal footing. The Global Forum is charged with in-depth monitoring and peer review of the implementation of the international standards of transparency and exchange of information for tax purposes. These standards are primarily reflected in the 2002 OECD Model Agreement on Exchange of Information on Tax Matters and its commentary, and in Article26 of the OECD Model Tax Convention on Income and on Capital and its commentary as updated in 2004. The standards have also been incorporated into the UN Model Tax Convention. The standards provide for international exchange on request of foreseeably relevant information for the administration or enforcement of the domestic tax laws of a requesting party. Fishing expeditions are not authorised but all foreseeably relevant information must be provided, including bank information and information held by fiduciaries, regardless of the existence of a domestic tax interest or the application of a dual criminality standard. All members of the Global Forum, as well as jurisdictions identified by the Global Forum as relevant to its work, are being reviewed. This process is undertaken in two phases. Phase1 reviews assess the quality of a jurisdictions legal and regulatory framework for the exchange of information, while Phase2 reviews look at the practical implementation of that framework. Some Global Forum members are undergoing combined Phase1 and Phase2 reviews. The Global Forum has also put in place a process for supplementary reports to followup on recommendations, as well as for the ongoing monitoring of jurisdictions following the conclusion of a review. The ultimate goal is to help jurisdictions to effectively implement the international standards of transparency and exchange of information for tax purposes. All review reports are published once adopted by the Global Forum. For more information on the work of the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes, and for copies of the published review reports, please refer to www.oecd.org/tax/transparency and www.eoi-tax.org.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 7
Executive Summary
1. This report summarises the legal and regulatory framework for transparency and exchange of information in Argentina as well as the practical implementation of that framework. The international standard, which is set out in the Global Forums Terms of Reference to Monitor and Review Progress Towards Transparency and Exchange of Information, is concerned with the availability of relevant information within a jurisdiction, the competent authoritys ability to gain access to that information, and in turn, whether that information can be effectively exchanged in a timely manner with its exchange of information partners. 2. The Argentine Republic is the second largest country of South America, with a population of 40.6million and an economy driven by its export-oriented agriculture. 3. The legal and regulatory framework for the availability of information in Argentina is in place. All information about the owners and other stakeholders of relevant entities or arrangements is available at any time through the tax administration, as a result of a well developed systematic information gathering system. In 2012 the tax administration strengthened existing measures that ensured the reporting of identity information related to domestic trust-like fideicomisos to the tax administration, and introduced similar reporting obligations for any foreign trust with a resident trustee. Companies, like all other commercial entities, must keep their accounting documents and underlying documentation for at least ten years. Banks and other financial institutions are subject to know-your-customer obligations and must keep information about transactions carried out by their customers for 10years (PartA of the report). 4. The Argentinean authorities make use of their broad powers available for domestic taxation purposes in order to exchange information. The Argentinean tax administration can access accounting and banking information and data on the ownership of legal entities, pursuant to the Tax Procedure Law.
8 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
5. Argentina has a network of agreements for exchange of information in tax matters with 52partner jurisdictions pursuant to double tax conventions (DTC), tax information exchange agreements (TIEA) and the Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters (the Multilateral Convention). Only half of these are in force, but Argentina ratified the Multilateral Convention on 30May 2012 and has indicated that the ratification instrument will be deposited shortly in order to bring the Convention into force in respect of Argentina. Argentina continues to expand its network of exchange of information instruments, with negotiations underway with additional jurisdictions. However, Argentina has recently terminated its DTCs with Chile and Spain, two of its main EOI partners, with effect from 1January 2013. This entails a de facto termination of the accompanying inter-institutional TIEAs with the respective EOI partners. Whilst Argentina and Spain will be able to exchange information for tax purposes under the Multilateral Convention once it enters into force in both jurisdictions, there will be no EOI mechanism between Argentina and Chile from 2013. Accordingly, element C.2 is found to be in place, but certain aspects of the legal implementation of the element need improvement. 6. The authority in charge of exchanging information for tax purposes is located within the Federal Administration of Public Revenue. The organisation of the exchange process and the resources devoted to this activity were completely revamped in 2010 and important progress in the handling of requests received from partner jurisdictions has been pursued since 2011. In particular, response times have started to decrease and further improvements are expected with the development of new IT tools and internal guidelines. Local tax auditors in charge of gathering the information that is not already contained in the central tax database of Argentina are also increasingly aware of the importance of EOI, which should further improve the response times of Argentina. 7. It remains that Argentina does not receive a large number of requests: 21 for the period 2009-2011 (on 273persons), from seven treaty partners, mainly Brazil, Chile and Spain. Argentina globally sends more requests than it receives and the number of outgoing requests has been increasing over the last two years. 8. Ultimately, several EOI partners of Argentina praised the quality of its co-operation since the restructuring of its EOI system. Argentina should monitor the functioning of the new EOI Division and internal procedures for answering EOI requests as practice develops, and improve them as necessary.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 9
9. Argentina has been assigned a rating1 for each of the 10 essential elements as well as an overall rating. The ratings for the essential elements are based on the analysis in the text of the report, taking into account the Phase1 determinations and any recommendations made in respect of Argentinas legal and regulatory framework and the effectiveness of its exchange of information in practice. On this basis, Argentina has been assigned the following ratings: Compliant for elements A.1, A.2, A.3, B.1, B.2, C.1, C.3 and C.4, Largely Compliant for element C.2 and Partially Compliant for element C.5. In view of the ratings for each of the essential elements taken in their entirety, the overall rating for Argentina is Largely Compliant.
1.
This report reflects the legal and regulatory framework as at the date indicated on page 1 of this publication. Any material changes to the circumstances affecting the ratings may be included in Annex 1 to this report.
INTRODUCTION 11
Introduction
Information and methodology used for the peer review of Argentina

10. The assessment of the legal and regulatory framework of Argentina and the practical implementation and effectiveness of this framework was based on the international standards for transparency and exchange of information as described in the Global Forums Terms of Reference, and was prepared using the Global Forums Methodology for Peer Reviews and Non-Member Reviews. The assessment was based on the laws, regulations, and exchange of information mechanisms in force or effect as at August2012, other information, explanations and materials supplied by Argentina during the on-site visit that took place on 17-19April 2012, and information supplied by partner jurisdictions. During the on-site visit, the assessment team met with officials and representatives of the relevant Argentinean public agencies, including the Argentinean Tax Administration and the Ministry of Economy and Public Finance (see Annex4). 11. The Terms of Reference break down the standards of transparency and exchange of information into 10essential elements and 31enumerated aspects under three broad categories: (A)availability of information; (B)access to information; and (C)exchanging information. This review assesses Argentinas legal and regulatory framework and the implementation and effectiveness of this framework against these elements and each of the enumerated aspects. In respect of each essential element a determination is made regarding Argentinas legal and regulatory framework that either: (i)the element is in place, (ii)the element is in place but certain aspects of the legal implementation of the element need improvement, or (iii)the element is not in place. These determinations are accompanied by recommendations for improvement where relevant. In addition, to reflect the Phase2 component, recommendations are made concerning Argentinas practical application of each of the essential elements and a rating of either: (i)compliant, (ii)largely compliant, (iii)partially compliant, or (iv)non-compliant is assigned to each element. An overall rating is also assigned to reflect Argentinas overall level of compliance with the standards.
12 INTRODUCTION
12. The assessment was conducted by an assessment team composed of two expert assessors and a representative of the Global Forum Secretariat: Ms. Monica Olsson, Senior tax lawyer, Norwegian Directorate of Taxes; Ms. Oshna Maharaj, Manager, International Development and Treaties, South African Revenue Service; and Ms. Gwenalle LeCoustumer from the Global Forum Secretariat. 13. The ratings assigned in this report were adopted by the Global Forum in November 2013 as part of a comparative exercise designed to ensure the consistency of the results. An expert team of assessors was selected to propose ratings for a representative subset of 50 jurisdictions. Consequently, the assessment teams that carried out the Phase1 and Phase2 reviews were not involved in the assignment of ratings. These ratings have been compared with the ratings assigned to other jurisdictions for each of the essential elements to ensure a consistent and comprehensive approach. The assignment of ratings was also conducted at a different time from those reviews, and the circumstances may have changed in the meantime. Readers should consult Annex1 for information on changes that have occurred.
Overview of Argentina
14. The Argentine Republic is a South American country bordered by Brazil and Uruguay on the North-East, Bolivia and Paraguay on the North and Chile on the West and South. Argentina covers 2.8million square kilometres (the second largest country in South America) and has a population of 40.6million, over a third of which is located in the Buenos Aires province.2 The currency is the Argentine Peso (ARS; on 8June 2012 ARS 1 equal USD0.22 and EUR0.18). 15. After having suffered a severe financial crisis, Argentina devalued the peso in 2002, which raised the competitiveness of Argentinas exports. Argentina also developed a policy of attracting foreign direct investment. Argentinas GDP in 2011 was USD323.4billion, with a GDP per capita of USD8875. It has the third largest economy and the fifth highest nominal GDP per capita in Latin America. Agricultural products account for over half of Argentinas export soybean derivatives comprise the main exports. Other important exports include corn, wheat, transport and cargo vehicles,
2. Figures are taken from the following sources: www.inversiones.gov.ar/en/ investment-guide/; http://un.data.org; and http://stat.wto.org/CountryProfile/ WSDBCountryPFView.aspx?Language=E&Country=AR. According to WTO figures for 2010, they made up Argentinas exports and imports as follows: the EU (imports: 17.3%, exports: 16.4%); China (imports: 13.5%, exports: 8.5%); the USA (imports: 10.8%; 5.4%); Chile (exports: 6.6%); and Mexico (imports: 3.2%).
INTRODUCTION 13
crude oil and petroleum, sunflower seed oil, ship and airplane fuels and lubricants. Manufactured goods comprise over 80% of Argentinas imports with machinery parts, organic chemical products and mineral fuel and oils forming significant import categories. 16. Brazil is Argentinas largest trading partner in terms of both imports and exports; it accounted for over 20% of Argentinas exports and 30% of its imports in 2010. Other main trading partners include the European Union (mainly Germany and the Netherlands, but also Spain for exports and Belgium for imports), China, the United States, Chile (for exports) and Mexico (for imports). Investments into Argentina, which amounted to USD6.3billion in 2010, originate primarily from theEU; the United States; China; Hong Kong, China; Brazil; Singapore and Australia. 17. Argentina is active in the international arena: it is a founding member of the United Nations, Mercado Comn del Sur (Mercosur), the Union of South American Nations, the Organisation of Ibero-American States, the World Bank Group and the World Trade Organisation, and is one of the major G-20 economies.
General information on the legal system

18. Argentina is a representative, democratic, federal Republic comprising 24 jurisdictions: 23Provinces and the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires. Provinces are further divided into municipalities. Provinces are authorised to enact their own constitution and procedural laws. Pursuant to the National Constitution, the 24jurisdictions preserve the power which is not otherwise delegated by the National Constitution to the Federal Government. Exclusive powers of the Nation which are exercised by the Federal Government include, amongst other things, international affairs and the enactment of the Codes (such as Civil Code, Commercial Code and Criminal Code). 19. The Legislative National Power is exercised by a bicameral National Congress members of both the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate are directly elected. The Vice-President, as President of the Senate, is part of the legislature even though he/she is elected on the same ticket as the President. 20. The National Federal Government is headed by a President. Powers, functions and activities of the executive are distributed to auxiliary and administrative organs. Executive power on the provincial level is exercised by the Governor of each Province. 21. The Judiciary Power, on the national level, is in charge of the administration of justice and is a separate and independent branch of the government from the executive and the legislature. The Judiciary Power of the Nation, which has jurisdiction over the entire territory of Argentina, exists in parallel
14 INTRODUCTION
with the judicial power of the Provinces. All matters fall under the autonomous jurisdiction of the Provinces apart from those exceptionally designated as under the Judiciary Power of the Nation. Broadly, cases involving the National Government or any of its agencies, or conflicts between neighbouring Provinces fall within exceptional matters reserved for the Judicial Power of the Nation. Both the federal and the provincial court systems are made up of a Supreme Court, appellate courts and lower courts. The Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation is the highest court of the land it is made up of nine judges who are appointed by the President and approved by the Senate. The Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation has the power to declare legislative acts unconstitutional. Courts are competent in tax cases, depending on the tax law at stake: any litigation related to a federal tax is heard by a federal court, whereas litigation related to provincial taxes are heard by provincial courts. 22. The Argentine legal system is based on the civil law tradition. The hierarchy of legal norms in the Argentine legal system ranks as follows: (i)the National Constitution and International Treaties related to Human Rights;3 (ii)other International Treaties; (iii)the federal and provincial Laws; and (iv)Decrees of the Executive National Power. The National Constitution states that taxes and exemptions from taxes must be established by law. Laws and decrees can further be complemented by resolutions, for instance from the Federal Administration of Public Revenue. Resolutions are binding rules but cannot contradict laws and decrees nor create new tax obligations. 23. National law, under the Civil Code (Article33), provides for the creation of public and private legal entities in Argentina. The regulation of commercial companies is governed by national law under Law No 19.550 integrated into the Commercial Code (see section A.1 below).
Argentinean general tax system

24. Under constitutional principles, three levels of government national, provincial and municipal are empowered to collect taxes in Argentina. Taxes collected by the Federal Government include Income Tax, Tax on Personal Estate, Presumed Minimum Income Tax and Value Added Tax.4 The Federal Administration of Public Revenue (Administracin Federal de Ingresos Pblicos or AFIP) is responsible, on the national level, for the collection and administration of taxes, social security resources and customs duties. Taxes collected at provincial level include Real Estate Tax, Turnover Tax and Stamp Tax. Municipalities are empowered to collect taxes on Commerce, Industry and Services and contributions on vehicles.
3. 4. National Constitution, s.75(22) VAT accounts for 47% of Argentinas federal tax revenue in 2011 whilst income tax accounted for 32%.
INTRODUCTION 15
25. Income Tax, collected at the national level, is applicable to both legal and natural persons (Law No 20.628). The rate of Income Tax applicable to legal persons is 35% of total earnings for those considered resident in Argentina and 35% of Argentine source income for non-resident entities. Natural persons are subject to a progressive Income Tax rate of 9% to 35%, calculated on net income subject to tax. In 2011, the total amount of Income Tax collected amounted to ARS 109billion (USD24billion, EUR19.1billion). Presumed Minimum Income Tax, at an annual rate of 1%, is applicable on all worldwide assets of Argentine-resident companies and on assets located in Argentina which belong to non-resident entities and individuals. Amounts paid as Income Tax may be considered payment on account for Presumed Minimum Income Tax and no further amounts will be payable where the Income Tax amount is greater than the Presumed Minimum Income Tax amount otherwise payable. There is also a simplified tax regime (monotributo) for low revenue taxpayers with gross annual incomes of up to ARS300000 (USD66900, EUR53650), which may apply instead of Income Tax, Value Added Tax and Social Security. 26. For Income Tax purposes, a natural person is considered a resident of Argentina when he/she is (i)Argentine (or a naturalised foreigner); or (ii)a foreigner with a permanent residence permit in Argentina or who has legally resided in the country for twelve months (Income Tax Law, s.119). Argentine nationals lose their Argentine residency if they become permanent residents of a foreign country, or if they stay abroad for 12 uninterrupted months. In relation to legal persons, incorporated business companies and other business forms (such as one-person companies, civil associations, foundations, etc.) are considered resident in Argentina if they are established under the laws of Argentina. Argentine branches of companies established abroad, as well as companies established abroad but with their effective place of management and control in Argentina are also considered resident entities for the purpose of Income Tax. Residents, whether legal or natural persons, are subject to Income Tax on their worldwide income, including their capital gains. Nonresidents, such as foreign companies without a branch or other permanent establishment in Argentina, are subject to Income Tax on their Argentine source income only. This review focuses on tax legislation and administration on the federal, national level, as the DTCs of Argentina cover the federal taxes. 27. The AFIP grants every taxpayer (including both natural and legal persons) a unique taxpayer identification number (clave nica de identificacin tributaria, CUIT) when they register with it. In order to register, taxpayers are required to submit an online application form which contains information including name, address, share capital details, directors and activities performed this is discussed further in PartsA and B.
16 INTRODUCTION
28. The AFIP is the (delegated) competent authority for exchange of information. The AFIP is also empowered to sign TIEAs with other Tax Administrations. In 2010, the International Taxation Directorate under the Sub-Directorate General of Tax Examination was created in AFIP to modernise the control of international transactions. The International Information Management Department was created under this Directorate specifically for the purpose of managing and processing all forms of international information exchanges in tax and customs matters (see sectionC.5 below).
Argentina and the standards

29. Argentina has been part of the Global Forum since its inception. Argentina has bilateral or multilateral exchange of information (EOI) relationships with 52jurisdictions, of which 28 are in force (see Annex2). Argentina is currently negotiating new DTCs and TIEAs. However, Argentina recently terminated its DTCs with Chile and Spain, two of its main EOI partners, with effect from 1January 2013 (see further Recent Developments). 30. Since 2008, Argentina has received 21EOI requests relating to 273persons, from sevenof its treaty partners. The main EOI partners of Argentina are Brazil, Chile and Spain.
Overview of the financial sector and relevant professions

31. Banking deposits in the 64banks in Argentina exceeded USD110billion in 2012 with private banking institutions holding around 60% of the deposits and loans. There are 12 state owned and 52 private banks currently operating in Argentina. Banks and financial institutions (as well as exchange institutions, trust funds and institutions in receivership) are supervised by the Central Bank of the Argentine Republic (BCRA) and the Superintendency of Financial and Foreign Exchange Institutions. Pursuant to Law No21.526, s.7, financial institutions may not carry on business without a licence from the BCRA and are subject to its information, accounting and control requirements. 32. The Stock Exchange (Bolsa de Comercio de Buenos Aires) operates the primary stock exchange in Argentina. Securities exchanges wishing to operate in Argentina must apply for appropriate authorisation from the National Securities Commission of the National Executive Branch. Pursuant to Law No17.811, s.35, only authorised corporations may use the designation of Securities Market and engage in activities pertaining to such institutions. Securities Markets are legally required to keep a Register of Stockbrokers. 33. Entities carrying out insurance and reinsurance activities in Argentina are regulated by the Superintendency of Insurance, an autonomous entity under the Ministry of Economy and Public Finance. As of June 2011,
INTRODUCTION 17
there were 181insurance entities operating in Argentina. The private pension system, which was established in 1994, was nationalised in 2008. 34. In order to practice law in Argentina, lawyers must register with professional bodies for the jurisdiction in which he/she will practice. To practice before national courts, lawyers must register with the Bar Association of the Federal Capital. Accountants must be registered in the respective councils of each jurisdiction in which they operate.
Recent developments
35. Argentina signed the amended OECD/Council of Europe Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters, in November 2011. On 30May 2012, Argentina ratified the Multilateral Convention and Argentina has indicated that the ratification instrument will be deposited shortly. 36. Argentina recently terminated its DTCs with Chile and Spain, two of its main EOI partners, with effect from 1January 2013. This entails a de facto termination of the accompanying inter-institutional TIEAs with the respective EOI partners. There will be no EOI mechanism between Argentina and Chile from 2013 (unless a new EOI agreement is negotiated and put in place by then). 37. As Argentina has ratified the Multilateral Convention, despite the abovementioned termination, Argentina and Spain will be able to exchange information for tax purposes under the Multilateral Convention once it enters into force in both jurisdictions. 38. On 18April 2012, the AFIP passed a new General Resolution n3312 establishing a registration regime which reinforces existing obligations regarding information on the operations of Argentinean fideicomisos and sets out similar reporting obligations in relation to foreign trusts (see further discussion in SectionA.1.4).
COMPLIANCE WITH THE STANDARDS: AVAILABILITY OF INFORMATION 19
Compliance with the Standards
A. Availability of Information
Overview
39. Effective exchange of information requires the availability of reliable information. In particular, it requires information on the identity of owners and other stakeholders as well as information on the transactions carried out by entities and other organisational structures. Such information may be kept for tax, regulatory, commercial or other reasons. If such information is not kept or the information is not maintained for a reasonable period of time, a jurisdictions competent authority5 may not be able to obtain and provide it when requested. This section of the report describes and assesses Argentinas legal and regulatory framework on availability of information. It also assesses the implementation and effectiveness of this framework. 39. All information about the owners and other stakeholders of an entity or arrangement subject to registration and tax obligations in Argentina is available at any time within the tax administration. 40. The most common entities in Argentina are limited liability companies (SRL) and companies limited by shares (SA). The tax administration maintains information on the identity of all the shareholders of these entities. There are no longer any bearer shares in Argentina since all bearer shares
5. The term competent authority means the person or government authority designated by a jurisdiction as being competent to exchange information pursuant to a double tax convention or tax information exchange agreement.
20 COMPLIANCE WITH THE STANDARDS: AVAILABILITY OF INFORMATION

were converted into registered shares 15years ago. Companies, like all other commercial entities, must keep their accounting documents and underlying documentation for at least ten years. 41. The Argentinean law does not recognise trusts but a similar arrangement called fideicomiso was introduced in 1995. Domestic fideicomisos have been subject to identity information reporting obligations since 2008, which ensures the availability of such information relating back to 2005. These obligations are reinforced by measures taken by the tax administration in 2012 that also ensure the registration with the tax administration of identity information on foreign trusts with a resident trustee. 42. Banks and other financial institutions are subject to know-yourcustomer obligations and must keep information about transactions carried out by their customers for 10years. 43. In practice, Argentinas partners are satisfied with the Argentinean responses to their EOI requests and no partner noted that a particular type of information was unavailable in Argentina. Requests received by Argentina since 2009 concern 273persons, and information requested related to SA (44%), individuals (24%), SRLs (17%), other commercial entities (10%) and individuals linked to foundations (5%). Statistics provided by Argentina also show that most EOI requests related to ownership information and financial records (especially because of a request on more than 200persons received from a partner). Other requests related mainly to details of tax registration, real properties, and bank accounts information.
A.1. Ownership and identity information

