The norm, in detail
PAÍS Tax: it rose, fell and expired
Decree 29/2023 + Decree 777/2024 (expiry of Law 27.541, 12/23/2024)
in executionNATIONAL
Fiscal and monetary anchor
What changed and who it applies to
What changed
The PAÍS Tax traveled a full path under Milei and stopped being charged. (1) Decree 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 Decree 99/2019. (2) Decree 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 Decree 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 Law 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
Decree 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 Law 27.541's 5-fiscal-year term). verif · Sep 2, 2024 ↗
Who it affects
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
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
The other rules on this subject19
Fiscal Package: asset declaration, moratorium and tax cutsLaw 27.743 (Official Gazette Jul 8, 2024)in force
Fiscal anchor: surplus two years in a rowExecutive execution policy on the extended budget (Decree 1131/2024)in force
Payment to holdouts: closing the 2001-default lawsuitsLaw 27.818 (promulgated by Decree 564/2026, Official Gazette Jul 1, 2026)in force
The "lock on the State": fiscal balance by lawLaw 27.798 (2026 Budget), art. 1 — in force; the permanent "lock on the State" still a billpending
Renting out and selling housing no longer pays income taxLaw 27,802 Title XXIV + Decree 406/2026 (Official Gazette Jun 1, 2026)in force
Ignacio Aredez· Chief analyst
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