Milei’s ‘mattress dollars’ quest continues with Fiscal Innocence Law

Argentina’s government has formally regulated the Fiscal Innocence Law with the goal of encouraging the formalisation of undeclared savings – including so-called “mattress dollars” – and redefining the relationship between the state and the taxpayers.

The measure, one of the most ambitious tax reforms of President Javier Milei’s administration, was formalised by Decree 93/2026, published in the Official Gazette on Monday. It brings a new scheme – the Simplified Income Regime (RSG) – into force and explicitly limited the scope of the auditing powers of the ARCA revenue and customs agency.

Starting now, the focus of ARCA’s controls will be exclusively on invoiced and declared income.

The heart of the regulation is a change in fiscal criteria. Those adhering to the RSG regime will be covered by a scheme which abandons the presumption of tax guilt. The central points of the new regime include:

– Asset security: ARCA may not audit asset increases, personal consumption or bank deposits
– Taxing by invoicing: Income tax will be calculated solely on declared income and admitted deductions
– Pre-loaded returns: the body will make available a return the taxpayer may accept or adjust
– Exemption effect (“fiscal plug”): a timely payment releases the taxpayer from any administrative or criminal claims in those periods, except in the case of omission of invoiced income.

The regime is voluntary and applies to individuals with an annual income of up to one billion pesos (around US$712,000) and assets of up to 10 billion pesos, verified on a yearly basis in the last three tax years. Major taxpayers are excluded from the scheme.

Criminal thresholds

The regulation also introduced a profound amendment of the Tax Criminal Regime, significantly raising minimum thresholds for a breach to amount to a crime. The new standards are: 

– Simple evasion: from 1.5 million to 100 million pesos
– Aggravated evasion: from 15 million to one billion pesos
– Statute of limitations: reduced from five to three years for taxpayers not in violation.

In addition, mechanisms to drop criminal charges are also authorised:

– Single cancellation: payment of principal and interest with no criminal lawsuit (one-off benefit)
– Regularisation with surcharge: if there was no complaint, the charges may be dropped by paying the debt plus an additional 50 percent within 30 days.

The regulatory decree specifies how undeclared savings may be used. In order to operate within the regime, the funds must enter the financial system, whether at the start or the destination of the transaction. The exception is maintained for the purchase of real property in cash, and the thresholds of bank information are raised: transactions of up to 10 million pesos per month will not generate automatic reports.

In parallel, the sanction scheme was updated:

– Fines: Penalties increased in nominal terms but with a new procedure
– Mandatory prior notice: ARCA must grant between 10 and 15 business days to regularise before sending a formal order
– Gradation of sanctions: differential treatment for small and medium-sized enterprises and reduction by up to 50 percent if it is regularised in a timely fashion.

The Economy Ministry estimates that some US$170 billion is held by Argentines that remains outside the formal circuit. The official aim is for this scheme to turn declaring your assets into a permanent, rather than exceptional mechanism, with a clear premise: looking only at what is declared and paid from now on.

– TIMES/PERFIL