Jurisdictions should ensure that ownership and identity information for all relevant entities and arrangements is available to their competent authorities.
44. The present section considers the legal and regulatory framework relating to companies, bearer shares in joint-stock companies, partnerships and other legal entities (trusts, foundations, etc.), as well as enforcement provisions to ensure compliance with the laws on the ownership of relevant entities. 45. Entities are classified in two broad categories in Argentinean law: public and private entities. Public entities are the national government, provinces, municipalities, their autonomous entities and the Catholic Church. 46. Private entities are divided between civil and commercial entities. Commercial entities are governed by the Civil Code, the Commercial Code and Law19.550 on Commercial Companies. A commercial company or partnership exists when two or more persons, in an organised fashion, and through one of the corporate types set out in Law19.550, agree to make contributions
to produce or commercialise goods or services, sharing profits and losses. A private entity which is not of a commercial nature is a civil entity. 47. Argentinean companies and partnerships are both legal persons. The distinction between them is depends on whether the creation of the entity is based around the members capital contribution (in companies or sociedades de capital ), or the members themselves (in partnerships or sociedades de personas). In the latter case, the management falls on the members, and equity in the entity cannot be passed freely to third parties. 48. In addition, the notion of trader (comerciante) is key in Argentina commercial law. The Commercial Code defines as traders or businesspersons all individuals who, having legal capacity to contract, perform acts of commerce on their own account and as a habitual profession (s.1), and in general all persons engaged in trade, from a grocer to a bank. An act of commerce underlies, for instance, the acquisition and selling of a movable property for profit; manufacturing; exchange, brokerage and auction transactions. It includes investment activities. Commercial entities and merchants (together traders) are bound by a number of obligations, including registration in the Commercial Register and the requirement to keep accounting records for a minimum of ten years. 49. The Argentinean authorities indicate that almost all requests for ownership information concern companies (SA and SRL). This is consistent with input received from peers. A few requests were also related to individuals linked to foundations or investments in Argentina. No EOI partner of Argentina indicated that they had not received the information requested because this type of information was not available. Information on beneficial ownership also represents 82% of the information requested from Argentina over the last three years, especially because of a request on more than 200persons received from a partner. Other types of identity information requested include checking the residence of the person and the registration of individuals.
Companies (ToR6 A.1.1)

50. Companies (sociedades comerciales) are incorporated pursuant to Law19.550, as: Sociedad annima (SA, Joint Stock Company or Public Limited Company): its capital is divided into shares and each shareholder (individual or corporate, Argentinean of foreign) is liable only up to the limit of the issuing price of his/her shares. The minimum capital is ARS12000 (USD2676, EUR2145) and a majority of directors
6.
Terms of Reference to Monitor and Review Progress Towards Transparency and Exchange of Information

must have their real place of residence in Argentina. SAs can make public offering of securities. (Law N19.550, ss.163-307) Sociedad Annima con participacin estatal mayoritaria (SA or Joint Stock Company with State-owned Majority): an SA in which the national government, the provincial governments, municipalities or state agencies legally authorised to that effect, own individually or jointly shares representing at least 51% of the capital, and these shares are sufficient to prevail in the ordinary and extraordinary shareholders meetings. The rules on SA fully apply except a few provisions on directors (Law N19.550, ss.308-312). Sociedad de responsabilidad limitada (SRL, Limited Liability Company): its capital is represented by shares (cuotas) and each shareholder is liable only up to the value of his/her share. Nonetheless, the partners are jointly and unlimitedly liable for the payment of the full contributions to the share capital as regard any corporate obligations undertaken prior to registration (Section150). There cannot be more than 50members in an SRL. (Law N19.550, ss.146-162). Sociedad en Comandita por acciones (SCA, Partnership Limited by Shares): it is formed by one or more general partners, who are traders and are indefinitely and jointly liable for the partnerships debts and obligations, and limited partners, who are shareholders and bear losses only up to the amount of the capital they subscribed. Only the capital contributions of limited partners are represented by shares. These companies are subject to the same regulations as the SA, unless Law N19.550 stipulates on the contrary (Law N19.550, ss.315-324). Sociedad de Economa Mixta Mixed Economy Company (Law N12.962): it is formed by the National State, the provincial States, municipalities or autonomous administrative entities pursuant to their legal powers on the one hand, and by private capital on the other hand. Their purpose is the exploitation of businesses which aim at satisfying collective needs or implementing, promoting or developing economic activities. They can be public or private entities, depending on their purpose, but the president and at least one third of the directors are nominated by the public authorities. They follow the rules on SA on ownership information. Sociedad del Estado State-owned Corporations exclude all shareholding of private capital. They are exclusively constituted by the National State, the provincial States, municipalities, government agencies legally authorised to such effect. They can also be corporations incorporated under Law N20.705 to develop industrial and commercial activities or to exploit public services (e.g. the railway
company). The only owners of these companies being public institutions of Argentina, their ownership structure is clear. 51. There are around 390500 companies registered in the tax database of Argentina as of November 2011: 196235SA, 188048SRL, 3768SCA, 51joint stock company with state-owned majority, and 307State-owned corporations. None of these entities can be owned by a single person. 52. Companies incorporated abroad may also engage in business in Argentina. 2456branches of foreign companies are registered with the AFIP. The fiscal domicile of a legal person in Argentina depends on its place of legal domicile, or on the place of its effective management and control, when it differs from the legal domicile (Law 11.683, s.3). 53. Full ownership information on companies is available in Argentina. The Commercial register contains some information, and the tax administration maintains a significant amount of identity and ownership information in its database, through a network of information statements that taxpayers and third parties must file periodically or upon the occurrence of certain events in the life of the company.
Information held by the Argentinean authorities

54. A company, whatever its form, is created between two or more persons by a public instrument or by a private instrument that must be authenticated by a public official or signed in front of a judge (Law N19.550, ss.4 and 5). The instrument must be submitted within the next 15days to the Public Registry of Commerce of the provincial jurisdiction where the registered office of the company is located (LawN19.550, s.5 in conjunction with Commercial Code, s.39). A company is considered as properly created once registered with the Registry of Commerce (Law N19.550, s7). If not, the members of the entity are jointly liable for the operations of the entity (s.23). 55. The instrument of creation of a commercial company must contain, among others: 1)the name, age, marital status, nationality, profession, address and identification number of each member; 2)the firm or corporate name and the address of the entity; 4)the social capital, which must be expressed in Argentinean currency (ARS), and the contribution of each member; 7)the rules for distributing the profits and bearing the losses (Law N19.550, s.11). The legal instrument creating a commercial entity therefore must contain the name of all the initial members of the entity, together with their respective share in the capital of the entity. 56. The rules on the updating of the ownership information maintained by the Registrars differ depending of the type of company. The transmission of shares in an SRL or SCA must be registered (IGJ General Resolution

7/05, s.35(II)(6)). The rights in rem that may exist over the shares must also be registered with the Registry of Commerce (e.g. co-ownership, usufruct; s.156 and a copy or the instrument must be deposited). The obligation to register the transmission of shares does not cover SAs, since their shares are freely negotiable and the ownership structure of an SA is therefore expected to change more often. 57. Any new company must also register with the tax administration, and the registration with the Commercial register cannot be completed until the new company has a tax identification number. In practice, to create a company in Argentina, the founders must first provide information to the AFIP in order to get a temporary tax identification number, and then register with the Registrar of Commerce, before obtaining their definitive tax identification number. 58. All companies must disclose their ownership structure to the AFIP, as well as report on identity information regarding their directors, managers and other representatives (GR4120 of 8June 1996, as replaced by GR2763 of 5February2010). A recent General Resolution reinforced the obligations of electronic declaration (GR3293 of 22March 2012). Not only are taxpayers required to declare their shares and interests in Argentine companies and partnerships,7 but now the companies and partnerships (as well as permanent establishment of foreign companies) must also declare the identity of the holders of their shares, including their tax identification number or identity number, their domicile, and the number and value of their shares. The same applies, whether the person is a tax resident in Argentina or not, and whether the person is an individual, company or other type of shareholder. Pursuant to the same resolution, companies must also provide information on their subsidiaries, parent companies and related companies: corporate name, tax identification number and domicile, whether in Argentina or in another country. Submissions must be made electronically to the AFIP, in July for the preceding year, starting with 2011. Ownership information on companies is available in relation to periods prior to this date pursuant to the reporting obligations set out under the previous General Resolutions mentioned above and the new resolution facilitates cross-checks. 59. In addition, the transfer of shares must also be reported to the AFIP within 10working days by the seller, the buyer and the company, as well as by any public notary, who might be involved in the transfer. The information to be provided electronically to the AFIP includes the date and type of transaction (purchase, sale, free transfer, etc.), identity information on the company at stake and participants in the transfer, the date and amount of the
7. Individuals domiciled in Argentina must now also declare the shares or interests they hold in foreign companies or partnerships.
payment (in the currency used and in Argentinean pesos), as well as the corresponding change of corporate control. The obligation applies to all transfers performed after 1January 2012. Before this new obligation was introduced, stock brokers were already obligated to report to the AFIP the transactions they were involved in, pursuant to AFIP GR2386/2007. Pursuant to art.7 of this resolution, they send to the AFIP a summary of the operations performed, and indicate the amount of the transactions performed for each client when the amount is above ARS150000 (USD33450, EUR26820). 60. With this new 2012 resolution, the AFIP can now cross-check electronically the information provided by the companies and shareholders online. 61. As a result of the various laws and regulations applicable, the AFIP maintains full ownership information on Argentinean companies and the IGJ maintains no information that the tax administration does not also maintain. In any event, the AFIP has free access to the national and provincial registers (Law N26.047, s.3).8
Foreign companies
62. Law N19.550 (ss.118-124) provides that companies incorporated in a foreign country and which carry out activities in Argentina through a branch are regulated pursuant to the law of their country of establishment. In addition, for a foreign company to regularly engage in Argentina in acts included in its corporate purpose, set up a branch or any other type of permanent representation, it is required to evidence its existence in accordance with the laws of its country, and indicate a domicile in Argentina. 63. Notwithstanding, Law19.550 also prescribes that a company incorporated under foreign law but the main office or the business of which is in Argentina is considered as a local company for company law purposes, and must follow the same procedure of creation as a local company (s.124), in which case it falls under the supervisory powers of the IGJ (Law22.315, s.8). In such circumstances, the original incorporation of the foreign company is deemed valid and, under Argentinean law, the company will be treated as legally equal to Argentine companies that have complied with the formalities established in LawN19.550. 64. The IGJ maintains a National Registry of Foreign Companies, which registers foreign companies that carry on business in Argentina by means of a permanent representation or participates in local companies (Law N19.550, ss.4, 118 and 123; Law22.315, s.4). IGJ Resolution 7/05 rules that the registration with the Register of Companies is subject to the provision of
8. The information contained in the various Registers of Commerce can be consulted by the public physically but not online (Law N19.550, s.9).

information identifying the members of the company at the time of its decision to do business in Argentina, including, for each one of them their last name and firm or corporate name, address or registered office, number of identity card or passport, or evidence of registration, authorisation or incorporation, and number of equity interests and votes and their percentage in the capital. Exceptions exist for listed companies. No updated information is required on an annual basis. 65. The permanent establishments of foreign companies are subject to the recent AFIP General Resolution mentioned above for domestic companies, which has reinforced the obligations of electronic declaration (GR3293 of 22March 2012). They must also declare the identity of the owners, including their tax identification number or identity number, their domicile, and the value of their shares. Submissions must be made electronically to the AFIP, every July for the information concerning the preceding year, starting with 2011. 66. The Argentinean authorities indicate that in practice foreign companies registered in Argentina predominantly come from Spain, the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada and the Netherlands.
Information held by companies

67. The rules regarding the maintenance of ownership information are different for shares of SRLs, and shares of SA and limited partners of SCA. SRLs do not maintain a register of shareholders, since the name of all their shareholders are already gathered in the deed of the company. The transfer of shares in an SRL is effective against the SRL once a copy of the instrument is provided to its manager, and against third parties once the transfer is registered with the Registrar of Companies (Law N19.550, s.152). 68. SAs must maintain a ledger of shares with mentions of the class of share, rights and obligations attached to each, their original owner and the dates of their successive transfers together with the name of the buyers (Law N19.550, ss.208 and 316). Transfers of registered or book-entry shares must be notified in writing to the issuing company or share registry entity, and must be entered in the ledger or relevant account. The transfer is effective against the company and third parties upon registration (s.215). SCAs generally follow the rules on SA, except that the transfer of the shares of a general partner must be decided during a general assembly of the shareholders (s.323). 69. The ledger must be kept with the formalities corresponding to commercial books, which means that it must be kept for 10years and be submitted to the Registrar of the Commercial court for stamping (Law N19.550, s.213 in conjunction with the Commercial Code, ss.53 and 67). As a result, ownership information is also available with the Argentinean companies.
Nominees
70. The concept of nominee that exists in some jurisdictions does not exist in Argentinean law. Registered shares issued by companies incorporated in Argentina are in principle held by their beneficial owner. 71. The Argentinean law expressly penalises the existence of hidden and apparent partners (Law N19.550, s.34). Pursuant to s.34, the hidden partner is an unlimited and jointly liable member of the company. Argentinean case law determines that a contract between a hidden member and an apparent (registered) shareholder constitutes a punishable fraudulent manoeuvre.9 The person whose name appears as a member is considered as having the obligations and duties of a member vis-a-vis third parties, but is not considered as such with regard to the normal members, whether or not he/she has a stake in the companys profits. Hidden partners also entail some tax sanctions. Within the verification and audit powers established in section35 of the Tax Procedure Law N 11.683, and based on the Economic Reality Principle expressed in section2 of said law, the AFIP is empowered to pierce the corporate veil and redefine the situation in the light of the underlying facts, establishing the legal presumption of an unjustified increase in net equity for the hidden partner who did not reveal its real taxpaying capacity. In addition, sanctions (interests and fines) are also mentioned in Law N 11.683, as well as the possibility of imprisonment according to the Tax Criminal Law. When that is the case, the Financial Information Unit receives a report of suspicious transaction. 72. As a result, nominee ownership or similar arrangements are not allowed and are punishable in Argentina.
Service providers
73. Identity and ownership information of companies and other Argentinean legal entities being fully maintained by the AFIP directly, the AFIP never relies on service providers to provide such information, as service providers subject to the AML/CFT laws and regulations of Argentina do not maintain individually any ownership information that the AFIP does not maintain itself. 74. The AML Law25.246 as amended and the FIU resolutions set the basic obligations of subject entities to collect identity and other information from their customers and third parties on behalf of which customers may act. The minimum information requested from customers includes their corporate name, date and company registration number, tax registration number, date of articles of incorporation, copy of updated by-laws, address (street, number,
9. Commercial Court; Juhal, Eduardo J. v. Fumo, Claudio A. Yotros; 9/08/10.

city, province and postcode), phone number of main office and main business activity. Additionally, personal data is requested on the legal representatives and agents, who carry out transactions on the legal persons behalf. When the client is a legal person, the service provider must collect information on the owners of the client (Law no. 25246, s.21bis(c)). A recent resolution of the FIU clarifies that the term owner covers the natural persons that have at least 20% of the capital or voting rights of a legal person ((FIU Resolution 140/2012 of 10August 2012). 75. The BCRA has at its disposal a range of sanctions to apply against a financial entity that fails to implement AML/CFT provisions. Law 21.526, s.41 provides that any breach of the communications issued by the BCRA is subject to punishment, and the BCRA has applied sanctions (cautions, warnings and fines) for failure to comply with the AML/CFT provisions of its communications. 76. Again the AFIP does not need in practice, and has never relied on, ownership information collected by the entities (such as banks) subject to the AML/CFT laws and regulations in Argentina, since these entities collect no information that the AFIP does not already maintain on the ownership structure of entities in Argentina.
Bearer shares (ToRA.1.2)

77. It has not been possible to issue bearer shares in Argentina since 1995 and the entry into force of Law N24.587 on the individualisation of private securities. Pursuant to section1 of this law, the bearer shares that existed at the date of publication of the law had to be converted into registered shares or book entries within six months. The remaining bearer shares can no longer be converted into registered shares or transferred, and no rights attached to them can be exercised any longer (s.7), which means that the remaining bearer shares are null and void. 78. Finally, Law N24.587 provides that private or government securities issued abroad to the bearer, and that are authorised to be publicly offered in the country, must be deposited with a financial entity, which will deliver nontransferable registered certificates, representative of such securities (s.5).
Partnerships (ToRA.1.3)
79. An Argentinean partnership is a legal person to which each member agrees to participate, taking into consideration each other member in their personal capacity (intuitu personae). There are several types of commercial partnerships in Argentinean law:
a sociedad colectiva (general partnership) is a commercial entity with at least two members (considered as traders) who are jointly, personally and severally liable for the partnerships debts (Law N19.550, ss.125-139); a sociedad en comandita simple (SCS or limited partnership) is a commercial entity that comprises two classes of members: general partners, who are jointly and severally liable for the partnerships debts, and limited partners, who incur no liability for the partnerships debts and whose risk is limited to the amount of their contribution (they are essentially financial backers). Limited partners cannot carry out any act of management (Law N19.550, ss.134-140); Sociedad de Capital e Industria (capital and industry partnership): the general partners are liable to the same extent as partners of general partnerships, and partners who contribute with their industry liable only up to the amount of their share of profits to be received (Law N19.550, ss.141-145). This type of entity is rarely used, and only 88are registered. De facto or irregular partnerships: these are entities not organised in conformity with the legal types of entities under Law N19.550 and unregistered entities. Their members are jointly liable for the entitys operations (Law N19.550, ss.21-26). These entities are by definition not registered with the Registrar of Commerce.
80. As of November 2011, there were 2612general partnerships, 2881limited partnerships and 88capital and industry companies registered with the tax administration. There were also 99767 de facto partnerships registered with the AFIP under the simplified tax regime that are tax transparent. These are mainly sole traders (kiosks) and small restaurants (as companies and partnerships cannot be created with a single shareholder/owner).
Information held by the Argentinean authorities

