The Government expanded the use of money laundering funds for construction

The Government formalized the modification of two articles of the regulation of Money Laundering for Construction, approved December of last year. In this way, the use of laundered capital will be allowed within the framework of this initiative for the purchase of used properties that can be used for permanent housing or for rent with a minimum of ten years of lease. The bill was approved by Congress in December last year, in order to boost the construction sector and also facilitate the externalization of undeclared capital. Decree 18/2023, published this Friday in the Official Gazette, expands the investment items, which is expected to lead to a greater flow of investments. Article 1 of the aforementioned regulation establishes the replacement of article 2 of Decree 556/2022 and announces that the use of capital will be expanded. “The funds that are declared must be used for development or investment, in real estate projects in the Argentine Republic or for the acquisition of a used property,” the decree clarifies. For its part, in the case of the used property, the decree details that they are all those that “have been inhabited or affected to lease, use, usufruct, habitation, antichresis, surface or other real rights”. It is also clarified that the property “affected to lease with exclusive destination to house-room, the tenant or the tenant should not be the owner of any property, whatever the proportion”. This had been anticipated in the treatment of the project. Taking into account that money laundering will not only allow the purchase of used homes, but also their investment in the development of real estate, it was stressed that the Federal Administration of Public Revenues (AFIP) will be responsible for dictating the complementary rules to the form of accreditation of the acquisition of the used property and the verification of compliance with the requirements and destinations. AFIP had prepared and published the regulations aimed at regulating the purchase and sale of real estate that has been acquired with laundered funds. People who have undeclared money may apply in this law that begins with an aliquot on the total declared of 5% in the first 90 days of the entry into force of the project. Those who reported the funds between 90 and 180 days from the entry into force, paid a rate of 10%. Those who do so from 180 days until the expiration of the term, towards the end of 2023, will pay a 20% aliquot. This tax cannot be paid with money laundered in the operation, so it is necessary to have these amounts available to face the payment of the tax. Based on the text of the law, it is established that the purchase of used real estate for two types of purposes. On the one hand, “exclusive destination” for the use of own housing of the one who laundered, or on the other hand, the case in which it is destined to the traditional rental for family housing for a period that may not be less than 10 years. Likewise, the Ministry of Commerce will exempt these transfers in the Import System of the Argentine Republic (SIRA) for the calculation of the Economic and Financial Capacity (CEF). In addition to the period of almost one year for laundering, the measure establishes a special tax whose rate will be 5% of what is declared, if it is done within the first 90 days of the creation of the regime; 10% if done in the next 90 days and 20% if done in the last 180 days.

Original source in Spanish