Tax and customs lawyers in Argentina: defending companies before the tax authorities

Raskovsky y Asociados assists companies in their relationship with the revenue authorities, across the three stages where that relationship is decided: the audit, the administrative discussion of the assessment and the court stage. We act at federal level before ARCA (the federal tax authority, formerly AFIP), at provincial and municipal level, and in customs matters under the Customs Code.

Our approach is technical defence, not aggressive planning. The instruction almost always arrives with a procedure already open, and the first task is to narrow the front: separating what genuinely needs to be argued from what is better regularised and taken off the table.

The audit: what to do from the first information request

The audit is the stage that most defines the final outcome and the one most often handled without counsel. Every answer to an information request adds documentation and fixes a version of the facts that is very hard to correct afterwards: what is said at that stage conditions the entire later defence.

We are involved from the outset, defining what is produced, in what form and under what legal framing. This is not about obstructing the audit, which carries consequences of its own, but about responding in an orderly way and with legal criteria instead of reacting request by request.

Assessment procedure: the moment to argue the adjustment

Where an audit concludes with an adjustment, the assessment procedure of Law 11,683 is opened. The company receives a formal notice and has the opportunity to reply, submit evidence and set out its position before the authority decides. It is the stage where most can be achieved, and where technical work pays off best.

In that reply we review, depending on the case:

• The legal framing of the adjustment and the rules it relies on
• The evidence available and the evidence worth producing
• The statute of limitations over the periods included
• Whether the proposed penalties and aggravating factors are well founded
• The existence of favourable administrative criteria or case law

An adjustment properly answered at this stage is often reduced substantially before reaching any court.

Appeals, enforcement and the criminal case

Against the assessment resolution, the usual route is an appeal to the Federal Tax Court (Tribunal Fiscal de la Nación), which has a concrete advantage: it allows the dispute to proceed without paying the tax first. The alternative administrative appeal leads, if unsuccessful, to a scenario where arguing in court requires payment up front. That choice is made at the outset and cannot be undone, so we analyse it case by case.

Two further fronts may open in parallel. One is tax enforcement, where the defence is limited to narrow statutory defences and the work concentrates on the attachments that block the company’s operations. The other is criminal: where the adjustment exceeds the thresholds of the criminal tax regime, the complaint may lead to a case requiring a defence coordinated with what is being argued before the tax authority. Maintaining different versions in each file is the most expensive mistake of all.

Turnover tax, stamp tax and municipal levies

For companies operating across several jurisdictions, the provincial burden usually generates more disputes than the federal one. The typical arguments are the allocation of revenue under the Multilateral Agreement, the withholding and collection regimes that create permanent tax credits, and municipal levies whose base or taxable event is questionable against the activity actually carried out in the municipality.

These fronts are rarely addressed until the accumulated balance is large. Reviewed in time, much of the problem is solved by reorganising how the operation is run rather than by litigating.

Customs: classification, valuation and offences

In foreign trade, disputes concentrate on two technical points that determine everything else: how the goods are classified and how their value is determined. From there follow the proceedings over differences, the offences under the Customs Code and the associated fines.

We act in:

• Tariff classification disputes and their impact on duties and import restrictions
• Customs valuation adjustments and defence against challenges to the declared price
• Proceedings for inaccurate declaration and other customs offences
• Detained goods and the steps required to release them
• Special regimes and their documentary framing

Why choose us for a tax dispute

The file is handled by a partner, with direct contact. In tax matters that counts, because deadlines are strict and early decisions —what is answered, which appeal route is chosen, whether or not to join an amnesty— condition everything that follows. We work as a team with the company’s accountant: the legal defence and the accounting position have to say the same thing, and when they do not, the tax authority notices first. We work in English with foreign parent companies and their advisers.