81. The Commercial Register and the tax administration have in their files the names of all the partners of general and limited partnerships, and of the members of capital and industry partnerships. The tax administration also has information on de facto partnerships. 82. The procedure for the creation of regular partnerships is the same as for the creation of companies. The name of all the partners as well as their respective contributions to the capital of the entity must appear in their deed of incorporation, which must be amended every time a partner changes, for the changes to be opposable to third parties. The deed must also include the contributions made by each of the founding partners (whether

individuals or corporations), and their respective interests in the partnership (Law N19.550, ss.11-12). The transmission of quotas or shares in general partnerships, limited partnerships and capital and industry partnerships must be registered with the Commercial Register (IGJ General Resolution 7/05, s.35(II)(6)). 83. The tax obligations of commercial partnerships are the same as those of companies (see above), even though their taxation regime is not uniform: limited partnerships have the same tax treatment as corporations and SRLs. On the other hand, the tax liability related to general partnership, capital and industry partnerships, and de facto partnerships falls on the partners rather than on the entity (Law N20.628 on Profits Tax, s.50).10 It remains that they all have to inform the AFIP of their creation and provide it with up-todate information on their ownership structure every year. In addition, as for companies, the AFIP General Resolution3293 of 22March 2012 reinforced the obligations of electronic declaration of limited partnerships, which must declare their ownership structure every year, and limited partners and partnerships must also declare all transfers of shares/quotas within 10working days of the transfer (see sectionA.1.1).
Information held by the partnership and service providers

84. All the partners of all types of partnerships must be identified in the deed of incorporation, as noted above (Law N19.550, s.11 and 12). For general partnerships in particular, it is impossible to transfer stakes without the consent of all the partners (Law N19.550, s.131). As a result, all partners know the identity of the other partners. 85. Service providers subject to the AML/CFT laws and regulations apply the same preventive and identification measures for partnerships as they do for companies (see sectionA.1.1 above).
Trusts (ToRA.1.4)
86. The concept of trust does not exist under Argentinean Law, and Argentina has not signed The Hague Convention of 1July 1985 on the Law Applicable to Trusts and on their Recognition. Argentinean law nonetheless knows the concept of fideicomiso that has some similarities with trusts. There is, also, no obstacle in Argentinean domestic law that prevents an
10. The main partner (partner with highest participation) must include in its annual income tax return identification details of the partnership (e.g.business name) and of the other partners. The other partners must also include identification details of the partnership and of the main partner in their annual income tax return.
Argentinean resident from acting as a trustee, or that prevents a trustee of a foreign trust from investing or acquiring assets in Argentina. 87. Measures are in place to ensure the availability of identity information for both domestic fideicomisos and relevant foreign trusts. Since 2008, fiduciarios of domestic fideicomisos have been required to report the identity of their fiduciantes (settlors), fiduciarios (trustees), fideicomisarios (ultimate beneficiaries) and beneficiarios, where applicable, to the tax administration. This reporting obligation ensures the availability of such information to the tax administration from 2005 onwards. Further measures taken in 2012 extended the reporting obligation to foreign trusts with a resident trustee, which ensured the availability of information on settlors, trustees and beneficiaries of such trusts.
Argentinean fideicomisos
88. Argentina introduced the fideicomiso in Law24.441 of 1995 (ss.1 to 26). Argentinean fideicomisos are created by a contract or will by which a person ( fiduciante or settlor) transfers the trust property title to another person ( fiduciario or trustee), who is bound to manage it for the benefit of whoever is appointed by the contract (beneficiario or beneficiary), and to transfer it upon a specific period of time or the fulfilment of a term (not exceeding 30years) to the ultimate beneficiary ( fideicomisario, who can be the settlor or the beneficiary). 89. The interest in using this type of contract is that the fideicomiso property constitutes an equity separated from that of the fiduciario and of the fiduciante (s.14). As a result, the fideicomiso property is exempted from any individual or joint action by the creditors of either the fiduciante or the fiduciario (s.15). The rules of the Civil Code apply to the contract and to the assets subject to a fideicomiso. 90. The contract must contain information on the co-contractors, who are the fiduciante and the fiduciario, as well as on the (ultimate) beneficiaries. The beneficiaries may be individuals or legal entities, existing or not upon the execution of the contract. In the last case, the contract must contain all the information to enable their future identification (s.2). 91. There are ordinary and financial fideicomisos. In a financial fideicomiso the fiduciario is a financial institution or a corporation specially authorised by the National Securities Commission to act as a financial fiduciario, and the beneficiaries are the holders of share certificates of the fideicomiso property or of debt securities guaranteed by the property transferred (ss.5 and 19). The share certificates and debt securities are regarded as securities and may be subject to public offering. Financial fideicomisos

are also registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The other fideicomisos are qualified as ordinary. 92. Identity information on ordinary and financial fideicomisos has been maintained by the AFIP since 2005 pursuant to requirement for fiduciarios (trustees) to report such information under General Resolution n2419/08. On 18April 2012, the AFIP adopted a new General Resolution n3312 on a regime of information and registration of the operations of financial and nonfinancial Argentinean fideicomisos and foreign trusts.11 Accordingly, some operations affecting fideicomisos must be registered with the AFIP within 10days of their occurrence, and information must be provided on a yearly basis. These obligations apply, whether or not any income may be taxable in Argentina. 93. First, the fiduciario of any financial or non-financial fideicomiso must inform the AFIP, within the next 10working days of the creation and termination of a fideicomiso, any change of fiduciante or beneficiary, the transfer of participations or rights in the fideicomisos, the addition of assets, any modification to the contract, and the allocation of benefits (s. 8 and AnnexIV). 94. The General Resolution lists the data that must be provided for each of these events. For instance, when an Argentine fideicomiso is created, the fiduciario must indicate the name of the fideicomiso; its date of creation and term; the tax identification number of the fideicomiso; the type or class of fideicomiso and its object; the details of the fiduciario, fiduciantes, beneficiaries, and ultimate beneficiaries; identifying details on the assets and the total amount of the goods or money granted in the contract (AnnexIV). In the case of financial fideicomisos, information must also be provided on the beneficiaries, and on the nominal value, type and class of securities issued (AnnexIV, para.1.11 and 2.7). 95. Second, the resident fiduciario, fiduciante or beneficiary of a fideicomiso must annually provide identity information on the fiduciantes, fiduciarios, beneficiaries and ultimate beneficiaries: name and surname or business name, tax identification number and for non residents their nationality, tax domicile and tax identification number (s.2 and AnnexII, para.1). Full identity information on Argentine ordinary and financial fideicomisos is therefore maintained by the AFIP and available for EOI purposes.
11. The new General Resolution repeals the 2008 resolution and is effective as of 1July 2012. The annual information obligation must be performed for the year 2011 in relation to domestic fideicomisos and foreign trusts with an Argentinean resident trustee. In relation to domestic fideicomisos, previous reporting obligations set out under General Resolution n2419/08 ensure the availability of identity information to the tax authority from 2005.
Foreign trusts
96. Foreign trusts are not recognised in Argentina but the Argentinean tax authorities took measures to ensure the availability of information that identifies the settlor, trustee and beneficiaries of trusts administered in Argentina or in respect of which a trustee is resident in Argentina. 97. As indicated above, on 18April 2012, the AFIP adopted a new General Resolution N3312 on a regime of information and registration of the operations of financial and non-financial Argentinean fideicomisos and foreign trusts. Article1 of the General Resolution expressly refers to residents in Argentina who act as trustees or the like, settlors or the like or beneficiaries of trusts created in another country. The explanatory notes to the resolution clarify that this covers trusts, fiduciary entities, or other figures of equivalent nature created in a foreign country in accordance with the legislation in force in the relevant country. 98. As for domestic fideicomisos, these persons must provide information electronically on an annual basis (in July for the preceding year), and the trustee must register some events in the life of the trust with the AFIP within 10days of their occurrence (s.8). 99. First, the resident trustee of foreign trusts must inform the AFIP, within the next 10working days of the creation or termination of the trust, any change of settlor or beneficiary, the transfer of the trusts participations or rights, the addition of assets, any modification to the contract, and the allocation of benefits (s.8 and AnnexIV). 100. The General Resolution lists the data that must be provided for each of these events. When a foreign trust is created in respect of which a trustee, settlor or beneficiary is resident in Argentina, the trustee must indicate the name of the trust; its date of creation and term; the country where it is created and the legislation in force; the tax identification number of the trust in the country of creation; the type or class of trust and its object; the details of the trustee, settlors, beneficiaries, and ultimate beneficiaries; identifying details on the assets and the total amount of the goods or money granted in the contract (AnnexIV, para.1). When details on a person are requested, these include the surname and name, business name, and tax identification number. For non-residents, the nationality (or country of creation of legal entities) must be specified, together with a mention of the country of tax residence, tax identification number and domicile (AnnexIV). 101. Second, the resident trustee must annually indicate (i)the name of the trust, country of creation, country of residence, tax identification number and domicile, class or type of trust; (iii)on the settlors and beneficiaries: name, surname, and tax identification number, and for non residents their nationality tax, their domicile and tax identification number; (ii)identification of the

assets and their value; (iv)trust securities issued by the trust, if applicable. The resident settlor (or the like) must provide similar information on the trust, as well as identifying information on the trustees (or the like): name and surname, business name, tax identification number and where non-residents their nationality, tax domicile and TIN (s.2 and AnnexII, para.2.1 2.2). The resident beneficiaries of foreign trusts must provide the same information, plus the profits resulting from that period, if any, and, where available, information on the settlors or the like (AnnexII, para.2.3). 102. The General Resolution is effective as of 1July 2012 and the annual information obligation must be performed retroactively since 2009 for foreign trusts. The non compliance with these obligations gives rise to the application of the sanctions of the Tax Procedure Law.
Practical consequences and conclusion

103. In practice, there are 10204 ordinary fideicomisos and 720financial fideicomisos registered with the AFIP. Ordinary fideicomisos are mainly used in the construction sector, to protect the assets from the creditors of the building company. Financial fideicomisos are essentially used for investment and credit securitisation (e.g.for consumer loans and credit cards systems). 104. The Argentinean authorities do not yet have information on foreign trusts with resident trustees in Argentina since the reporting obligations became effective in July 2012 only and the first reports must be filed by the end of August 2012. However, the Argentinean representatives indicate that, if existing, the presence of resident trustees of foreign trusts must be insignificant. For instance, the representatives of the Council of Economic Sciences and of the Accountant Council Federation had never heard of foreign trusts with a link in Argentina. Conversely, it is not uncommon for foreigners, especially Spanish residents, to be beneficiaries of Argentinean fideicomisos. On the other hand, the Argentinean tax authorities have been confronted with foreign trusts in their domestic investigation on tax fraud, when some Argentinean residents transferred some capital into foreign trusts. 105. Finally, Argentina has not received any request for information about a domestic fideicomiso or a foreign trust in the last three years, which appears to indicate that the presence of foreign trusts or their relevance is not very significant.
Foundations (ToRA.1.5)
106. The concept of private foundation does not exist under the laws of Argentina. Foundations must, pursuant to section33 of the Civil Code, be created for a purpose of convenience to the people and have the principal object of public welfare. 107. Foundations are further governed by Law No 19.836, ss.1 to 34. Section1 states that foundations are entities created to achieve a common good without profit, meaning that such entities do not distribute profits to their members/founders. All foundations must obtain the authorisation of the competent administrative authority (IGJ in the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, and the Provincial Direction of Legal Entities in the rest of the territory of Argentina) by submitting their deed, including the identity of the founders and details on its capital (Law No 19.836, ss.1 and 3, and Civil Code, s45). The administrative authority approves the by-laws and their amendments and oversees the fulfilment of the legal and regulatory requirements of these entities, including provisions in relation to termination and winding-up (s.27). Pursuant to section30 of Law No 19.836, upon the termination of foundations, their assets are given to a public entity or to a non-profit private entity that is domiciled in the Argentine Republic, except where the dissolved entity is a foreign foundation. As a result, the founders of an Argentinean foundation cannot receive back the funds they put in the foundation. Foundations are exempt from tax if they apply for, and obtain, an annual tax exemption certificate from AFIP in accordance with the requirements set forth in AFIP General Resolution No 2681/2009 which amends and complements basic regulations that have been in force for over 10 years. Under this general resolution, a foundation is required to submit certain information annually to the AFIP (via its website) including its active tax identification number, up-to-date information regarding its legal setup and its domicile for tax purposes (s.2).
Other entities and arrangements Sociedades civiles

108. Sociedades civiles are non-commercial entities with legal personality. These entities are mainly used for the formation of professional councils, trade unions, clubs and religious organisations. They are formed by two or more persons that bind themselves mutually, each with a payment, with a view to obtaining, as a result of the use of what each has contributed, a utility measurable in money. This utility will be further divided between the associates. Utility and losses are shared according to the established agreement, except that the utility may not be all given to one member, no member may be omitted from the sharing arrangements (Civil Code, s.1652). They are regulated by what is established in the contract signed by all the parties, and

anything that has not been agreed is governed by the Civil Code. Sociedades civiles are subject to tax and must register with the AFIP to obtain a unique tax identification number. They are also subject to the electronic declaration requirements set out in GR3293 of 22March 2012, under which the identity of the members, including their tax identification number or identity number, their domicile, and the number and value of their equity holding must be declared to the AFIP annually. There are currently 4502sociedades civiles registered in Argentina.
Enforcement provisions to ensure availability of information (ToRA.1.6)

109. Argentina should have in place effective enforcement provisions to ensure the availability of ownership and identity information, one possibility among others being sufficiently strong compulsory powers to access the information. This section of the report assesses whether the provisions requiring the availability of information with the public authorities or within the corporate entities reviewed in section A.1 are enforceable and failures are punishable. Questions linked to access are dealt with in PartB. 110. As noted earlier, the AFIP maintains full ownership information in its tax database e-fisco. In practice, to ensure that these identification measures are respected, the AFIP performs controls when receiving the registration request of a new entity: the founders must electronically provide their tax identification numbers, and the tax administration checks the matching of the TIN with the members, their tax situation and declared address. The address provided must be backed by two proving documents (e.g.rental contract, bank statement, notary certification). The next stage of the registration cannot proceed if this first check is negative (failedregistrations did not exceed 0.86% in 2011). The representative of the entity must then physically go the AFIP office in which territorial jurisdiction the entity is domiciled to deposit the requested documents (as set in sectionA.1.1). Since May 2010, the AFIP also collects the signature, photo, fingerprint and a scan of the identity card of the representative of any new registered entity or persons otherwise performing an economic activity. 111. Once an individual or entity is registered with the AFIP, the data related to the person are added to the tax database called e-fisco. This single database gathers all information on each taxpayer (financial, patrimonial and other information). It can be searched by the name of the taxpayer, bank account number, address, etc. Tax officials are also able to check the veracity of the returns and information submitted by cross-checking the declarations made. For instance, when the shares of a company are transferred, several actors have to report it to the AFIP: the seller, the buyer, the company and the intermediary where applicable (e.g. stock exchange operator, financial
institution, or notary public). These cross-checks allow the AFIP to quickly identify inconsistencies. Detected inconsistencies are selected for further auditing depending on the annual guidelines put forward by the Annual Auditing Plan. For instance, during the period between 2009-2011, 41804 audits have been initiated on the basis of the identified inconsistencies to make a verification of the declared information in the tax returns and the different information regimes established by the AFIP. The system also allows the constitution of groups of interests: the system identifies the other persons to whom a taxpayer is linked, either because they are co-holders of a bank account, shareholders of a same company, or economic partners (using electronic invoicing). 112. Penalties for the failure to respect the obligations set in Law19.550 are generally of a commercial and civil nature. For instance a company that would be created without respecting the obligations set in the law would be considered as a general partnership, or the transfer of shares not registered are not valid against the company and third parties. 113. Direct sanctions are rather found in the tax laws. First, the omission of filing a tax return is punishable by a fine of ARS400 (USD90, EUR72), and if the situation is not remedied within 15days, summary proceedings are opened (ss.38 and 70). 114. Second, the failure to comply (partially or totally) with any of the information statements prescribed by the tax resolutions is sanctioned in accordance with the unnumbered article added after section38 of the Tax Procedure Law 11.863. Individuals are subject to a fine up to ARS 5000 (USD1115, EUR894) and entities to a fine up to ARS 10000 (USD2230, EUR1790; entities of any kind constituted in the country, or of establishments organised as permanent companies of any nature or object belonging to individuals or legal persons, constituted or located abroad). This applies to the failure to register an entity with the AFIP, to report the transfer of shares or to provide the annual update on the ownership structure of the company or partnership pursuant to the General Resolution3293 of 22March 2012, the fideicomisos and foreign trusts under General Resolution 3312. According to the available information, theAFIP has applied 419027 penalties totalling ARS2905million in the period 2010-2012 (USD639million, EUR523million). 115. In conclusion, there are enforcement measures and penalties under Argentinas laws to ensure that information required to be maintained is, in fact, maintained. The penalties appear to be proportionate and dissuasive enough to insure compliance. Information received from EOI partner jurisdictions confirms that Argentinas competent authority is able to respond to requests for ownership and identity information for all relevant legal entities and arrangements.

Determination and factors underlying recommendations
Phase1 determination The element is in place. Phase2 rating Compliant.
A.2. Accounting records

Jurisdictions should ensure that reliable accounting records are kept for all relevant entities and arrangements.
116. A condition for exchange of information for tax purposes to be effective, is that reliable information, foreseeably relevant to the tax requirements of a requesting jurisdiction is available, or can be made available, in a timely manner. This requires clear rules regarding the maintenance of accounting records. The obligation to maintain reliable accounting records are found mostly in the Commercial Code, Law19.550 on Commercial Companies and the Tax Procedure Law.
General requirements (ToRA.2.1)

117. The primary source of accounting obligations is the Commercial Code. All traders (comerciantes, see definition at paragraph 45 above), including all companies, partnerships, Argentinean fideicomisos and foreign trusts and sole traders, are legally required to conform to a uniform accounting system and to keep the books necessary to that end, as well as to preserve the correspondence related to their business (Commercial Code, s.33). Accounting and bookkeeping obligations are further detailed under ss.43 to 56 of the Commercial Code, including the requirement to keep: (i)a Daybook and (ii)an Inventory and Balances (s.44). 118. Accounting records must correctly explain all transactions and reflect details of all sums of money received and expended, as well as all sales and purchases. Pursuant to s. 43, accounting records must provide an accurate view of the business and include a clear justification of each and every one of the transactions; in addition, the accounting records and documentation must clearly show the business managerial acts and net worth (s.44). 119. All the commercial transactions carried out by the trader are recorded in the Daybook, by chronological order and day by day, indicating in detail the nature and circumstances of each of them (s.45; where a trader is authorised by the Public Registry of Commerce or its supervisory authority to use
electronic bookkeeping, overall entries of no longer than a month may be made instead of daily entries, provided the electronic bookkeeping allows the individualisation of the transactions, pursuant to Law No 19.550, s.61). Alternatively, if the trader keeps a separate cash and invoices book, which is deemed to be part of the Daybook, it can omit to record in the Daybook the detailed records of the amounts received and of the purchases made (Commercial Code, s.46). 120. Accounting records must also enable the financial position of the entity to be determined with reasonable accuracy and truthfulness, and reflect details of its assets and liabilities. All traders must provide in their Inventory an exact account of the money, movable and immovable property, credits and every other kind of asset which forms their business from the commencement of their business (s.48). Then, they must produce a general balance of the businesses within the first three months of each year (s.48, every three years for retail traders). At the end of each year, traders must complete the Inventory and Balances, as well as an accounting statement demonstrating profit and losses (s.52). 121. All books and records must be kept with clarity, chronologically, and without blank spaces, writing between lines, erasures or amendments (s.53). It is similarly prohibited to alter or deface any part of the books (s.54). If these prescriptions are not respected, the accounting books cannot be used by the trader as evidence in commercial courts. The Daybook (unless electronic recording is approved) and the Inventory and Balances must be submitted to the local Registrar of Commerce within the Tribunal of Commerce for authentication and stamping (s.53). 122. All SAs and SRL with a capital above ARS 10000000 need also to add to their financial statement the opinion of an independent auditor (subject to the AML/CFT framework) (IGJ General Resolution 7/2005, ss.264 and 267). The local Registrars have adopted professional accounting standards issued by the Argentine Federation of Professional Councils in Economic Sciences for the presentation of financial statements. 123. In relation to entities which are authorised to make public offerings of their securities, the Argentinean authorities indicate that from 1January 2012, such entities must adopt International Financial Reporting Standards, as issued by the International Accounting Standards Board, when preparing their financial statements. The fiduciario of financial fideicomisos is similarly required to prepare financial statements following the same standards as for entities authorised to make public securities offerings, i.e.using IFRS. These financial statements must be submitted to the National Securities Commission (National Securities Commission Regulations, Art.34, ChapterXV, Book3).

