Bank Account Taxes (impuesto sobre los débitos y créditos bancarios)

Continuing our series on Argentina's taxes, today I am going to review the system of Bank Account Taxes, known officially as impuesto sobre los débitos y créditos bancarios. It is known more commonly as the check tax or impuesto al cheque. As the name suggests, the tax is charged on all credits and debits in a bank account. The amount of the tax is 0.6% for each credit and debit operation that appears in a bank account.

How The Tax Works
This means that paying anyone by check or via a checking account will result in a 1.2% tax above and beyond the payment issued. Take a hypothetical payment of $1000 pesos. You'll be charged $6 to make the deposit and another $6 when the money leaves the account.

As a small concession, a portion of this tax can be used as a credit against income tax owed. However, the amount is a small portion of the overall tax.

Exemptions
This tax can be easily avoided by non-business users of bank accounts by opening and transacting using savings accounts, which are not subject to the tax. The special salary accounts (cuenta sueldo) are also exempt from the tax. Business users are unable to avoid the tax, however, given that savings accounts are unavailable for businesses.

Bank Account Taxes (impuesto sobre los débitos y créditos bancarios)