ARGENTINA: OECD Praises Country's Tax Reform

(RTTNews) - Pascal Saint-Amans, the Director of the Center for Tax Policy and Administration of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), praised the tax reform recently enacted in Argentina.

"The recent tax reform carried out by Argentina has introduced very significant advances in line with the latest international standards." He also said that the Argentinean reform "comes to eliminate distorting taxes to encourage investment, as did neighboring countries," he said.

The comments were made on Friday after a meeting in New York with the Chief of Cabinet of the Ministry of Finance, Ariel Sigal, and the Undersecretary of Public Revenue, Andrés Edelstein.

The Argentinean Congress passed the tax reform last December. The legislation gradually decreases the corporate income tax rate from 35% to 25% and creates an additional withholding tax rate on dividends which should reach 13% by 2020.

The tax reform also determines that the government will refund VAT credit balances derived from the purchase of fixed assets which have not been absorbed by VAT charges.