124. Apart from the above-mentioned commercial law rules, the Tax Procedure Law, s.33, allows the AFIP to set obligations on taxpayers to maintain and keep books of accounts and records. As a result, Decree N 1397/1979, s.48, establishes that taxpayers or responsible persons must keep their books and records, vouchers and documents which prove the related transactions in tax matters, for 10years (i.e.a period of up to five years after the fiscal year they refer to is statute barred, the statute of limitation being of five years in most cases; Tax Procedure Law, s.56). The same obligations apply for tax collection or withholding agents and people in charge of informing the AFIP of some transactions. Section39 of the Tax Procedure Law provides for penalties consisting of fines of from ARS150 to 2500 in case of infringement of these obligations (USD33 to 560, EUR27 to 450). 125. Finally, as concerns Argentinean fideicomisos and foreign trusts in particular, in addition to the requirements of the Commercial Code and Tax Procedure Law that apply to fiduciarios and trustees, the AFIP took a new General Resolution n3312 on 18April 2012, on a regime of information and registration of the operations of financial and non-financial Argentinean fideicomisos and foreign trusts. Pursuant to this, fiduciarios of Argentinean financial and non-financial fideicomisos and Argentinean residents who are trustees, settlors or beneficiaries of foreign trusts must submit certain accounting information annually to the AFIP. With respect to foreign trusts, both Argentinean resident trustees and settlors are required to provide identifying information about the goods and total amount of money grants or goods realised or made by the settlors during the period to report as well as the total amount resulting at the end of the reported period; information about the trust securities issued by the trust must also be provided (Section2 and AnnexII, para 2.1(d) & (e) and 2.2(d) & (e)). Argentinean resident beneficiaries of a foreign trust are required to submit information on the trust securities to which they have subscribed and profits resulting from that period (Section2 and AnnexII, para 2.3(c) & (d)). 126. In practice, the AFIP requires that companies and other traders provide accounting statements and audit report together with their tax return (GR 3077/2011).
Underlying documentation (ToRA.2.2)

127. The Commercial Code specifies that the accounting vouchers of traders must be supported with the respective documentation (s.43). Pursuant to s.33 of the Tax Procedure LawNo11683, the AFIP may also demand taxpayers to grant specific vouchers and preserve their duplicates, as also the other documents and vouchers covering their operations for a period of 10years or exceptionally, for a longer period when they refer to operations or acts the knowledge of which were indispensable to arrive at tax matters with
certainty. Where accounting records are so kept, they must be backed up by the corresponding vouchers. As noted above, Decree N 1397/1979, s.48, establishes that taxpayers or responsible persons must keep their books and records, vouchers and documents which prove the related transactions in tax matters, for a period of up to five years after the fiscal year they refer to is statute barred. Section39 of the Tax Procedure Law provides for penalties consisting of fines of from ARS150 to 2500 in case of infringement of these obligations (USD33 to 560, EUR27 to 450). 128. In practice, taxpayers that are subject to the VAT system must also use an electronic invoicing system developed by the AFIP, pursuant to the AFIP General Resolution1415/03, which also obliges these taxpayers to keep the justifying documents of their transactions (s.36). 129. These various requirements ensure the existence of accounting record keeping obligations of relevant entities including that of retaining supporting documentary evidence for the transactions performed.
5-year retention standard (ToRA.2.3)

130. First, the Commercial Code imposes that all traders keep all their accounting books for 10years, from the date of their creation, and for 10years after their cessation of activity (s.67). 131. In addition, Decree N 1397/1979, s.48, establishes that taxpayers or responsible persons must keep their books and records, vouchers and documents for a period of up to five years after the fiscal year they refer to is statute barred. The books and documents referred to in this must remain available to the AFIP in the fiscal domicile of the taxpayer.
Accounting information exchanged in practice

132. In practice, accounting information has been exchanged with three partner jurisdictions, and no partner jurisdiction indicated that they have not received the requested accounting information or that they have refrained themselves from requesting this type of information because they would have anticipated a no reply. 133. The requests related to assets, partners currents accounts, the distribution of capital, the matching of expenses in the partner jurisdiction and income in Argentina, and a loan granted by an entity in a partner jurisdiction to an Argentinean entity.

A.3. Banking information

Banking information should be available for all account-holders.
134. Access to banking information is of interest to the tax administration only if the bank has useful and reliable information about its customers identity and the nature and amount of financial transactions. 135. There are 64banks 52private banks and 12state-owned banks (2of the Nation and 10of the provinces) supervised by the Central Bank of the Republic of Argentina (BCRA). Banks and other financial institutions maintain identity information on their clients, as noted above, in application of the antimoney laundering law. They also keep full records of their financial transactions.
Record-keeping requirements (ToRA.3.1) Banking information maintained by financial institutions

136. Financial institutions, as any commercial entity, are subject to the accounting requirements of the Commercial Code and the Tax Procedure Law, including the obligation to keep accounting books, correspondence, documentation and receipts related to their business for 10years. 137. In addition, the Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing laws and regulations impose know-your-customer obligations on banks and require them to keep documents relating to the transactions performed by their customers for five years following the completion of the transaction. 138. Financial institutions must identify their customers, pursuant to section21bis of the AML Law25.246, as noted under section A.1.1 above. These identification requirements are further detailed by the Communications of the BCRA, in particular by the Circular on Deposit Transactions (OPASI-2), which constitute an indirect prohibition to open or maintain anonymous or numbered accounts, since the titleholder of an account must be an identified natural or legal person.
139. The AML Law 25.246 indicates that the obligation to collect information on the identity of regular and occasional customers may be omitted when the amounts are lower than a minimum established by circular letter. The FIU Resolution 121/11, s. 18, establishes that except when there is suspicion of Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing, customers who conduct transactions for monthly amounts that do not exceed ARS 40000 (USD8920, EUR7150), or its equivalent in other currencies, and are related to salary payment, construction industry workers unemployment funds, or customers who conduct monthly transactions not exceeding ARS 5000 (USD1115, EUR894), or its equivalent in other currencies, in accounts related to payment of social benefits, information provided by employers and competent national, provincial or municipal agencies shall be sufficient. In the same way, s.20 establishes that accounts credited with funds from judicial cases shall be exempted from customer identification general requirements 140. The BCRA Compilation of AML measures require banks to keep records of information on transactions in a way to permit their reconstruction.
Banking information maintained by the tax authorities

141. Banks and other financial institutions must also report some of these transactions to the AFIP on a routine basis. 142. Pursuant to AFIP General Resolution2386/2007 on a System of Information on Relevant Economic Transactions (SITER Resolution by its acronym in Spanish), financial institutions must report monthly to the AFIP: the opening, closure and modification of all bank accounts, including current accounts, savings accounts, and special current accounts of legal persons (e.g. special current accounts with or without interest), as well as the deposit and fix term deposit above ARS10000 a month on these accounts (USD2230, EUR1790). Financial institutions must also report the monthly balance of these accounts, and expenses above ARS3000 made, using a credit card (USD670, EUR536). In each case the bank has to indicate the name, tax identification number and domicile of the client; or for clients without a tax identification number, an ID number or mention of the country of residence. The only customers for which such information is not provided are the Argentinean State, provinces and municipalities, as well as the consular and diplomatic representations in Argentina. The tax administration thus possesses in its tax database a certain amount of banking information periodically provided electronically by banks. 143. As a result, the Argentinean tax administration knows to which person a bank account number relates. AFIP maintains the banking information it receives from banks in the nominative file of the taxpayers on the tax database called e-fisco.

144. Argentina reintroduced foreign exchange controls in 2002. The AFIP and the BCRA concluded a memorandum of understanding for exchanging information, pursuant to which the BCRA provides information on exchange transactions performed by clients of financial institutions. The BCRA monthly sends to AFIP details of all purchase/sale transactions of foreign currency made by resident and non-resident persons through financial institutions, identifying among others, the amount, type of operation and countries involved (information that the BCRA receives in application of its CommunicationA N3840). The Central Bank also informs the AFIP on a daily basis of all operations above USD100000 regarding the purchase of currency for tenure in the country or overseas investments made by individuals, legal persons or investment funds.
Banking information requested in practice

145. In practice, the three treaty partners of Argentina that requested banking information from Argentina since 2009 indicate that they have received it. These requests related to the identification of the holders of bank accounts in Argentina or on the opposite the holding of bank accounts by specific persons, copies of deposit slips, cleared cheques, and corporate banking transactions. No difficulties were reported by these treaty partners, and none reported that they would have refrained themselves from requesting this type of information because they would have anticipated a no reply.
COMPLIANCE WITH THE STANDARDS: ACCESS TO INFORMATION 45
B. Access to Information
Overview
146. A variety of information may be needed in a tax enquiry and jurisdictions should have the authority to obtain all such information. This includes information held by banks and other financial institutions as well as information concerning the ownership of companies or the identity of interest holders in other persons or entities, such as partnerships and trusts, as well as accounting information in respect of all such entities. This section of the report examines whether Argentinas legal and regulatory framework gives the authorities access powers that cover all relevant persons and information and whether rights and safeguards are compatible with effective exchange of information. It also assesses the effectiveness of this framework in practice. 147. The Argentinean authorities have the information for identifying the owners of legal entities on their database, as a result of annual returns filed by taxpayers and periodic statements filed by third parties. The competent authority was able, during the period under review, to give a partial response to 89% of the requests received without resorting to its information gathering powers. 148. The Argentinean authorities make use of their powers available for domestic taxation purposes in order to exchange information. The Argentinean tax administration has broad powers of access to accounting and banking information and to data on the ownership of legal entities, pursuant to the Tax Procedure Law. In particular, these powers allow the authorities to request information from any taxpayer and from third parties who may have the information sought. Banking secrecy is lifted for tax matters. 149. Enforcement measures are available to compel the disclosure of information, but these have never had to be used for EOI purposes. Finally, taxpayers have no right to be notified of the existence of an EOI request or to know that information concerning them has been requested for EOI purposes. 150. This legal framework allows the Argentinean tax authorities to collect the information requested by their partners.
46 COMPLIANCE WITH THE STANDARDS: ACCESS TO INFORMATION
B.1. Competent Authoritys ability to obtain and provide information

Competent authorities should have the power to obtain and provide information that is the subject of a request under an exchange of information arrangement from any person within their territorial jurisdiction who is in possession or control of such information (irrespective of any legal obligation on such person to maintain the secrecy of the information).
151. The Argentinean competent authority as identified in its EOI arrangements is the Ministry of Economy. For the purposes of handling EOI requests, the Ministry of Economy delegated its powers to the Federal Administration of Public revenues (AFIP for its acronym in Spanish), and the Administrator Federal nominated four delegated competent authorities (see sectionC.5). In practice, incoming requests are handled by the EOI Division of the AFIP Directorate of International Taxation. When information is not available in the central tax databases, the EOI Division asks for such information from the tax office of the area in which the person, to whom the EOI request relates, is domiciled. It is therefore the same tax auditors who collect information for EOI and domestic tax purposes. For both purposes, they use the same information gathering powers provided under section35 of the Tax Procedure Law N11.683. 152. In practice, Argentina received 21EOI requests in the period 20092011 concerning 273persons. No final response was issued with information gathered exclusively from the centralised tax databases; however, 89% were partially answered by the central areas on the basis of the information contained in said databases, and 11% were exclusively dealt with by local tax offices that require the information from taxpayers or third parties. In one instance, an EOI partner asked the competent authority of Argentina to provide information as available in its tax database, without asking for any information from the taxpayer or third parties.
Ownership and identity information (ToRB.1.1) and Accounting records (ToRB.1.2) Legal and regulatory framework
153. Information on the identity and ownership of relevant entities such as companies, partnerships and trusts is maintained in the tax administration database, as a result of the mandatory declarations of information, and annual tax returns made by these entities and third parties. Similarly, the local tax offices maintain annual accounts deposited by commercial entities (see PartA above).
154. If the competent authority is requested to provide more detailed information or underlying documents, the auditor of the local tax office of the person to whom the EOI request relates may exercise the reporting duty of section35 of the Tax Procedure Law n11.683 to obtain such information: The AFIP will have ample powers to verify at any time, including with respect to current tax periods, through its officials and employees, the degree with which the persons apply their obligations or responsibility to fulfil the laws, regulations, resolutions and administrative instructions, by examining the situation of any presumed responsible person. 155. The section further indicates some of the actions which the AFIP may perform. Section35(a) allows the tax administration to summon the signatory of a sworn statement, presumed taxpayer or responsible party, or any third party, which in the judgement of the AFIP were aware of the negotiations or operation of the former, to answer or report orally or in writing all the questions or requirements made to them over income, revenue, outlays, and in general, as to the circumstances and operations which in the opinion of the AFIP were connected to tax matters under the respective laws. In addition, section35(b) and 35(c) specify that the information gathering powers of the tax auditors extend to all justifying documents that refer to taxable matters, whether in the hands of the taxpayers or third parties. These broad provisions cover the gathering of both ownership and accounting information.
Use of Access powers in practice

156. In practice, the tax office that receives the request for information from the EOI Division allocates the case to a tax auditor, who opens an audit. The audit is called a preventive audit if there is no ongoing audit relating to the taxpayer concerned. Otherwise the request is allocated to the tax auditor in charge of the ongoing ordinary audit. A preventive audit can be opened even though the taxpayer has already been the subject of an audit. The same powers are available for preventive and ordinary audits, as the distinction between the two is purely administrative. 157. Tax auditors request information and the necessary documentation from the person concerned and usually give a deadline of 10workingdays for the person to provide the requested information (Administrative Procedure Law 19.549, s.1(E)). If no answer is received within the given deadline, the request is reiterated after 5days. Ex officio (i.e. at its own motion) or at the request of the concerned party, the period of time can be extended for a reasonable time. If there is no answer in the given period and the concerned party does not provide the requested documentation or information, the tax auditor issues a written statement and sends the case to the legal department so an administrative proceeding is started with a view to imposing a fine for non-compliance (usually one month after the initial request; Tax

Procedure Law, s.39(1), see B.1.4 below). If the information is not obtained directly from the audited person, or if it is necessary to crosscheck its truthfulness, the same information or documentation is asked from third parties. Usually the following third parties are requested: Providers or customers of companies, banks, public bodies (such as Migration office and the Property Registry) or any person related to the audited transactions or facts.
Use of information gathering measures absent domestic tax interest (ToRB.1.3)

158. The concept of domestic tax interest describes a situation where a contracting party can only provide information to another contracting party if it has an interest in the requested information for its own tax purposes. 159. The access powers of section35 of the Tax Procedure Law applicable for both domestic and EOI purposes refer to the degree in which those under an obligation or responsibility fulfil the laws, regulations, resolutions and administrative instructions. Similarly, the tax administration can for instance ask questions connected to tax matters under the respective laws (section35(a)). This wording may suggest that to use its information gathering power, the tax administration needs to have a domestic interest in doing so. However, the Decree creating the AFIP provides that the powers of the general administrator include the power to directly request and provide cooperation and reports to foreign tax authorities. The power to provide direct co-operation is interpreted as authorising the AFIP to use the information gathering powers of section35 of the Tax Procedure Law without having an interest in the requested information for Argentinean tax purposes. 160. The Argentinean authorities indicate that the use of section35 of the Tax Procedure Law has never been challenged by a taxpayer or third party.
Enforcement powers (ToRB.1.4)

161. Jurisdictions should have in place effective enforcement provisions to compel the production of information. The Tax Procedure Law 11.683 provides for compulsory measures.
Sanctions for non-disclosure

162. Violation of the obligation to provide information to the AFIP is subject to the penalties provided for in sections39 and 39.2 of the Tax Procedure Law. The same sanctions apply for noncompliance with requirements made by the AFIP, regardless of whether the requirement related to an EOI request or to domestic matters. The fine may range from ARS150 to 45000 (USD33 to 10000, EUR27 to 8050) when a person resists the control, and thus fails
to comply with the requirements of the AFIP agents, thus impeding the AFIP to perform its tasks. If the person persists in this passive resistance, he/she can be fined a second time, even when the previous fines are not yet collected or are being administratively or judicially determined. The amount of the fine is adjusted according to the situation of the taxpayer and the seriousness of the infringement. 163. Pursuant to Decree N 1397/1979, s.49, failure to provide accounting records and underlying documents to the tax official when so requested constitutes passive resistance.
Search and seizure

164. Pursuant to section35(e) of the Tax Procedure Law, search and seizure of documents is possible when necessary, justified and authorised by a federal judge through the issuance of a warrant. The tax auditor can also request the assistance of public forces, with the prior authorisation of the Federal Administrator or an authorised representative, if he/she faces obstacles in gathering information or applying a search warrant (section35(d)).
Use of enforcement measures

165. The Argentinean competent authority indicates that no one has ever refused to provide information in relation to an EOI request, and therefore no sanction has ever been applied. Similarly, the AFIP has never had to use search and seizure for EOI purposes. 166. More generally, the AFIP increasingly uses enforcement measures and applies sanctions for domestic purposes. For instance, in 2010 around 9000 fines representing a total of around ARS9million (USD2million, EUR1.6million) were imposed for failure to comply with a request during an audit. This increased, in the next year, to 12200fines representing ARS 10.4million in 2011 (USD2.3million, EUR1.9million). Search and seizure is not often used in domestic cases in practice, as information can also be found through third parties and the amount of taxes may be decided on the basis of the Economic Reality Principle (an anti-avoidance provision allowing the tax authorities to re-evaluate the value of transactions made by the taxpayer, on the basis of their actual economic substance).
Secrecy provisions (ToRB.1.5)

