PROMOTION OF INDUSTRIA OF SOFTWARE Law 26,692 Amend Act No. 25.922. Sanctioned: July 27, 2011 Promulgated: August 17 of 2011 The Senate and Chamber of Deputies of the Argentine Nation assembled in Congress, etc. sanction with force of Law:
ARTICLE 1 - Replace the text of article 1 of the Act 25,922 with the following:
Article 1: Create a Regime for the Promotion of the Software Industry that will govern the entire territory of the Argentine Republic with the scope and limitations set out in this Law and the regulations governing the national executive branch, which will take effect until 31 December 2019.
Those interested in adhering to the regime instituted by this law shall comply with all the precautions required by this law.
ARTICLE 2 - Replace the text of article 2 of the Act 25,922 with the following:
Article 2: Legal persons established in the Argentine Republic or authorized to act within their territory that operate in the country and on their own account as a main activity shall be allowed to accede to the present regime those activities defined in Article 4 of this Law and which comply with at least two (2) of the following conditions, in the terms determined by the authority of application:
(a) Accreditation of expenditures in software research and development activities;
(b) Accreditation of a recognized standard of quality applicable to software products or processes, or the development of activities aimed at obtaining it;
(c) Execution of software exports; in these cases they must be necessarily registered in the register of service exporters that the Federal Public Income Administration, autarchic entity in the orbit of the Ministry of Economy and Public Finance, will create to that end.
Article 3 - Replace the text of article 3 of the Act 25,922 with the following:
Article 3: Legal persons shall be considered to be beneficiaries of this law on the basis of their registration in the register of beneficiaries of the Regime for the Promotion of the Software Industry authorized by the application authority, by the end of the application of this regime, and subject to compliance with the conditions stipulated in Article 2 of this Law.
The date of registration shall be deemed to be the date of publication in the Official Gazette of the administrative act which declares it registered.
Please refer to the enforcement authority to conclude the respective conventions with the provinces that accede to the regime established by this Act, in order to facilitate and ensure the registration of the legal persons concerned in each provincial jurisdiction in the registration of beneficiaries authorized in the first paragraph.
The Federal Public Income Administration, an auto-archic entity in the orbit of the Ministry of Economy and Public Finance, shall, within its competence, verify compliance with the conditions stipulated in Article 2 of this Law by the beneficiaries, and shall periodically inform the implementing authority for the corresponding purposes.
ARTICLE 4 - Replace the text of article 7 of the Act 25,922 with the following:
Article 7: The beneficiaries of this regime shall enjoy fiscal stability for the end of the validity of this promotional framework. Fiscal stability reaches all national taxes, including direct taxes, tax rates and contributions that are passive to registered beneficiaries. Fiscal stability means that the beneficiaries will not be able to see their national total tax burden increased from their registration in the registry of beneficiaries of the Software Industry Promotion Regime authorized by the application authority.
ARTICLE 5o - Replace the text of article 8 of the Act 25,922 with the following:
Article 8: Beneficiaries of this Act may convert into an intransferable tax credit bond up to seventy per cent (70%) of the employer ' s contributions to the company ' s total payroll for the social security systems and subsystems provided for in Acts 19.032, 24.013 and 24,2441 and their amendments. In the case of beneficiaries falling within the circumstances described in article 11 of this Act, the benefit shall be limited to the employer ' s contributions to the activities promoted by this regime.
Beneficiaries may use such bonds for the cancellation of national taxes originating in the software industry, in particular the added value tax and other national taxes and advances, in case of proceeding, excluding the tax on profits.
Without prejudice to the provisions of the preceding paragraph, the beneficiaries may apply such tax credit bonds for the cancellation of the tax on earnings only in a percentage not greater than the percentage of export reported by them as an affidavit, in accordance with the conditions established by the enforcement authority.
The tax credit bond established in this article shall not be computable for its beneficiaries for the determination of net profit in the profit tax.
Moreover, such a bond may not be used to cancel debts prior to the effective incorporation of the beneficiary into the regime of this law and, in no case, any balances in his favour will result in refunds or returns by the national State.
ARTICLE 6 - Please enter the following article:
Article 8 bis: The beneficiaries of this regime shall not be subject to any retention or perception of the value added tax. In the merits of the above, the Federal Public Income Administration, an autonomous entity within the Ministry of Economy and Public Finance, shall issue the respective record of non-retention.
