Gross Income Tax at the Center of Business Complaints in Argentina

The 11th annual tax survey by KPMG Argentina, based on over 80 tax specialists from medium and large companies, has yielded an uncomfortable conclusion for governors and mayors: the most revenue-generating provincial tax is also the most criticized for its cascading effect on prices, costs, and investment. The most striking finding of the survey is that 60.81% of respondents pointed to Gross Income Tax as the tax that most impacts the products and services sold by companies. The interpretation made by many companies is simple: there is not only high fiscal pressure, but in some districts, that pressure directly discourages operations and sales. Another relevant fact is that the problem is not seen as temporary. Misiones and the City of Buenos Aires were left behind, while Córdoba and Tucumán completed the group of provinces perceived as heaviest from a fiscal point of view. This difference between the national level and provincial agencies reinforces an idea that permeates the entire survey: companies believe a signal of fiscal rationality is more likely to come from the Nation than from the provinces. The background of the discussion is not minor. Regarding the dialogue with the private sector, the Ministry of Economy was perceived as the best interlocutor to address tax problems affecting business activity. However, this lack of reformist expectation coexists with a remarkable business resilience: 81.16% affirmed that they will maintain their investment plans, and 8.7% even said they would increase them. But it also lays bare the core of the problem: any deep fiscal reform seeking to improve productivity, investment, and competitiveness will sooner or later clash with the need to review a levy that has become central to provincial coffers and, at the same time, one of the main factors of distortion in the real economy. For companies, this burden not only increases costs: it also translates into a concrete financial harm that acts as a de facto additional tax. On a territorial level, the province of Buenos Aires was again signaled as the most burdensome jurisdiction in the country. The gap with the rest of the taxes was wide: VAT was far behind, as well as Profits Tax, the check tax, and other municipal or sectoral levies. According to the survey, 83.78% of companies have favorable balances in Gross Income Tax due to excess payments, and almost 22% have accumulated over 500 million pesos in immobilized tax credits. 57.97% of those surveyed believe that fiscal pressure will remain the same during 2026, and 88.41% do not perceive provincial interest in offering tax incentives to promote investments. The Nation's Supreme Court of Justice was the best-rated body in fiscal objectivity, with a score of 6.24, followed by ARCA with 6.15. The result consolidates a growing trend: a year ago, business rejection of Gross Income Tax was 54.4%, and now it has surpassed 60%, a sign that the negative perception not only persists but worsens. The survey also shows that the problem does not end with the visible rate. This dependency explains why the tax remains in place despite its growing unpopularity among companies, tax advisors, and experts. In turn, Misiones and Tucumán were pointed out as the jurisdictions whose tax actions most restrict the supply of goods and services to their own residents. A large part of the business discomfort is concentrated in the overlap of withholding, perception, and advance collection regimes, which immobilize working capital and leave favorable balances that are difficult to recover. According to IARAF, Gross Income Tax represented in 2024 a collection equivalent to 4 points of GDP for the provinces, much higher than other local taxes such as Stamp Duty or Real Estate Tax. That is, even within a tax framework seen as hostile, the private sector does not project a general withdrawal, although it does demand much clearer signals of simplification and relief. The survey also left an institutional snapshot. Lower down were AGIP and, quite lagging, ARBA, whose rating barely reached 4 points. Buenos Aires, March 22, 2026 - Total News Agency (TNA) - The Gross Income Tax has once again been at the center of complaints from the private sector, and the province of Buenos Aires appeared again at the top of the subnational tax pressure ranking.