167. Privacy is guaranteed by the National Constitution (s.19) and the Civil Code (s.1071bis); its violation is penalised by the Criminal Code (s.156). Professional secrecy is defined in particular laws.
Bank secrecy
168. The Financial Entities Law N21.526, s.39, imposes a secrecy obligation on banks and other financial entities. Commercial Banks, Investment Banks, Mortgage Banks, Finance Companies, Savings and Loan Associations for Housing or Other Real Property, Credit Unions and other entities performing all usual intermediation between supply and demand for financial resources may not disclose the financial passive transactions they perform. (Passive transactions are those through which financial entities receive financial and monetary funds from their customers for themselves, e.g. current accounts with or without interest.) The Criminal Code sanctions the breach of professional secrecy without just cause by a fine of ARS1500 to 9000, the deprivation of the right to perform the given profession and 6months to 3years imprisonment (USD334 to 2000, EUR270 to 1600; s.156). 169. However, the Financial Entities Law also provides for exceptions to bank secrecy, when the disclosure of information is required by: i)a judge in a lawsuit; ii)the Central Bank in the exercise of its authority; iii)national, provincial or municipal tax collection agencies, provided the information refers to a specific accountable party, is under a tax audit with respect to that party, and is formally required in advance; and iv) the Tax General Directorate of the AFIP (to which belong the EOI Division and local tax auditors), provided the information is required formally and in advance (i.e. an AFIP official cannot request orally to surrender information immediately). 170. In addition, Law 23.271 was specifically adopted in 1985 for the lifting of bank secrecy for tax purposes: it provides that the bank secrecy established in Law 21.526 (as well as professional secrecy established in Law17.811 on stock exchange) does not apply to information requested by the AFIP, in fulfilment of its legal functions, from any entity or individual which is subject to these laws. The requested information may have a general or limited scope, and refer to one or more specific or nonspecific persons, even if such person(s) is/are not under a tax audit. The law specifies that these are public policy provisions. 171. Finally, under section107 of the Tax Procedure Law, state and private entities, including banks, are obliged to provide the AFIP with all information requested on themselves as well as on natural and legal persons and documents, facts and rights or goods registered, etc. These entities cannot refuse to provide the information by invoking the provisions of laws, charters, or regulations which govern them. 172. Bank secrecy is therefore clearly lifted for tax purposes, including for answering EOI requests.
Access to banking information in practice

173. In practice, the AFIP (local tax auditor) usually first asks the taxpayer for the banking information requested, and if no answer is received, it asks the bank. However, there is no obligation to proceed in this order and the request for information can be made directly to the bank, depending on the particulars of the situation. When requesting information from banks, the AFIP indicates the name of the taxpayer, the bank account number, the information requested, the period to which the request relates, and the form in which it would like to receive the information. A deadline of 10 days is usually set for answering the request, but this may be reduced to a couple of days when the information is easy to collect. Banks can ask for an extension to the response period where justified. 174. The practice of providing the name and bank account number of the person subject to the request has not triggered any problem in practice, since the AFIP maintains a database of all bank accounts in Argentina with the identification of all their account holders. Therefore, if an EOI partner requests information on a bank account without providing the name of the account holder, the EOI Division can check the central database and find the name of the account holder(s) before sending the request to the taxpayer or the bank (however, this type of request has not happened in practice). Similarly, the AFIP can provide information even if the EOI partner provides only the identity of the account holder, without providing the bank name or bank account number. 175. In practice, the three treaty partners of Argentina that have requested banking information from Argentina since 2009 indicated that they have received the information, as noted under sectionA.3 above. These requests related both to the identification of the holders of bank accounts in Argentina and to the holding of bank accounts by specific persons, as well as to copies of deposit slips, cleared cheques, and corporate banking transactions. No difficulties were reported by these treaty partners, and none reported that they would have refrained from requesting this type of information because they would have anticipated no response from Argentina.
Confidentiality rules
176. There is no national definition of the attorney-client privilege in Argentina, as the Code of Ethics of attorneys varies depending on each province. However, the essence of the professional secret is the protection of privacy (National Constitution, s.19 and Civil Code, s.1071bis) and its violation uniformly sanctioned by the Criminal Code with a fine of ARS1500 to 9000, and where appropriate the deprivation of the right to perform the given profession for 6months to 3years (USD334 to 2000, EUR270 to 1600; s.156).

177. The Tax Procedure Law does not mention the attorney-client privilege or professional secrecy more generally, either to lift it for tax purposes or confirm its prevalence over the information gathering powers of the AFIP. 178. Attorney-client privilege is not ruled nation-wide. For instance Law23.187 sets that in the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires attorneys have the duty to respect their professional secrecy, unless the client lifts it (ss.6(f) and 7). The office of the attorney is equally inviolable (s.7). Communications between a client and an attorney, solicitor or other admitted legal representative, in accordance with the standard, are only privileged if, and to the extent that they act in such capacity. Law23.187 does not exhaustively define the scope of the legal privilege, but indicates that there are specific rights of professional secrecy attached to the activities of providing legal advice; and of defending, assisting and representing a client in proceedings. It is unclear whether professional secrecy applies to this limited list of activities or could be extended to other activities such as acting as a trustee, a settlor, a company director or under a power of attorney to represent the company in its business affairs. The Argentine tax authorities nonetheless indicated that trustees and fiduciarios represent the entity before the AFIP (pursuant to Tax Procedure Law, ss. 6(e) and 7) and therefore must provide all requested information independently from the fact that he/she may be a lawyer. 179. Communication is confidential if the client can reasonably have expected the communication to be kept secret. For instance, communications made in the presence of third parties that are neither staff nor otherwise agents of the attorney are not confidential communications. Similarly, communications made to the attorney by the client with the instruction to share them with such third parties are not confidential communications. 180. Similarly, accountants are subject to professional secrecy as derived from the protection of privacy under the National Constitution, s.19 and Civil Code, s.1071bis, as described above. This general duty is further developed on the provincial level. For instance, ss.19 and 20 of the Ethics Code of the Professional Council of Economic Science in the City of Buenos Aires provide that accountants must not reveal any knowledge obtained as a result of their professional work without the express consent of their client, although such duty may be overridden for self-defence reasons, where no means other than the provision of the privileged information are available. 181. The Argentinean authorities indicate that in relation to both lawyers and accountants, professional secrecy is interpreted and applied in a restrictive manner which does not prevent tax authorities from accessing books, registries and other documentation held by lawyers and/or accountants where they exercise their information gathering powers (Tax Procedure Law, s.35). Professional secrecy cannot be claimed by an accountant or attorney where they act in the capacity of representative for a taxpayer (including
legal entity); the professional who acts as representative will be subject to the same obligation to provide information as the taxpayer under s.35 of the Tax Procedure Law. Where an accountant or lawyer does not act as representative of a taxpayer, but nevertheless holds information (such as a taxpayers accounting books), and the taxpayer failed to comply with an information request from the tax authority because they fail to request this information from the professional, the tax authority may obtain a search warrant to obtain such information from the premises of the accountant/attorney, and in such case, the relevant professional would not be able to claim professional secrecy to refuse to comply with the search warrant (Tax Procedure Law, s.35(e)). Argentinean authorities referred to case law to indicate that such a warrant can be obtained by the tax authority even in the context of non-criminal matters12. Finally, Argentinean authorities indicated that where an accountant has provided services as a third party (as opposed to act as a representative of the taxpayer entity), they will be under a direct obligation, pursuant to s.35 of the Tax Procedure Law, to comply with information requests by the tax authority in relation to documents which they have prepared, such as provide copies of audited accounts, in the case of an accountant which has acted as an auditor for a company. 182. The Argentinean competent authority and its EOI partners indicate that professional secrecy never caused any problem in practice either in relation to EOI or in relation to domestic tax matters. There are no cases in which the request has been denied or in which, as a result of the information provided, the professional secrecy has been affected. Nevertheless, the impact of this on international exchange of information in practice should be monitored by Argentina on an ongoing basis.
12.
Opal SCA for Search Warrant 09/17/1970, Federal Contentious-Administrative Court, CourtI; NationalTax Authority DGI for Request of Search Warrant on 12/28/1971, CourtII of the Federal Contentious-Administrative Court.
B.2. Notification requirements and rights and safeguards

The rights and safeguards (e.g.notification, appeal rights) that apply to persons in the requested jurisdiction should be compatible with effective exchange of information.
Not unduly prevent or delay exchange of information (ToRB.2.1)

183. Rights and safeguards should not unduly prevent or delay effective exchange of information. For instance, notification rules should permit exceptions from prior notification (e.g.in cases in which the information request is of a very urgent nature or the notification is likely to undermine the chance of success of the investigation conducted by the requesting jurisdiction). 184. The Argentinean law does not require the notification of the person who is the object of an EOI request. In addition, when requesting information from a person, the Argentinean tax authorities do not have to, and in practice do not, inform the person of the purpose of the request. 185. Conversely, there is also nothing in law which prevents the competent authority or third party requested to inform the person concerned. However, should a bank inform its client that the AFIP requests information, the client cannot instruct the bank to not answer the request from the AFIP. 186. In addition, the person concerned has no appeal right against the information gathering measure of section35, as this is not considered as an administrative decision but as a preliminary act. Section80 of the Decree N1759/72 as amended, which regulates the Administrative Procedures Law N19.549, expressly establishes that: The preliminary measures of administrative decisions, including reports and opinions, even when they are of compulsory requirement and binding on AFIP, are not open to challenge. In turn, the Legal Directorate of the AFIP issued an opinion clearly indicating that The acts through which the audit and control powers of this Body are enforced, including the requestsdo not qualify as administrative acts of individual scope in a strict sense, but they qualify as preliminary acts of administrative decisions instead. Therefore they are not open to challenge. (Opinion N42/2003) 187. Neither can the taxpayer appeal against the decision of delivering the information to a treaty partner, since these acts are not addressed to them. 188. In practice, when the EOI Division is able to answer the EOI request directly, it does not notify the taxpayer concerned. If the information requested is not available on the tax administration database, the competent local tax office requests it from the person concerned, and the representatives of several tax departments met during the on-site visit indicated that even
when they collect the information from the person concerned, they do not inform him/her of the purpose of the request. 189. The Argentinean competent authority has not experienced practical difficulties with the application of rights and safeguards, nor have its EOI partners reported any difficulties noted in Argentina. No legal challenges of the use of information gathering measures or of an exchange of information have occurred in relation to an EOI case.
COMPLIANCE WITH THE STANDARDS: EXCHANGING INFORMATION 57
C. Exchanging Information
Overview
190. Jurisdictions generally cannot exchange information for tax purposes unless they have a legal basis or mechanism for doing so. A jurisdictions practical capacity to effectively exchange information relies both on having adequate mechanisms in place as well as an adequate institutional framework. This section of the report assesses Argentinas network of EOI agreements against the standards and the adequacy of its institutional framework to achieve effective exchange of information in practice. 191. Argentina has a network of agreements that provide for exchange of information in tax matters to 52partner jurisdictions (see annex 2) pursuant to double tax conventions (DTC), tax information exchange agreements (TIEA) and the Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters. The EOI instruments with Bolivia and Switzerland do not meet the standard, and Argentina proposed a TIEA to these jurisdictions to remedy the situation. Some other instruments are awaiting ratification in Argentina and/or in its partner. 192. Argentina continues to expand its EOI network and discussions or negotiations are underway with additional jurisdictions. Comments were sought from Global Forum members in the course of the preparation of this report, and no jurisdiction advised that Argentina had refused to negotiate or conclude such an EOI instrument. However, importantly, Argentina has terminated its DTCs with Chile and Spain, two of its main EOI partners, with effect from 1January 2013. This entails a de facto termination of the accompanying inter-institutional TIEAs with the respective EOI partners. Whilst Argentina and Spain will be able to exchange information for tax purposes under the Multilateral Convention once it enters into force in both jurisdictions, there will be no EOI mechanism between Argentina and Chile from 2013. Accordingly, element C.2 is determined to be in place, but certain aspects of the legal implementation of the element need improvement.
58 COMPLIANCE WITH THE STANDARDS: EXCHANGING INFORMATION

193. All EOI articles in Argentinas instruments have confidentiality provisions which meet the international standard, and its domestic legislation also contains relevant confidentiality provisions. 194. Argentinas EOI instruments ensure that the parties are not obliged to provide information that would disclose any trade, business, industrial, commercial or professional secret or information the disclosure of which would be contrary to public policy. 195. Since 2009, Argentina received 21EOI requests relating to 273persons (including one request covering 226 persons), from sevenof its treaty partners: Brazil, Canada, Chile, France, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain. None of Argentineans EOI (potential) partners indicated that it restricted its requests to Argentina because they would have anticipated a negative reply. Some EOI partners made comments on the generally long time response of the Argentinean competent authority and several partners also highlighted some recent improvements. It is expected that the situation will continue to improve, primarily thanks to the creation in 2010 of an AFIP Division dedicated to managing incoming and outgoing exchange of information requests for tax purposes and coordinating the gathering of the requested information by the local tax offices. 196. Argentina globally sends more requests than it receives and the number of outgoing requests is increasing thanks to training provided to tax investigators in field offices that are better aware of the possibilities of collecting information offered through EOI. Outgoing requests concerned 22jurisdictions in 2011, mainly directed at Spain, Brazil, the United Kingdom and Chile. The Argentinean authorities anticipate that the increase of outgoing requests observed over the last three years may trigger more incoming requests with the development of bilateral relationships in practice.
C.1. Exchange of information mechanisms

Exchange of information mechanisms should allow for effective exchange of information.
197. Argentina can exchange information with 52jurisdictions on several bases: double tax conventions (DTCs), Tax Information Exchange Agreements (TIEAs), the multilateral instrument, and often a combination of two or three of these instruments. 198. First, Argentina concluded 18DTCs from 1976 to 2001. Argentina signed its first DTC with Bolivia in 1976, and this treaty contains a limited provision on consultation and information that does not meet the standards (and is not further discussed under this section).13 As a result, several years
13. The competent authorities of the Contracting States shall consult each other and exchange information as is necessary to resolve, by mutual agreement,
ago Argentina proposed a Memorandum of Understanding in the form of a TIEA to Bolivia which did not respond as of July 2012. The DTC signed with Switzerland in 1997 does not meet the standard either. First, it does not contain any EOI provision and is not in force. Second, whereas at the time of signature of the DTC some notes verbales were exchanged that ensured the possibility of exchange of information, these cover only exchange for the purpose of carrying out the provisions of the treaty. In any event, this treaty has not been ratified by the Argentina Parliament (but was applied provisionally in 20012012, see Annex2). Negotiations between the two jurisdictions are ongoing. 199. Importantly, Argentina just terminated in July 2012 its DTCs with Chile and Spain, its two main EOI partners, with effect from 1January 2013. The DTC with Chile, signed in 1976 and which contains a limited EOI provision, was complemented with a Memorandum of Understanding in the form of a TIEA in 2006.14 The termination of the DTC entails the de facto termination of the TIEA and there will be no EOI mechanism between Argentina and Chile from 2013. 200. The situation is different with Spain. Although the termination of the DTC also entails the termination of the TIEA signed in 2004, both Argentina and Spain signed the Multilateral Convention and its Protocol. Argentina ratified the Multilateral Convention on 30May 2012. EOI will be performed pursuant to this instrument as soon as it comes into force in both jurisdictions. The existing instruments are nonetheless analysed below, to assess the exchange of information performed over the last three years with these partners. 201. Second, Argentina concluded 14TIEAs in 2004-2011, including with some of its existing EOI partners, in order to enhance exchange of information. In addition to the TIEA with Chile and Spain above-mentioned, Argentina also signed a TIEA with Brazil in 2005. These instruments are qualified as inter-agency or inter-institutional agreements in Argentina, as they are Memoranda of Understanding on the application of the EOI provision of the DTCs. Other TIEAs signed by Argentina are qualified as inter-governmental agreements and are equivalent to any international treaties (with all the same legal effects). They may or may not have to be passed by the Parliament,
any difficulty or doubt arising from the application of this Convention and to establish the administrative controls that are necessary to prevent fraud and evasion. The information exchanged according to the preceding paragraph shall be considered as secret and shall not be disclosed to any person other than the authorities that are in charge of the administration of the taxes covered by this Convention. For the purposes of this Article, the competent authorities of the Contracting States may communicate each other directly. The AFIP can sign TIEAs with treaty partners pursuant to section1(b) of the Resolution336/2003 of the Ministry of Economy.
14.

depending on whether they include provisions on the rights and safeguards of taxpayers or introduce new compulsory measures such as the collection of foreign taxes. Inter-agency TIEAs have been signed with Ecuador and Peru (in addition to those with Brazil, Chile and Spain). Inter-governmental TIEAs have been signed with Andorra, The Bahamas, Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, China, Costa Rica, Guernsey, India, Jersey, Monaco, San Marino and Uruguay, pursuant to a TIEA policy developed in sectionC.2 below. 202. Third, in 2011 Argentina became a signatory to the Multilateral Convention, which is in force in 10jurisdictions (see Annex2). The Multilateral Convention was ratified by Argentina on 30May 2012 and Argentina indicated that the ratification instrument will be deposited shortly. The Multilateral Convention provides for administrative co-operation between parties in the assessment and collection of taxes, in particular with a view to combating tax avoidance and evasion. The updated convention provides for exchange of information to the standard. Argentinas exchange of information with 20jurisdictions will occur exclusively under this Convention once in force in Argentina and the partner jurisdictions, as Argentina has no bilateral agreements with them. The Multilateral Convention will be a complementary basis for exchanging information with the 17jurisdictions with which Argentina is already linked by a bilateral EOI instrument. 203. Over the last three years Argentina has received 21EOI requests relating to 273persons (including one request covering 226 persons), from sevenof its treaty partners: Spain, Chile, Canada, Brazil, Italy, France and the Netherlands. None of Argentineans EOI (potential) partners indicated that it restricted its requests to Argentina because they would consider that they would not receive a positive response to the request. 204. Argentina also sends EOI requests, primarily to Spain, Brazil, the United Kingdom and Chile. Outgoing requests are sent to a growing number of jurisdictions, including outside Europe and Latin America, such as to Canada and more recently China or some Caribbean jurisdictions. Argentina globally sends more requests than it receives and the number of outgoing requests is increasing. Outgoing requests concerned 10 cases in 4jurisdictions in 2009, 48cases in 19jurisdictions in 2010 and 145 cases in 22jurisdictions in 2011(Argentina performs different types of statistics to supervise information exchanges. Each of said requests may involve one or more persons and diverse type of information requested). This growing activity reflects the parallel growing awareness of tax auditors of the possibilities of collecting information offered through EOI, particularly because of the issuance in 2010 of a General instruction on the processing and management of international exchange of tax information (see sectionC.5 on training activities). It also reflects the increasing importance given to the analysis of international transactions. The Argentinean authorities anticipate that
the increase of outgoing requests observed in recent years may trigger more incoming requests with the development of bilateral relationships in practice. 205. In addition to exchanging information upon request, Argentina exchanges information automatically with four partners, and spontaneously, although to a smaller extent (less than 10 in 2011). Some joint audit operations have also taken place with a partner. The amount of information exchanged automatically and spontaneously is expected to increase in the coming years, with new IT tools being developed within the EOI Division of the AFIP. 206. Finally the Argentina tax administration uses the good offices of the Ministry for Foreign Relations to collect information, absent a DTC or TIEA. In some instances, the AFIP requests the Argentinean embassies to locate information in the publicly available databases of the foreign jurisdiction, such as the commercial register, the register of real estate properties, etc.
Foreseeably relevant standard (ToRC.1.1)

207. The international standard for exchange of information envisages information exchange upon request to the widest possible extent. Nevertheless it does not allow fishing expeditions, i.e. speculative requests for information that have no apparent nexus to an open inquiry or investigation. The balance between these two competing considerations is captured in the standard of foreseeable relevance which is included in paragraph 1 of Article26 of the Model Tax Convention set out below: The competent authorities of the contracting states shall exchange such information as is forseeably relevant to the carrying out of the provisions of this Convention or to the administration or enforcement of the domestic laws concerning taxes of every kind and description imposed on behalf of the contracting states or their political subdivisions or local authorities in so far as the taxation thereunder is not contrary to the Convention. The exchange of information is not restricted by Articles1 and 2. 208. The Argentinean EOI mechanisms either use the words foreseeably relevant, for the more recent DTCs and TIEAs, or necessary or relevant for the other instruments. The commentary to Article26 of the Model Tax Convention, paragraph5, refers to the standard of foreseeable relevance and states that the Contracting States may agree to an alternative formulation of this standard that is consistent with the scope of the Article, for instance by replacing foreseeably relevant with necessary or relevant. The Argentinean authorities confirm that they make no distinction between these terms. All these agreements therefore meet the foreseeably relevant standard.