ARTICLE 7 - Replace the text of article 9 of the Act 25,922 with the following:
Article 9: The beneficiaries of this law shall have a reduction of sixty percent (60%) in the total amount of the income tax for the activities promoted determined in each exercise. This benefit shall apply to both the gains of Argentine and foreign source, in the terms established by the application authority.
ARTICLE 8 — Replace the text of article 10 of Act 25,922 with the following:
Article 10: After three (3) years of registration of beneficiaries of the Software Industry Promotion Regime authorized by the application authority, beneficiaries shall have the quality certification stipulated in Article 2 to maintain their status as such. Otherwise, the provisions of article 20 of this Act shall apply.
Article 9 - Please enter the following article:
Article 10 bis: All those registered in the National Register of Software Producers and Information Services created by resolution 61 of 3 May 2005 of the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Small and Medium Enterprise of the former Ministry of Economy and Production or whose applications for registration of such registration have fulfilled the entire requirements for the time of entry into force of this article, shall be considered to be in accordance with the rules applicable to the date of registration,
The benefits accorded to those registered in the National Register of Software Producers and Information Services created by resolution 61/05 of the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Small and Medium Enterprise of the former Ministry of Economy and Production prior to the entry into force of this article and who have not exercised the option of the preceding paragraph will continue to remain in the terms in which they were conceived.
ARTICLE 10. - Replace the text of article 20 of Law 25,922 with the following:
Article 20: Failure to comply with the provisions of this regime shall result in the application, jointly or individually, of the following sanctions, without prejudice to those that may correspond to the application of criminal law:
(a) Suspension of the benefits of this regime for the period of non-compliance. This suspension may not be less than three (3) months or more than one (1) year. During the suspension, the tax credit bond may not be used for the cancellation of national taxes;
(b) Revocation of registration of beneficiaries;
(c) Payment of unregistered taxes, with more interest and accessories;
(d) Return to the enforcement authority of the tax credit bond if it has not been applied;
(e) Disqualification to re-register for beneficiaries.
The legal consequences contained in this article may be applied in a total or partial manner and, if applicable, the application of sanctions must take into account the seriousness of the offence, its economic entity and the company ' s record in the implementation of the regime.
Beneficiaries who do not maintain compliance with at least two (2) of the conditions set out in Article 2 of this Article shall be subject to the suspension provided for in paragraph (a) of this Article for the period of non-compliance. After the maximum suspension period of one (1) year provided for in the above-mentioned paragraph, the implementing authority shall revoke registration of beneficiaries in accordance with the provisions of subparagraph (b) of the referenced article.
The enforcement authority shall determine the procedure for the purposes of the application of the sanctions provided for in this article.
ARTICLE 11. — Replace the text of article 24 of Act 25,922 with the following:
Article 24: The implementing authority, by itself or through national universities or specialized agencies, shall carry out the audits, checks, inspections, controls and evaluations that are necessary in order to ascertain the proper fulfilment of the obligations and commitments made by the beneficiaries and, where appropriate, the maintenance of the conditions that may have enabled them to conform to the regime, and must inform the National Congress on an annual basis of the results thereof. Such information shall be made from the third year of the law.
The above-mentioned tasks will be solved by the beneficiaries through payment of a contribution, which will be applied on the amount of tax benefits granted in relation to the regime.
Please refer to the application authority to set the corresponding value of the contribution to be applied, as well as to determine the procedure for payment.
Failure to pay by the beneficiaries shall immediately result in the suspension provided for in article 20 (a), without prejudice to the application of the other sanctions, if applicable.
The funds collected for the payment of the contribution set out in this article shall be affected by the tasks identified in the first paragraph of the present article.
ARTICLE 12. - This law will begin to govern from the day after its publication in the Official Gazette.
ARTICLE 13. - Contact the national executive branch.
IN THE SESSION OF THE ARGENTINE CONGRESS, IN GOOD AIRES, TO THE VEINTSIETE DAYS OF THE JULY YEAR DOS MIL ONCE.
— REGISTRATE BAJO #26,692 —
JULY C. C. COBOS. - EDUARDO A. FELLNER. - Enrique Hidalgo. — Luis G. Borsani.