Argentina: VAT withholding certificates must be issued electronically through the SIRE system
UPDATED 04/08/20: Argentina’s Federal Administration of Public Revenues (Administración Federal de Ingresos Públicos de Argentina; or AFIP) has implemented a new electronic system for issuing withholding certificates and collecting Value Added Tax (VAT). Starting 1st September, incoming and outgoing VAT may only be reported via the integrated electronic withholding system, SIRE (Sistema Integral de Retenciones Electrónicas).
Although the service has been available since 1st December of last year, it will not be obligatory until September. If your company has incoming and/or outgoing VAT, you will need to generate a certificate for each invoice received from suppliers as well as for VAT withholdings.
What procedure should VAT withholding companies follow?
Companies must:
- Issue an incoming and/or outgoing VAT certificate in accordance with the reporting methods provided by the AFIP.
- Enter the amount of withholdings between days 1 and 15 of each month, both days inclusive.
- Send a sworn statement identifying the amount of withholdings for each month and pay the resulting balance, also via the platform.
The SIRE system replaces the SICORE system, an application used to generate certificates for each VAT withholding which was much more complex. The new system makes the process less time-consuming.
To create a certificate, the system generates a form, in this case the incoming/outgoing VAT certificate F. 2005 (Certificado de Retención/Percepción del Impuesto al Valor Agregado).
This requires the following:
- The data for each transaction (purchase, sale, etc.) is entered, including incoming and outgoing VAT.
- The company must report the retention or collection certificate -F. 2003, F. 2004 o F. 2005 generated by the SIRE individually or in batches.
- The reporting of the retention or collection certificate F.2005 can be done through the “Web Service”. This certificate will be the only legal document that certifies the retention or collection performed by the company.
SIRE exchanges information using XML-based WSDL, or Web Services Description Language.
A tax ID code, obtained from the SIRE website, is needed to access the system: https://www.afip.gob.ar/sire/.
Certificates issued by the SIRE system are legally valid and remain available for consultation and printing.