209. Argentinas treaty with Germany, dated 1978, restricts exchange of information to carrying out the provisions of the present Convention. Therefore it does not cover all information that may be foreseeably relevant to the implementation of the administration or enforcement of the domestic laws of the parties. However, this deficiency will no longer be an impediment to effective EOI once Argentina and Germany have both ratified the updated Multilateral Convention. 210. In practice, the Argentinean competent authority has never rejected a request that would have been considered as being a fishing expedition. The competent authority raised a doubt once, and answered the request after the partner jurisdiction clarified its request (six months later). Argentina sometimes requests further explanations from the requesting jurisdiction and no peer considered that these questions had amounted to a disguised refusal to answer a request or had any other negative impact on their EOI relationship with Argentina. The Argentinean competent authority indicates that it never declined a request, which is confirmed by its EOI partners.
In respect of all persons (ToRC.1.2)

211. For exchange of information to be effective it is necessary that a jurisdictions obligation to provide information is not restricted by the residence or nationality of the person to whom the information relates or by the residence or nationality of the person in possession or control of the information requested. For this reason the international standard for exchange of information envisages that EOI mechanisms will provide for exchange of information in respect of all persons and paragraph1 of Article26 of the Model Tax Convention indicates that The exchange of information is not restricted by Article1 that defines the personal scope of application of the Convention (DTCs apply to persons who are residents of one or both of the Contracting States). 212. The treaty with Germany, dated 1978, restricts exchange of information to carrying out the provisions of the present Convention, i.e. double taxation. In this case, EOI is limited to residents because Article1 of the treaty indicates that it applies to persons who are residents of one or both of the Contracting States. The treaty with Germany does not meet the standard but the entry into force of the updated Multilateral Convention in Argentina and Germany will overcome this issue. 213. Most of the TIEAs signed by Argentina contain a provision on their jurisdictional scope which is equivalent to Article2 of the Model TIEA: A requested party is not obligated to provide information which is neither held by its authorities nor in the possession or control of persons who are within its territorial jurisdiction. In addition to the standard provision, the TIEA with China provides for the disclosure of information which is simply present within the territory of the Requested Party, independently of who
is in possession of the information. The TIEA with Jersey also provides for an additional criterion of obtainable by, in addition to the model wording of in the possession of, or in the control of, persons who are within its territorial jurisdiction. The TIEA concluded by Argentina with Guernsey also contains a different wording, as the expression in control of is substituted with the expression obtainable by persons who are within its territorial jurisdiction (in Article1), and a request for information should only be made only where it is unable to obtain the requested information by other means (Article5). Interpretive clarifications by Argentinas and Guernseys authorities confirm that the choice of words should not reduce EOI. 214. In practice no issue has arisen in relation to the type of person requested to provide information, except when the person subject to the request was no longer present in the Argentina territory (especially foreigners that came in Argentina to work and had gone back to their country).
Exchange information held by financial institutions, nominees, agents and ownership and identity information (ToRC.1.3)
215. Jurisdictions cannot engage in effective exchange of information if they cannot exchange information held by financial institutions, nominees or persons acting in an agency or a fiduciary capacity. Both the Model Tax Convention and the Model TIEA, which are the authoritative sources of the standards, stipulate that bank secrecy cannot form the basis for declining a request to provide information and that a request for information cannot be declined solely because the information is held by nominees or persons acting in an agency or fiduciary capacity or because the information relates to an ownership interest.
Bank information
216. All inter-governmental TIEAs concluded by Argentina explicitly forbid the requested jurisdiction from declining to supply the information requested solely because it is held by a financial institution, nominee or person acting in an agency or a fiduciary capacity, or because it relates to ownership interests in a person, in conformity with Article5(4) of the Model TIEA. 217. None of Argentinas DTCs currently in force includes a similar provision (equivalent to Article26(5) of the Model Tax Convention) as the latest DTC signed by Argentina dates back 2001, at a time when paragraph5 was not part of the Model DTC (as it was introduced in 2005). However, the absence of this paragraph, in either a DTC or a TIEA, does not automatically create restrictions on exchange of bank information in Argentina. The commentary on Article26(5) indicates that whilst paragraph5 represents a change in the structure of the Article, it should not be interpreted

as suggesting that the previous version of the Article did not authorise the exchange of such information. Until July2011, Belgium could not exchange bank information when paragraph5 was not included in Article26, and the treaty was until then not to the standard. Since then, Belgium is able to exchange bank information with Argentina on the basis of reciprocity. The two jurisdictions exchanged a letter to this effect and their EOI instrument is now considered to meet the standard. Argentina has access to bank information for tax purposes in its domestic law (see sectionB), and pursuant to its treaties is able to exchange this type of information when requested, on a reciprocal basis, i.e. where there are no domestic impediments to exchange bank information in the case of the requesting party. 218. In practice, when Argentina receives an EOI request from a jurisdiction, with which the treaty does not contain Article26(5), the tax authorities check whether the requesting jurisdiction would be able to provide banking information on the basis of reciprocity. Three treaty partners have requested various banking information from Argentina in practice and this did not give rise to any problem, despite the fact that the concerned treaties do not contain the equivalent of Article26(5) of the OECD Model Tax Convention.
Absence of domestic tax interest (ToRC.1.4)

219. The concept of domestic tax interest describes a situation where a contracting party can only provide information to another contracting party if it has an interest in the requested information for its own tax purposes. An inability to provide information based on a domestic tax interest requirement is not consistent with the international standard. Contracting parties must use their information gathering measures even though invoked solely to obtain and provide information to the other contracting party. 220. None of the DTCs of Argentina include the provision contained in Article26(4) added in 2005 to the OECD Model Tax Convention, which states that the requested party shall use its information gathering measures to obtain the requested information, even though that [it] may not need such information for its own tax purposes. However, the absence of a similar provision does not in principle create restrictions on exchange of information, provided there is no domestic tax interest impediment to exchange information in the case of either contracting party (see Commentary19.6 to the OECD Model Tax Convention). Argentinas domestic powers to access relevant information are not constrained by a requirement that the information must be required for a domestic tax purpose. 221. All of the TIEAs concluded by Argentina explicitly permit the information to be exchanged, notwithstanding that it may not be required for a domestic tax purpose.
222. Argentinas Agreements with Brazil, Chile, Peru and Spain do not use the same wording but nonetheless indicate, in each case, that the requested authority must obtain the information as if it was for its own tax purposes, which excludes a domestic tax interest requirement. 223. In practice, the issue of domestic tax interest has never triggered any issue in EOI, especially as the seven jurisdictions that requested information from Argentina over the last three years do not need to have a domestic tax interest to exchange information (Brazil, Canada, Chile, France, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain). The Argentinean authorities have indicated that, in practice, they exercise reciprocity on this basis; when evaluating their response to an EOI request, the Argentinean authorities will take into account the requesting jurisdictions past refusal to provide information on request to Argentina, based on an absence of domestic interest.
Absence of dual criminality principles (ToRC.1.5)

224. The principle of dual criminality provides that assistance can only be provided if the conduct being investigated (and giving rise to an information request) would constitute a crime under the laws of the requested jurisdiction if it had occurred in its jurisdiction. In order to be effective, exchange of tax information should not be constrained by the application of the dual criminality principle. 225. There is no dual criminality provision in the Argentinean DTCs and TIEAs, and in practice, no issue linked to dual criminality arose.
Exchange of information in both civil and criminal tax matters (ToRC.1.6)

226. Information exchange may be requested both for tax administration purposes and for tax prosecution purposes. The international standard is not limited to information exchange in criminal tax matters but extends to information requested for tax administration purposes (also referred to as civil tax matters). 227. All of the EOI articles in DTCs signed by Argentina may be used to obtain information to deal with both civil and criminal tax matters. Some recent DTCs contain the explicit wording of Article26(1) of the OECD Model Tax Convention, which refers to information foreseeably relevant for carrying out the provisions of this Convention or to the administration and enforcement of the domestic [tax] laws. The TIEAs make express provision to this effect in their article1. Most DTCs refer more broadly to information necessary for carrying out the provisions of the Convention or of the domestic laws concerning taxes covered by the Convention, without excluding either civil or criminal matters. (The EOI article in a few DTCs specifically

mentions that the information exchange will occur including for the prevention of fraud and/or evasion in relation to taxes, which are criminal matters.) 228. In practice, Argentina was requested and provided information related to both civil and criminal tax matters.
Provide information in specific form requested (ToRC.1.7)

228. In some cases, a Contracting State may need to receive information in a particular form to satisfy its evidentiary or other legal requirements. Such forms may include depositions of witnesses and authenticated copies of original records. Contracting States should endeavour as far as possible to accommodate such requests. The requested State may decline to provide the information in the specific form requested if, for instance, the requested form is not known or permitted under its law or administrative practice. A refusal to provide the information in the form requested does not affect the obligation to provide the information. 230. The majority of the TIEAs concluded by Argentina allow for information to be provided in the specific form requested, to the extent allowable under the requested jurisdictions domestic laws, on the basis of Article5(3) of the Model TIEA. The TIEA with Monaco specifically provides for information to be provided in the form of witness statements, if requested and the Agreement with Spain specifically provides for information in the form of statement of individuals. However, these agreements do not contain any restrictions which would prevent Argentina from providing information in another specific form, so long as this is consistent with its own administrative practices. 231. On the other hand, most of Argentinas treaties do not expressly address this question but they do not contain any restrictions either. As an exception a few DTCs include a sentence on the form that requested information can take (e.g.Canada). 232. In practice, no issue linked to the form of information exchanged has been raised by its EOI partners. The General instruction on the processing and management of EOI requests highlight that the formalities requested by the requesting authority must be fulfilled. All responses provided by Argentina to EOI requests are accompanied by supporting documents which are duly certified by a public official.
In force (ToRC.1.8)
233. Exchange of information cannot take place unless a jurisdiction has EOI arrangements in force. Where EOI arrangements have been signed, the international standard requires that jurisdictions must take all steps necessary to bring them into force expeditiously.
234. Argentina has EOI arrangements in force with 28jurisdictions out of the 52 jurisdictions with which an instrument was signed, most of the gap relating to the Multilateral Convention, which was signed by Argentina in November 2011 and ratified by Argentina on 30May 2012. Argentina indicated that the ratification instrument will be deposited shortly. The Multilateral Convention will come into force in Argentina after the ratification instrument has been deposited in accordance with the terms of the Convention.15 235. Only two of the DTCs signed by Argentina are not in force: the DTC with Russia, which Argentina has ratified but not Russia, and the one with Switzerland. The Argentine Parliament has not yet approved the DTC with Switzerland. Through an Additional Protocol dated on 23November 2000, both Contracting States agreed to provisionally apply the Convention and its Note verbal on exchange of information for carrying out the convention, but Argentina terminated this provisional application on 16January 2012. 236. In addition, two TIEAs signed by Argentina are not yet in force: The TIEAs with India and Uruguay are in Parliament. 237. It remains that two and a half years lapsed between the signature and the ratification of four TIEAs. It is nonetheless noted that the ratification process of some instruments has been more expeditious, from two to nine months, and it is expected that the Ministry of Foreign Relations and Worship responsible for the promotion of the necessary internal procedures for their entry into force, as well as for notifying the treaty partners of the conclusion of such procedures, will continue to apply reasonable deadlines. 238. Finally, as mentioned in the introduction to sectionC.1, Argentina terminated its DTCs with Chile and Spain in July 2012, with effect from 1January 2013.
Be given effect through domestic law (ToRC.1.9)

239. For information exchange to be effective the parties to an EOI arrangement need to enact any legislation necessary to comply with the terms of the arrangement. 240. For a DTC to have effect, its ratification by the President must be authorised by the Parliament, and its text must be published in the Official Gazette.
15.
Article28(5) of the amended Multilateral Convention states that: this Convention shall enter into force on the first day of the month following the expiration of a period of three months after the date of deposit of the instrument of ratification with one of the Depositaries.

241. TIEAs are given effect through different procedures, depending on their legal nature. Some TIEAs signed by Argentina are considered as intergovernmental agreements and go through the same procedure as DTCs: ratification by the President after the approval of the Parliament (e.g.the TIEAs with Andorra, Costa Rica, San Marino, the Bahamas and India). Some other TIEAs are considered as inter-agency agreements of an executive nature, signed by the AFIP pursuant to a delegated power of the President (Decree 618/97, article9(1)(e)). These agreements contain no provision on the rights and safeguards of the individuals (protected by the Constitution) and no other measures that would impose new constraints on nationals, such as the compulsory collection of foreign taxes. These TIEAs enter into force with the exchange of notes through diplomatic channels (e.g.the TIEAs with Chile, Spain and Peru). 242. In relation to the Multilateral Convention, the Ministry of Foreign Relations concluded that no parliamentary procedure was required for its ratification. It is now expected that Argentina will shortly notify its ratification to the depository. 243. Once a DTC, inter-governmental TIEA or inter-agency TIEA comes into force, Argentina does not need to take additional measures to make it effective.
C.2. Exchange of information mechanisms with all relevant partners

The jurisdictions network of information exchange mechanisms should cover all relevant partners.
244. Ultimately, the international standard requires that jurisdictions exchange information with all relevant partners, meaning those partners who are interested in entering into an information exchange arrangement. Agreements cannot be concluded only with counterparties without economic significance. If it appears that a jurisdiction is refusing to enter into agreements or negotiations with partners, in particular ones that have a reasonable expectation of requiring information from that jurisdiction in order to properly administer and enforce its tax laws it may indicate a lack of commitment to implement the standards.
245. Argentina has a broad network of DTCs and TIEAs covering most of its significant trading partners and investors. In addition, Argentina will be able to exchange information with the United States and Mexico under the Multilateral Convention once this comes into force in the respective jurisdictions. In relation to its other significant trading and investor partners namely, Hong Kong, China; and Singapore Argentina has proposed to negotiate TIEAs with these jurisdictions. Hong Kong, China and Singapore have responded to the request with the intention of negotiating a DTC. 246. However, as noted above, Argentina terminated its DTCs with Chile and Spain very recently, in July 2012, with effect from 1January 2013. Whereas EOI will be possible with Spain on the basis of the Multilateral Convention once this enters into force in both jurisdictions, the same does not apply to Chile. This situation may have a serious impact on Argentinas ability to effectively exchange information, since the EOI mechanism of Argentina with one of its main EOI partners will soon no longer apply. Further, due to termination of its EOI instrument with Spain, there may be no legal basis for information exchange if by 1January 2013 the Multilateral Convention has not entered into force in both jurisdictions. 247. Argentina has developed a policy of TIEA negotiation since 2009. The AFIP every year identifies the jurisdictions with which it is of interest to negotiate a TIEA, by taking into account some indicators like their trade operations, financial transactions and international investments, foreign income of residents and withholding taxes on Argentina source income of foreigners, and jurisdictions of no or nominal tax (as listed in section21.7 of the decree on the Income Tax Act). The AFIP then drew up a list of relevant jurisdictions and invited them to negotiate a TIEA. Argentina was also invited to negotiate TIEAs by other potential partners. As a result, Argentina has signed 12TIEAs over the last two years and, as of May 2012, Argentina is negotiating TIEAs with other 19jurisdictions. 248. Argentina signed the Multilateral Convention in November 2011 and ratified this on 30May 2012. Argentina indicated that the ratification instrument will be deposited shortly. 248. As far as DTCs are concerned, Argentina wishes to protect taxation of income at the source and has not signed any new DTC since 2001. Argentina nonetheless set up in 2011 a Commission in charge of monitoring the implementation of the existing DTCs of Argentina. This Commission is composed of representatives of the Ministry of Economy and Public Finances, of the Ministry of Foreign Relations and Worship, and of the AFIP. 240. In some instances, Argentina invited existing DTCs partners to sign a complementary TIEA, especially where the EOI provision of the DTC does not include an equivalent of paragraphs 4 and 5 of the OECD Model Tax

Convention or does not meet the standard. Most partners declined the invitation, considering that a TIEA would not be necessary. Indeed, whereas a TIEA may be a mere inter-administration agreement for Argentina, some partners would consider the TIEA as a full treaty that would need to be adopted by their Parliament, a procedure that is too burdensome for an instrument that would only clarify the modalities of exchange of information. Some other partners counter-proposed to renegotiate the text of the DTC. 251. In no case has a member of the Global Forum reported that after having contacted Argentina in order to negotiate an agreement or a protocol, it received no response or a negative response. In addition, the Argentinean authorities confirmed that they are ready to sign an EOI agreement with any jurisdiction that so requests, preferably in the form of a TIEA, since a DTC would have other tax consequences than allowing exchange of information.
Determination and factors underlying recommendation
Phase1 determination The element is in place, but certain aspects of the legal implementation of the element need improvement. Factors underlying recommendations Argentina will have no EOI instrument with Chile, one of its main EOI partners from January 2013. Recommendations Argentina should sign an EOI instrument with Chile as soon as possible. Argentina should continue to develop its EOI network with all relevant partners. Phase2 rating Compliant.
C.3. Confidentiality
The jurisdictions mechanisms for exchange of information should have adequate provisions to ensure the confidentiality of information received.
252. Governments would not engage in information exchange without the assurance that the information provided would only be used for the purposes permitted under the exchange mechanism and that its confidentiality would be preserved. Information exchange instruments must therefore contain confidentiality provisions that spell out specifically to whom the information can be disclosed and the purposes for which the information can be used. In addition to the protection afforded by the confidentiality provisions of
information exchange instruments, tax jurisdictions generally impose strict confidentiality requirements on information collected for tax purposes.
Information received: disclosure, use, and safeguards (ToRC.3.1) Exchange of information mechanisms
253. The provisions governing confidentiality are based on Article26(2) of the Model Tax Convention (in its successive versions, depending on the date of signature of the treaty in question) or on Article8 of the Model TIEA. Any information received by a Contracting State shall be treated as secret in the same manner as information obtained under the domestic laws of that State and shall be disclosed only to persons or authorities (including courts and administrative bodies) concerned with the assessment or collection of, the enforcement or prosecution in respect of, or the determination of appeals in relation to, the taxes covered by the Agreement. Such persons or authorities shall use the information only for such purposes. They may disclose the information in public court proceedings or in judicial decisions. (Article26(2) of the Model Tax Convention) 254. The majority of Argentinean treaties, the Multilateral Convention and all the TIEAs provide that the information obtained in the course of a request for assistance shall be accessible only to persons directly concerned with or involved in the assessment of taxes, or the administrative control of that assessment, etc.16 Only the use of the first term encompasses the taxpayers or their representatives. However, the Spanish versions of the instruments indistinctly refer to the persons charged with tax duties (las personas encargadas de la gestin o recaudacin de los impuestos). The Argentinean authorities indicate that their treaties follow the official translation of the Model DTC, which does not make a difference between the two English terms. However, the Argentina authorities explain that the adjective encargadas, used in the Spanish versions of the DTCs concluded by Argentina, is both applicable to the persons and authorities, and it means in charge of or responsible for, thus it would not have the same scope as the English expressions concerned with or involved. As a result, information cannot be communicated
16.
The TIEA with The Bahamas also indicates that where information provided for a criminal tax purpose is subsequently to be used for a non-criminal tax purpose, and vice versa, the requested jurisdiction shall be notified of this change in use, if not before, then within a reasonable time of the change in use occurring. This does not alter the application of the standard.

