Gov't makes official abroad purchases tax

Government made official that all debit card purchases abroad, including Internet transactions, will be charged with an additional 15 percent income tax advance, as the decree signed by the AFIP tax agency ruling the measure was published today at the Official Gazette.

Resolution 3,379 resolution, made public today, is an extension of measures announced last Thursday by AFIP's head Ricardo Echegaray charging credit and debit card purchases with a 15% tax.

The agency also informed the new tax will be deductible from both income tax and personal assets taxes.

Thus, AFIP seeks to have a stronger grasp on contributors, who according to the tax bureau’s data spent 7.4 billion pesos between January and June 18th 2012 in purchases made abroad and paid with 168,000 credit cards.