In force since Sep 2, 2024
PAÍS Tax: it rose, fell and expired
Decreto 29/2023 + Decreto 777/2024 (expiry of Ley 27.541, 12/23/2024)
in executionNATIONAL
Fiscal and monetary anchor
Decreto 29/2023 took the rate on imports of goods and freight to 17.5%; the tax lapsed on Dec 23, 2024 and is no longer charged.
The other rules on this subject23
Fiscal Package: asset amnesty, moratorium and tax cutsLey 27.743 (Official Gazette Jul 8, 2024)in force
Fiscal anchor: surplus two years in a rowExecutive execution policy on the extended budget (Decreto 1131/2024)in force
Payment to the creditors who stayed out of the swap: closing the 2001-default lawsuitsLey 27.818 (promulgated by Decreto 564/2026, Official Gazette Jul 1, 2026)in force
What changed and who it applies to
What changed
The PAÍS Tax traveled a full path under Milei and stopped being charged. (1) Decreto 29/2023 (signed Milei/Posse/Caputo, signed and published in the Official Gazette 12/13/2023) took to 17.5% the rate for goods imports (NCM, with exclusions for the basic basket and certain fuels) and for foreign-trade freight/transport, amending art. 13 bis of Decreto 99/2019. (2) Decreto 777/2024 (DECTO-2024-777-APN-PTE, signed 08/30/2024 by Milei/Francos/Caputo, Official Gazette 09/02/2024) reduced those rates (subsections d] and e] of art. 13 bis of Decreto 99/2019) back to 7.5%. (3) On 12/23/2024 the tax expired at the end of the 5-fiscal-year term set in art. 35 of Ley 27.541 (in force since 12/23/2019): the Milei government did NOT extend it and it stopped being charged. Its return would require a new law from Congress. The measure's actual status is REVERSED/extinguished: the tax is no longer charged (the panel's status chip still shows 'in execution' because our status scale has no 'reversed/extinguished' state; the extinction is explained here and under 'Our reading'). verif Dec 23, 2024 ↗
In force
Decreto 777/2024 with effect for FX purchases/operations from its publication (Official Gazette 09/02/2024). The tax's elimination is in force from 12/23/2024 (expiry of Ley 27.541's 5-fiscal-year term). verif Sep 2, 2024 ↗
Who it applies to
Goods importers (NCM, except the basic basket, certain fuels/energy and excluded items) and those contracting foreign-trade freight/transport services, who paid the PAÍS Tax when acquiring foreign exchange for those operations. With the 12/23/2024 elimination, all of them stopped paying that 7.5% on the import cost. verif Sep 2, 2024 ↗
The norm
Decreto 29/2023 / DECTO-2023-29-APN-PTE (signed and published in the BO on Dec 13, 2023, sets the rate at 17.5%) and Decreto 777/2024 / DECTO-2024-777-APN-PTE (signed Aug 30, 2024, BO Sep 2, 2024, cuts subsections d] and e] of art. 13 bis of Decreto 99/2019 to 7.5%). The tax ended for good when the five-fiscal-year term of art. 35 of Ley 27.541 ran out with the fifth fiscal year on Dec 23, 2024, with no extension from the Executive (this third leg is not documented in a single primary source: it follows from the mechanism of art. 35 of Ley 27.541 -confirmed in Infoleg- and from the non-extension, confirmed by consensus among secondary sources). verif Sep 2, 2024 ↗
Our reading
The PAÍS Tax was one of the charges that most raised the cost of importing and operating in foreign trade: Milei halved it (from 17.5% to 7.5%) in September 2024 and let it expire by law in December 2024, without extending it. It is tax cutting and deregulation in pure form (R5 · better export netback): less cost of importing inputs and equipment, less spread on the effective import exchange rate. What to watch is only the fiscal sustainability of giving up that revenue (R1 · lowers country risk); the Executive offset it with a surplus, not with a new law reviving it. thesis
Analyze this rule for my company
Where it lands, province by province1
Neuquén The elimination of the PAÍS Tax cheapens the import of equipment, inputs and freight services for Vaca Muerta (frac sets, tubing, sand, drilling rigs), which depend heavily on imported capital goods. Lower import cost → a better cost structure for upstream and satellite services (unconventional, midstream). favorable better export netback thesis
Which markets depend on this rule4
These niches list this rule among the ones that condition them.
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Analysis and curation: Ignacio Aredez
Head of Despegue
Method and track record →- 20+ years in technology, 15 of them in data and AI, for clients across Europe and the Americas
- Certified in AI governance (ISO/IEC 42001)
- Machine Learning (Google Cloud)
- Registered expert with the European Commission
How to read the seals →
verif primary source · prob primary source pending · unconf a source said it · estim our own calculation · thesis our reading · the date belongs to the datum, at the precision its source allows