to the taxpayer, his/her proxy or the witnesses by the Argentina competent authority. 255. While an instrument may allow information to be disclosed to the taxpayer, it does not oblige the competent authority to do this. In fact, there may be cases where the information is given in confidence to the requesting party and the source of the information may have a legitimate interest in preventing its disclosure to the taxpayer (see chapter B.2 above). 256. Only a few treaties substantially depart from this model text. The provisions of the DTCs with Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, and Germany restrict the disclosure of information to the authorities concerned with the administration or the assessment and collection of taxes, and do not cover, in particular, disclosure of information in public court proceedings or in judicial decisions. However, in relation to both Brazil and Chile, this is remedied by provisions in their TIEAs with Argentina, as both explicitly provide for the disclosure of the requested information in public court proceedings or judicial decisions in relation to such tax matters. 257. EOI partners may wish to allow the sharing of tax information by tax authorities with other law enforcement agencies and judicial authorities on certain high priority matters (e.g. to combat money laundering, corruption, terrorism financing). They may do so by adding a specific provision to this effect, in accordance with Article8 of the Model TIEA and Commentary12.3 to the Model Tax Convention. Most of the TIEAs of Argentina allow the disclosure of information exchanged for other purposes with the consent of the requested party. They provide that information provided to the competent authority of the requesting party may not be used for any purpose other than for the purposes stated in Article1 without the prior express written consent of the requested party (the exceptions are the TIEAs with Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Peru and Spain). The TIEA with Ecuador provides that information received through EOI may be forwarded to a third jurisdiction with which a DTC exists, with the prior consent of the authority that provided the information. To date, none of the EOI partners of Argentina requested that the information received from Argentina be used for non-tax purposes. 258. Many of the treaties require the information exchanged to be treated as secret in the same manner as information obtained under the domestic law. Argentinas domestic law contains relevant confidentiality provisions under section101 of the Tax Procedure Law (see below).
Argentinean legislation
259. The maintenance of secrecy in the Contracting State receiving information is a matter of domestic laws (whether it is the requested or the requesting jurisdiction). Sanctions for the violation of such secrecy in that State are governed by the administrative and penal laws of that State. 260. Argentinas domestic legislation contains relevant confidentiality provisions under section101 of the Tax Procedure Law: the statements, information and returns that persons concerned or third persons submit to the AFIP are secret, and the AFIP officials have the obligation to keep the information that they are aware of because of their functions absolutely secret, and cannot communicate it to anyone, even with the consent of the person concerned, except to their hierarchical superior. An infringement to this secrecy duty is a criminal offence punishable by imprisonment from a month to two years and exclusion from office for one to four years, pursuant to section157 of the Penal Code. The same sanction applies to third parties who reveal or reproduce this information. 261. DTCs and the Multilateral Convention are above Argentinean laws and therefore the disclosure of information pursuant to an EOI request does not constitute an offence. In addition, for TIEAs which are not above laws, section101 of the Tax Procedure Law expressly lifts the secrecy duty of AFIP officials for EOI purposes. Disposition 98/2009 of the AFIP confirms that the AFIP is exempt from the tax secrecy duty as regards the information sent abroad in compliance with a DTC or a TIEA. The Tax Procedure Law further includes a provision requiring the AFIP officials to receive a commitment from the recipient foreign tax authority to respect the confidentiality of the information transmitted, in the same conditions as those expressed in Article26(2) of the Model DTC. Other exceptions cover courts and prosecutors office, the FIU, etc. that conform to the standard.
All other information exchanged (ToRC.3.2)

262. Confidentiality rules should apply to all types of information exchanged, including information provided in a request, information transmitted in response to a request and any background documents to such requests. A number of Argentinas DTCs and all its TIEAs specify that the confidentiality rules set out in the DTCs and TIEAs (as relevant) apply to all information received. The domestic legislation of Argentina is silent in this respect, and the provision of the EOI instrument applies directly. 263. The general tax database e-fisco is a very comprehensive compilation of data on each individual and entity registered with the AFIP. It gathers financial information (bank accounts, large deposits, etc.), patrimonial information (immoveable properties and rental, vehicles, etc.) and other

information such as the consumption of electricity, gas and telephone. It also contains full ownership information on all entities, with the possibility to click on the names of the shareholders to see their files. 264. To protect the confidentiality of this database, each tax official has its own tax key that he/she must enter for any search or modification to the database. Not all the tax officials have the same level of access to the tax databases, from level1 to level4, depending on the tasks of the agent. When an agent has not the sufficient level of access, he/she must request access through its director. The AFIP also maintains electronic information on audits performed, but each tax auditor has only access to the files he/she is working on. All accesses are tracked and internal auditors question the hierarchical supervisor of the agents that performed unusual access to the database. 265. The EOI Division has developed a separate database dedicated to incoming and outgoing EOI requests, to which only the members of the Division and delegated competent authorities have access, and separate from the other IT systems of the AFIP. Tax auditors from provincial or national offices do not have access to this database, to ensure that the information received from EOI partners is not used for purposes not authorised by the corresponding DTC or TIEA. As for the general tax database e-fisco, every access of the EOI database is logged and the records are subject to an internal audit process. 266. In practice, Argentina and its treaty partners never faced a problem of breach of confidentiality by the Argentinean tax administration. The Argentina authorities also indicate that it never happened that they asked their EOI partner to use the information received for other purposes than the one mentioned in the request. (It has happened once that information exchanged on customs matters was used for tax matters, after the treaty partner authorised such use.)
C.4. Rights and safeguards of taxpayers and third parties

The exchange of information mechanisms should respect the rights and safeguards of taxpayers and third parties.
267. The international standard allows requested parties not to supply information in response to a request in certain identified situations where an issue of trade, business or other legitimate secret arises.
Exceptions to requirement to provide information (ToRC.4.1)

268. All of Argentinas DTCs ensure that the parties are not obliged to provide information which would disclose any trade, business, industrial, commercial or professional secret or information the disclosure of which would be contrary to public policy (ordre public), in a manner consistent with Article26(3)(c) of the Model Tax Convention. 268. The TIEAs of Argentina contain similar provisions (based on the Model TIEA), as well as an express reference to the professional secrecy duties of lawyers (legal privilege), based on Article7, paragraphs2 and 3, of the Model TIEA. Some TIEAs nonetheless do not provide a definition of the privilege or expressly refer to domestic definitions. The Argentinean Tax Procedure Law does not contain any specific prohibition linked to the abovementioned reasons, apart from rules on professional secrecy and attorney secrecy (discussed at section B.1.5 of the present report). 270. The Agreements with Chile and Peru only expressly exclude information, the disclosure of which would be contrary to ordre public; however both agreements also exclude the exchange of information that cannot be obtained under the laws of parties, which would typically cover the above-mentioned secrets. 271. The Argentinean competent authority has so far never used this clause nor has it experienced any practical difficulties on the basis of the application of rights and safeguards in Argentina.
C.5. Timeliness of responses to requests for information

The jurisdiction should provide information under its network of agreements in a timely manner.
Responses within 90 days (ToRC.5.1)

272. In order for exchange of information to be effective it needs to be provided in a timeframe that allows tax authorities to apply the information to the relevant cases. If a response is provided but only after a significant lapse of time, the information may no longer be of use to the requesting authorities. This is particularly important in the context of international cooperation as cases in this area must be of sufficient importance to warrant making a request. Thus, jurisdictions should be able to respond to requests within 90days of receipt by providing the information requested or offering an update on the status of the request. 273. The procedure for exchange of information set forth in Argentinean laws and regulations permit the competent authority to gather and exchange information in a proper timeframe. In particular, no provision would prevent the Argentinean authorities from responding to EOI requests within 90days of receipt of the request, or at least providing a progress report to the requesting jurisdiction. 274. The DTCs of Argentina do not contain any provisions relating to the timeframe of the responses. Conversely, the TIEAs generally require the provision of receipt confirmations, status updates and the provision of the requested information within a given timeframe, following Article5(6) of the OECD Model TIEA: the requested party should confirm receipt of the request in writing and notify any deficiencies in the request within 60days. It should in any event answer as promptly as possible and at least provide a detailed update of the status of the request after 90days, be it because it encounters obstacles in furnishing the information or it refuses to furnish the information (TIEAs with Bermuda, Cayman Islands, China, India, Monaco, and San Marino). 275. Some TIEAs shorten or expand these deadlines: the TIEA with Andorra requires a receipt within 20 days and a response or status report within 60days. The administrative agreements with Brazil, Ecuador and Costa Rica provide for reply timeframes of 3months if the information is held by the governmental authorities and 6 months otherwise, from the date of receipt of the EOI request. If the requested authority cannot answer in these deadlines, it must inform the requesting authority, indicating the expected date of the reply, the nature of the obstacles encountered, or the reasons for refusing to provide the information. The agreements with Brazil and Costa Rica also provides for a receipt within 10 and 40days respectively.
276. Pursuant to the Agreements with Chile and Spain (which complement the respective DTCs) and Peru, the requested party should answer within 6months of the request, unless the difficulty of answering the request justifies an additional 2months. When it appears impossible to answer the request within this deadline or because of difficulties in gathering the information, the requested jurisdiction should inform the requesting jurisdiction and indicate a possible date for the answer or explain the nature of the difficulties. Finally, any refusal to answer an EOI request must be made within 3months. 277. Some other TIEAs are less specific: the TIEAs with the Bahamas, Guernsey and Jersey provide that the requested authority shall acknowledge receipt of a request to the requesting authority, shall advise if there are any unexpected delays in obtaining the requested information, and shall use its best endeavours to forward the requested information to the applicant party with the least possible delay. The variety of deadlines set in various instruments might be difficult to follow by the Argentinean competent authority. It is invited to carefully monitor the implementation of these deadlines.
Practice
278. In practice, since the end of 2011 the competent authority sends acknowledgements of receipts via emails when an email address is provided by the requesting authority. It also quickly informs the requesting authority once the person subject to the request is identified. The EOI database now also sends alert messages to the persons in charge of the system, when a request is not fully answered within 90days. This person then informs the Director of International Taxation. However, these changes are too recent for peers to yet notice a difference of practice. 279. The General instruction on the processing and management of EOI requests did not specify any general deadline for response to the field tax officers or to the EOI Division. It simply indicated that the Directorate of International Taxation, according to the particular case and in order to ensure a timely fulfilment, shall fix a maximum timeline for the providing field office to proceed with the transmission of the relevant total or partial details and/or background information requested. The practice was then to use the deadlines set for sending reminders to EOI partners that would not answer Argentinean requests, i.e. 3months where the information is internally available and 6months when diligences must be conducted to collect the information. 280. These internal deadlines appear quite long and disproportionate for simple requests. The General instruction has therefore been modified: as of May 2012, the local tax office has now 60 days to provide the requested information to the EOI Division and is invited to use all means at its disposal to quickly produce complete information. As an exception, when it is not

possible to gather all the requested information within this deadline, the tax office must provide a status update and send the information already gathered. It must also estimate when it will be able to answer the rest of the request, but by no later than a further 60 days. Reasons for a delay must be the complexity or comprehensiveness of the request, situations where the taxpayer is difficult to locate or when it proves difficult to obtain information from the taxpayers. The EOI database has been modified accordingly: a new field has been added to complete, with the date when the request is sent to the local tax offices, together with an alert system that allows monitoring the 60-day deadline. The alert goes off after 50 days and informs of the situation to the corresponding local tax office via an e-mail. These modifications are welcomed and their implementation in practice should be monitored by the competent authority. 281. In practice, EOI partners indicate that they never or rarely receive information within 90days and one received partial information within this period. Most partners also indicate that they do not receive an update after 90days, unless some partial information is provided, in which case the Argentinean authority informs them of the status of the remaining part of the request. The receiving of partial information as soon as available is however appreciated by partners. 282. Most importantly, most partners reported delays in receiving responses, with partners indicating that they often receive the requested information after 180days or even after a year. These delays primarily relate to requests sent before 2010 and the creation of the EOI Division within the AFIP. The Argentine authorities specified that the most time consuming requests related to non-residents or to persons that had left the country. A representative of the Large Taxpayers Department added that his experience was that the most time consuming requests are those related to old information and voluminous requests. 283. It is expected that with the creation of the Division and the modification of the General instruction the situation will improve in the coming months. The Argentina authorities admitted that the competent authority was in some instances unable to answer incoming requests in a timely way. In addition to the complexity of some requests, they recognised that the nonexistence of explicit deadlines for regional areas to gather information, and excessive workload might have inhibited expedient responses to EOI requests. The Argentinean authorities also consider that the situation that has been successfully managed within the last two years. A peer encouragingly indicated that Argentina answered a request sent in 2011 within 90days and which concerned the tax situation of a taxpayer and some accounting documents. The Argentinean competent authority should closely monitor the situation and the reasons for any delay.
Resources and Organisational process (ToRC.5.2)

284. The TIEAs signed by Argentina indicate that the AFIP is the competent authority, and the DTCs signed by Argentina indicate that the competent authority is the Ministry of Economy. The Minister delegated his power to the head of the AFIP. In turn, the head of the AFIP appointed four officials to act as competent authority for exchanging information pursuant to both the DTCs and the TIEAs of Argentina, with the same powers to sign correspondence and establish direct communications in specific cases: the Deputy Director General of the Sub-Direction General of Tax Examination, the Director of the Directorate of International Taxation, the Head of the International Information Management Department, and the Head of the Exchange of Tax Information Division.17 In practice, they rank in descending order of hierarchy but for EOI purposes, they are equally responsible for all types of exchange: on request, automatic and spontaneous. 285. The names of the four delegated competent authorities appear in the OECD list of competent authorities, which is regularly updated by Argentina. It might be also advisable that Argentina informs its treaty partners individually when the delegated authorities change, especially since before 2003 the competent authority was located in the Ministry of Economy (which forwarded the requests to the AFIP), and there have been instances of some partners continue to send information to this Ministry, years after the change of competence took place. 286. Since 2010, the management of exchange of information requests is centralised in the newly created EOI Division, their implementation is decentralised to regional field offices, and the answers are again centralised in the EOI Division.
Resources
287. Since 2010, EOI is managed in practice by the Exchange of Tax Information Division of the AFIP, composed of six officials and the head of Division. The officials have been recruited recently from all over the offices of the AFIP in Argentina and followed training seminars dedicated to exchange of information as well as courses on practical cases. It is also expected that new agents will be hired in the medium term. The EOI Division can also request assistance from the agents of the Division on Assistance in International Taxation, which belongs to the same Department, and who are experts in transfer pricing and abuses of DTCs for instance.
17. Resolution 336/2003 of the Ministry of Economy and Production concerning the implementation of DTCs; Decree 618/97 for TIEAs; AFIP Disposition258/10 of 15July 2010.

287. The AFIP uses both the OECD Manual and the CIAT Manual as background documents for training seminars. However the General Instruction on EOI is primarily dedicated to field officers wishing to send EOI requests to treaty partners, rather than to the EOI Division handling incoming requests. Some officials of the Division speak English, and translators are available within the Directorate of International Taxation for French, Italian, Portuguese and Russian. There have been no instances yet of requests arriving in other languages than those for which translation is internally available. It might be advisable that the Division offers additional language training to its members, given the widening range of EOI partners of Argentina. 289. The EOI Division has developed an IT tool to manage the incoming and outgoing requests (see C3 and below). This database is being further enhanced, in view of improving the processing and quality of EOI requests emanating from field tax officers. This system will be accessible to the field auditors involved in each case with restricted access to the cases that they are involved in and will permit the creation of deadline alerts at their level. 290. When the requested information is not available in the databases of the tax administration, the EOI Division does not gather the information itself it relies on the operative areas, i.e.the 3000 tax auditors of the Metropolitan Tax Directorate (Buenos Aires), the 27Interior Tax Regional Directorates, and the National Directorate of Tax Examination of Large Taxpayers (which is in charge of around 1200 individuals and 800companies that represent around 55% of the taxes collected). It is therefore important that the tax auditors in charge of collecting the information be aware of the importance of EOI. The AFIP has therefore organised regional training seminars on exchange of information, covering both incoming and outgoing requests. The AFIP also developed a course on EOI in its e-learning virtual campus managed by the School of Tax and Customs. Almost 2000 officers have already taken this course (including the officers of the EOI Division). 291. On top of the training seminars, the Directorate of International Taxation also organises on-site visits to the different regional offices to foster the use of EOI and provide technical assistance regarding the procedures and obligations linked to EOI. 187officers attended these meetings in 2011. This is particularly important as it appears that incoming EOI requests do not particularly relate to persons resident in one particular province of Argentina.
Organisational process
292. The typical routine of an incoming EOI request is schematised in Annex5. Typically: One of the four delegated competent authorities receives the EOI request, and sends it to the EOI Division, which sends it for
translation into Spanish when another language is used and registers the request in its internal EOI database (one file is opened for each person covered in the request). Each of the requests is individualised by a case number according to the country, year of request and type of exchange (upon request, automatic or spontaneous). An officer of the EOI Division then analyses the validity of the request: competence of the signatory of the request, existence of an EOI instrument, basic requirements in the treaty (e.g. fishing expeditions, reciprocity where appropriate). If the request is considered invalid, the treaty partner is informed immediately, but that has not yet happened since the creation of the Division. If the officer has some doubts on the validity of the request or uncertainties on its scope, he/she can ask for clarifications from the requesting jurisdiction (this has occurred in practice). If the request is considered as valid, an acknowledgement is sent to the requesting authority, together with a request for clarifications or more information where necessary. This step is registered in the EOI database. Three possibilities arise at this stage: (i)all the information requested is available in e-fisco and the officer of the EOI Division gathers the information; (ii)only part of the information is available in e-fisco; and (iii)none of the information requested is available in the central database (e.g. contracts or invoices not scanned in e-fisco). In the first two cases, the officer constructs a complete or partial answer and submits it to a three-level hierarchical review. In the second and third case, the officer simultaneously requests the field office, which has competence in relation to the person who is the subject of the request, for the missing information. If a request relates to several persons with differing locations of domicile, the requests are sent separately to the corresponding regional tax offices. This step is also now entered in the EOI database and an alert system is in place which allows monitoring the compliance with the 60-day deadline. When the missing information is received from the field offices, the EOI officer checks the documents received (its completeness, consistency with information in e-fisco) and constructs an answer for hierarchical review by the head of Division, head of Department and Director (which takes three days in average). The answer is then sent to the requesting authority. Argentina always officially answers in Spanish, and may attach a non-signed English translation when requested.

293. Statistics are compiled using the EOI database in relation to requesting jurisdiction, solicited regional or national AFIP offices, steps in the process, etc. Statistics are provided on a weekly basis to the Deputy Director. More general statistics are also provided twice a month to the Ministry of Economy (which is the nominated competent authority in DTCs), indicating the number of requests received and sent to EOI partners, and to the interinstitutional commission to assist its evaluation of the global functioning of the treaties. 294. The competent authority of Argentina has historically worked exclusively through mail. In recent years, it is opening to more direct communications lines, for instance by sending acknowledgements of receipts by email when possible. It does not yet exchange information electronically, having not adhered to a secured system. The competent authority (Director of International Taxation) also commonly communicates by emails and telephone with its main partners: Chile, Brazil, Spain and Italy, and also occasionally with other partners. Field tax auditors in charge of collecting information do not directly communicate with the requesting authority all communications are centralised with the Director to ensure consistency. The Deputy Director General of Tax Examination also attends Global Forum meetings and meets with other competent authorities at these occasions. The EOI partners of Argentina indicated that they were satisfied with the recently improved communication process.
Absence of restrictive conditions on exchange of information (ToRC.5.3)

295. There is no provision in Argentinas legislation or in its EOI instruments that would impose conditions on the exchange of information beyond those contemplated in Article26 of the Model Tax Convention or the Model TIEA. It does not appear either that Argentina has created any restriction on the exchange of information in practice.
Phase1 determination This element involves issues of practice that are assessed in the Phase 2 review. Accordingly no Phase 1 determination has been made.
Phase2 rating Partially Compliant. Factors underlying recommendations Although some progress is noticed for the last year under review, Argentinas competent authority has in many instances been unable to answer incoming requests in a timely manner. Argentinas domestic procedures for handling EOI requests, in particular the long internal timelines allocated for responding to requests until May 2012, appears to have inhibited expedient responses to EOI requests. The new deadline of 60days for regional tax offices to answer requests from the AFIP EOI Division has not been implemented yet. Argentina did not always provide an update or status report to its EOI partners within 90 days in the event that it was unable to provide a substantive response within that time. The structure of the competent authority and management of EOI requests has drastically changed since 2010, and specific responsibilities and working procedures have been introduced. Recommendations Argentina should ensure that the new internal deadlines are respected to enable it to respond to EOI requests in a timely manner, and consider further what measures could be taken to shorten the response time.
Argentina should ensure that the new system put in place to provide updates to EOI partners after 90 days in those cases where it is not possible to provide a complete response within that timeframe operates effectively. Argentina should monitor the implementation of the General Instruction on the processing and management of EOI requests, and of the internal processes of the EOI Division as practice develops, and improve them as necessary.
SUMMARY OF DETERMINATIONS AND FACTORS UNDERLYING RECOMMENDATIONS 85
Summary of Determinations and Factors Underlying Recommendations

Factors underlying recommendations
Determination/rating
Recommendations
Jurisdictions should ensure that ownership and identity information for all relevant entities and arrangements is available to their competent authorities. (ToRA.1) Phase1 determination: the element is in place Phase2 rating: Compliant. Jurisdictions should ensure that reliable accounting records are kept for all relevant entities and arrangements. (ToRA.2) Phase1 determination: the element is in place Phase2 rating: Compliant. Banking information should be available for all account-holders. (ToRA.3) Phase1 determination: the element is in place Phase2 rating: Compliant.
86 SUMMARY OF DETERMINATIONS AND FACTORS UNDERLYING RECOMMENDATIONS

Determination/rating
Recommendations
Competent authorities should have the power to obtain and provide information that is the subject of a request under an exchange of information arrangement from any person within their territorial jurisdiction who is in possession or control of such information (irrespective of any legal obligation on such person to maintain the secrecy of the information). (ToRB.1) Phase1 determination: the element is in place. Phase2 rating: Compliant. The rights and safeguards (e.g. notification, appeal rights) that apply to persons in the requested jurisdiction should be compatible with effective exchange of information. (ToRB.2) Phase1 determination: the element is in place Phase2 rating: Compliant. Exchange of information mechanisms should allow for effective exchange of information. (ToRC.1) Phase1 determination: the element is in place Phase2 rating: Compliant. The jurisdictions network of information exchange mechanisms should cover all relevant partners. (ToRC.2) Phase1 determination: the element is in place, but certain aspects of the legal implementation of the element need improvement Phase2 rating: Largely Compliant. The jurisdictions mechanisms for exchange of information should have adequate provisions to ensure the confidentiality of information received. (ToRC.3) Argentina will have no EOI instrument with Chile, one of its main EOI partners from January 2013. Argentina should sign an EOI instrument with Chile as soon as possible. Argentina should continue to develop its EOI network with all relevant partners.
SUMMARY OF DETERMINATIONS AND FACTORS UNDERLYING RECOMMENDATIONS 87
Determination/rating Phase1 determination: the element is in place Phase2 rating: Compliant.
Recommendations
The exchange of information mechanisms should respect the rights and safeguards of taxpayers and third parties. (ToRC.4) Phase1 determination: the element is in place Phase2 rating: Compliant. The jurisdiction should provide information under its network of agreements in a timely manner. (ToRC.5) Phase1 determination: This element involves issues of practice that are assessed in the Phase 2 review. Accordingly no Phase1 determination has been made.
88 SUMMARY OF DETERMINATIONS AND FACTORS UNDERLYING RECOMMENDATIONS

Factors underlying recommendations Although some progress is noticed for the last year under review, Argentinas competent authority has in many instances been unable to answer incoming requests or provide updates on the status of requests within 90days. Argentinas domestic procedures for handling EOI requests, in particular the long internal timelines allocated for responding to requests until May 2012, appears to have inhibited expedient responses to EOI requests. The new deadline of 60days for regional tax offices to answer requests from the AFIP EOI Division has not been implemented yet. Argentina did not always provide an update or status report to its EOI partners within 90 days in the event that it was unable to provide a substantive response within that time. The structure of the competent authority and management of EOI requests has drastically changed since 2010, and specific responsibilities and working procedures have been introduced.
Determination/rating Phase2 rating: Partially Compliant.
Recommendations Argentina should ensure that the new internal deadlines are respected to enable it to respond to EOI requests in a timely manner, and consider further what measures could be taken to shorten the response time.
Argentina should ensure that the new system put in place to provide updates to EOI partners after 90 days in those cases where it is not possible to provide a complete response within that timeframe operates effectively. Argentina should monitor the implementation of the General Instruction on the processing and management of EOI requests, and of the internal processes of the EOI Division as practice develops, and improve them as necessary.
ANNEXES 89
Annex 1: Jurisdictions Response totheReport18

Argentina would like to express its gratitude to the Secretariat of the Global Forum and the Assessment Team for all the hard work they have done with the report. We really appreciate the excellent predisposition and feedback, and the constructive way in which the review was carried on. This constructive process helped us to introduce and implement during the last years systemic, regulatory and structural reforms in our system. Especially those that allow us to provide final responses in a timely manner or, if that is not possible, an updated status of the request received. In relation to our network of agreements we consider important to mention the following recent developments: Multilateral Convention: the instrument of ratification was deposited with the OECD on September 13th and the Convention entered into force in Argentina on January 1st, 2013. Tax Agreement with India effective date: January 28th, 2013 (published in the Official Gazette on January 18th, 2013). It is important to mention that the network of partners for information exchanges continues to grow, including South Africa (signature: August 2nd, 2013), Macedonia (April 26th, 2013), Azerbaijan (December 17th, 2012), Aruba (September 30th, 2013), and the Isle of Man (December 14th, 2012), by means of bilateral agreements.In addition, the texts of the agreements with the Virgin Islands and Jamaica were initialed. The DTA signed with the Russian Federation entered into force on October 16th, 2012. By other hand, it is worth mentioning that we have signed a new DTA with Spain, with retroactive effect to January 1st, 2013, and which contains the updated version of Article 26.
18.
This Annex presents the jurisdictions response to the review report and shall not be deemed to represent the Global Forums views.
90 ANNEXES
Negotiations with Chile were initiated in order to sign a new TIEA; in addition, there are also negotiations for the signature of a DTA with that country.
With regard to the 60-day compliance standard established for the collection of information by the operational areas, this is permanently monitored with an alert system allowing the possibility of registering a complaint with the responsible operational area and, when it is necessary, provide the information to the counterparty or give a report regarding the status of the proceedings. Such system allows to check in due time and proper form the terms and the status of each request. Other measure implemented to provide a response within the terms established is the implementation of new information regimes, in some cases contemporary with the time the events took place (within 10 days) and even anticipated, identifying non resident subjects in a more precise and broad way. Such measures were introduced by the following AFIPs General Resolutions: N3421 Annex VII (trading derivatives)and VIII(income and investment in the country by non resident subjects); N1122,Section 6 (digital signature); N3417 (advance affidavit on service imports) and N 3276 (advance affidavit on foreign payments). Since 2012, we acknowledge receipt of all information requests and, if it is necessary, we provide with a status update of the request (by emails to the corresponding Competent Authorities of the counterparties). As a result of all the measures exposed in this follow-up, the response terms decreases considerably over time, observing that in 2012 and 2013 are very short or are under the terms recommended in your review, as it was informed to the Global Forum.
ANNEXES 91
Annex 2: List of Exchange of Information Mechanisms
Multilateral agreement
295. Argentina signed the amended Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters (the Multilateral Convention), which is currently in force in the case of 15parties: Denmark, Finland, France, Georgia, Iceland, India, Italy, Korea, Mexico, Moldova, Norway, Poland, Slovenia, Sweden and the United Kingdom. The Protocol amending this Convention or the amended convention has been signed by 38jurisdictions, including Argentina. The initial Multilateral Convention is also in force with respect to 6jurisdictions (which are not parties to the protocol): Azerbaijan, Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain, the Ukraine, and the United States. The chart of signatures and ratification of the Multilateral Convention is available at www.oecd.org/documen t/14/0,3746,en_2649_33767_2489998_1_1_1_1,00.html.
Bilateral agreements
296. The table below contains the list of information exchange agreements (TIEA) and tax treaties (DTC) signed by Argentina as of August 2012. For jurisdictions with which Argentina has several agreements, a reference to the multilateral agreement is placed in parentheses (multilateral). The text of the DTCs and TIEAs is available on the website of the Argentinean Tax Administration (in Spanish). When the date of signature is followed by a date in parentheses, the latter refers to the signature of the agreement, while the former refers to the signature of the protocol.
92 ANNEXES
Type of EoI arrangement Inter-governmental TIEA DTC multilateral 3 Azerbaijan Multilateral
Treaty partner 1 2 Andorra Australia
Date signed 26October 2009 27August 1999 -
Date in force 15June 2012 31December 1999 In force in Australia non amended Convention in force in Azerbaijan 27July 2012 21July 1999 non amended Convention in force in Belgium 14October 2011 4June 1979 1January 1983 22April 2005 30December 1994 31August 2012 19December 1985 terminated from 1January 2013 25October 2006 16September 2011
4 5
Bahamas Belgium
Inter-governmental TIEA DTC multilateral
3December 2009 12June 1996 (protocol signed)
6 7 8
Bermuda Bolivia Brazil
Inter-governmental TIEA DTC DTC Inter-agency TIEA multilateral
22August 2011 30October 1976 17May 1980 21April 2005 signed 29April 1993 signed 18October 2011 13November 1976
9 10 11
Canada Cayman Islands Chile
DTC multilateral Inter-governmental TIEA DTC
Inter-agency TIEA 12 13 14 China Colombia Costa Rica Inter-governmental TIEA Multilateral Inter-governmental TIEA multilateral
24October 2006 13December 2010 signed 23November 2009 signed
12July 2012
ANNEXES 93
Treaty partner 15 Denmark
Type of EoI arrangement DTC multilateral
Date signed 12December 1995 23May 2011 13December 1994 4April 1979 signed 13July 1978 signed signed 28July 2011 signed 21November 2011 3November 2011 3November 2011 15November 1979 signed 28July 2011 13October 2009
Date in force 3September 1997 in force in Denmark 24May 2011 5December 1996 in force in Finland 1March 1981 in force in France in force in Georgia 25November 1979
16 17 18 19 21
Ecuador Finland France Ghana Germany
Inter-agency TIEA DTC multilateral DTC multilateral multilateral multilateral DTC multilateral Multilateral Inter-governmental TIEA multilateral Inter-governmental TIEA multilateral multilateral multilateral DTC multilateral multilateral Inter-governmental TIEA multilateral multilateral multilateral Inter-governmental TIEA
20 Georgia
22 Greece 23 Guernsey 24 Iceland
4January 2012 in force in Iceland Not yet in force in force in India Ratified by Argentina on 30May 2012 Ratified by Argentina on 30May 2012 15December 1983 in force in Italy 9December 2011 in force in Korea in force in Mexico in force in Moldova 8August 2010
25 India
26 Indonesia 27 Ireland 28 Italy 29 Japan 30 Jersey 31 Korea
32 Mexico 33 Moldova 34 Monaco
94 ANNEXES
Type of EoI arrangement DTC multilateral
Treaty partner 35 Netherlands
Date signed 27December 1996 (protocol signed)
Date in force 11February 1998 Non-amended Convention in force in the Netherlands 30December 2001 in force in Norway 8October 2004 in force in Poland DTC ratified by Argentina 16June 2012 in force in Slovenia 28July 1994 terminated from 1January 2013 1June 2004 terminated from 1January 2013 Non amended Convention in force in Spain 10May 1997 in force in Sweden Not in force (1January 2001 16January 2012)
36 Norway 37 Peru
DTC multilateral Inter-agency TIEA multilateral multilateral DTC multilateral
8October 1997 7October 2004 signed 10October 2001 signed 7December 2009 signed 21July 1992
38 Poland 39 Portugal 40 Russia
41 42
San Marino Slovenia
Inter-governmental TIEA multilateral multilateral DTC
43 South Africa 44 Spain
Inter-agency TIEA
7May 2004
multilateral
(protocol signed)
45 Sweden 46 Switzerland*
DTC multilateral DTC
31May 1995 23April 1997
*The Argentine Parliament has not yet approved the Convention with Switzerland. Through an Additional Protocol dated on 23November 2000, both Contracting States agreed to provisionally apply the Convention and its Protocols from 1January 2001, till 16January 2012 (date of cessation of the provisional application). Even though exchange of information is not covered in the Convention, it has been instrumented by both Contracting States through the exchange of notes verbales.
ANNEXES 95
Treaty partner 47 Tunisia 48 Turkey 49 Ukraine
Type of EoI arrangement multilateral multilateral multilateral
Date signed signed (protocol signed)
Date in force in force in Turkey non amended multilateral in force in Ukraine 1August 1997 multilateral in force in the UK non amended multilateral in force in the US Ratified by Argentina on 9August 2012
50 United Kingdom
DTC multilateral
3January 1996 (protocol signed)
51
United States
multilateral
52
Uruguay
TIEA
23April 2012
96 ANNEXES
Annex 3: List of Laws, Regulations and Other Relevant Material
Company Laws
Civil Code Law 19.550 on Commercial Companies Law 12.962 on Mixed Economy Companies Law 21.526 on Financial Entities Law N24.587 on the individualisation of private securities Law 24.441 on Fideicomisos Law 19.836 on Foundations IGJ General Resolution 7/05
Tax matters
Income Tax Law Tax Procedure Law (11.683) AFIP General Resolutions, including GR n3312 on a regime of information and registration of the operations of Argentinean fideicomisos and foreign trusts, and GR n3293 on electronic declarations Law 26.047 and Law 20.628 on Profits Tax
Other matters
Criminal Code Laws 17.811, 20.705, 22.315 Anti-Money Laundering Law 25.246 and FIU resolutions
ANNEXES 97
Annex 4: Persons Interviewed During the On-Site Visit

The assessment team met with representatives of the following entities: Federal Administration of Public Revenue (Administracin Federal de Ingresos Pblicos or AFIP) Ministry of Finance Superintendence of Corporations (IGJ) Argentine Federation of Professional Councils of Economic Sciences Central Bank of the Argentine Republic National Securities Commission
98 ANNEXES
Annex 5: Flow Diagram of the Process of Management Applicable to Incoming Requests

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TABLE OF CONTENTS 3

ABOUT THE GLOBAL FORUM 5

About the Global Forum

Information and methodology used for the peer review of Argentina

General information on the legal system

Argentinean general tax system

Argentina and the standards

Overview of the financial sector and relevant professions

COMPLIANCE WITH THE STANDARDS: AVAILABILITY OF INFORMATION 19

Compliance with the Standards

20 COMPLIANCE WITH THE STANDARDS: AVAILABILITY OF INFORMATION

A.1. Ownership and identity information

COMPLIANCE WITH THE STANDARDS: AVAILABILITY OF INFORMATION 21

Companies (ToR6 A.1.1)

22 COMPLIANCE WITH THE STANDARDS: AVAILABILITY OF INFORMATION

COMPLIANCE WITH THE STANDARDS: AVAILABILITY OF INFORMATION 23

Information held by the Argentinean authorities

24 COMPLIANCE WITH THE STANDARDS: AVAILABILITY OF INFORMATION

COMPLIANCE WITH THE STANDARDS: AVAILABILITY OF INFORMATION 25

26 COMPLIANCE WITH THE STANDARDS: AVAILABILITY OF INFORMATION

Information held by companies

COMPLIANCE WITH THE STANDARDS: AVAILABILITY OF INFORMATION 27

28 COMPLIANCE WITH THE STANDARDS: AVAILABILITY OF INFORMATION

Bearer shares (ToRA.1.2)

COMPLIANCE WITH THE STANDARDS: AVAILABILITY OF INFORMATION 29

Information held by the Argentinean authorities

30 COMPLIANCE WITH THE STANDARDS: AVAILABILITY OF INFORMATION

Information held by the partnership and service providers

COMPLIANCE WITH THE STANDARDS: AVAILABILITY OF INFORMATION 31

32 COMPLIANCE WITH THE STANDARDS: AVAILABILITY OF INFORMATION

COMPLIANCE WITH THE STANDARDS: AVAILABILITY OF INFORMATION 33

34 COMPLIANCE WITH THE STANDARDS: AVAILABILITY OF INFORMATION

Practical consequences and conclusion

COMPLIANCE WITH THE STANDARDS: AVAILABILITY OF INFORMATION 35

Other entities and arrangements Sociedades civiles

36 COMPLIANCE WITH THE STANDARDS: AVAILABILITY OF INFORMATION

Enforcement provisions to ensure availability of information (ToRA.1.6)

COMPLIANCE WITH THE STANDARDS: AVAILABILITY OF INFORMATION 37

38 COMPLIANCE WITH THE STANDARDS: AVAILABILITY OF INFORMATION

A.2. Accounting records

General requirements (ToRA.2.1)

COMPLIANCE WITH THE STANDARDS: AVAILABILITY OF INFORMATION 39

40 COMPLIANCE WITH THE STANDARDS: AVAILABILITY OF INFORMATION

Underlying documentation (ToRA.2.2)

COMPLIANCE WITH THE STANDARDS: AVAILABILITY OF INFORMATION 41

5-year retention standard (ToRA.2.3)

Accounting information exchanged in practice

42 COMPLIANCE WITH THE STANDARDS: AVAILABILITY OF INFORMATION

A.3. Banking information

Record-keeping requirements (ToRA.3.1) Banking information maintained by financial institutions

COMPLIANCE WITH THE STANDARDS: AVAILABILITY OF INFORMATION 43

Banking information maintained by the tax authorities

44 COMPLIANCE WITH THE STANDARDS: AVAILABILITY OF INFORMATION

Banking information requested in practice

COMPLIANCE WITH THE STANDARDS: ACCESS TO INFORMATION 45

46 COMPLIANCE WITH THE STANDARDS: ACCESS TO INFORMATION

B.1. Competent Authoritys ability to obtain and provide information

COMPLIANCE WITH THE STANDARDS: ACCESS TO INFORMATION 47

Use of Access powers in practice

48 COMPLIANCE WITH THE STANDARDS: ACCESS TO INFORMATION

Use of information gathering measures absent domestic tax interest (ToRB.1.3)

Enforcement powers (ToRB.1.4)

Sanctions for non-disclosure

COMPLIANCE WITH THE STANDARDS: ACCESS TO INFORMATION 49

Search and seizure

Use of enforcement measures

Secrecy provisions (ToRB.1.5)

50 COMPLIANCE WITH THE STANDARDS: ACCESS TO INFORMATION

COMPLIANCE WITH THE STANDARDS: ACCESS TO INFORMATION 51