Few topics attract as much attention as the one that the issue of customs valuation attracted this Thursday (10.11.2022) at the Universidad del Salvador (USAL) in the City of Buenos Aires, from the front line of private studies, customs agents, representatives of the Customs Brokers Center, the union and the academy.
The “Customs Valuation Update Days””, organized by the General Directorate of Customs through the General Technical and Legal Customs Subdirectorate, were held to strengthen the discussion on this central issue for Customs (since it determines how much taxes must be paid for each export and import). They were headed by Guillermo Michel, General Director of Customs; Miguel Licht, President of the Tax Court and Livia Uriol, Dean of Legal Studies at USAL.
“At the Tax Court, we are also in tune with these actions regarding the value of merchandise, an important issue for Argentine society,” said Miguel Licht to open the meeting. “When the tax base is measured incorrectly, what happens is that some subjects have to bear an excessive tax burden on their shoulders. This produces a violation of the principles of distributive justice,” he explained and suggested to the lawyers: “Do not stay with the cold letter of the law because what endures are the principles and values.”
He also illustrated the work of the court that resolves disputes between individuals and the Tax Administration (Afip-DGI and Afip-DGA) with the following data: “Last September, the TFN resolved the same number of rulings as in 2021. And, comparing 2021 with 2022, the customs chambers issued 60% more rulings.”
Guillaume Michel
Then, the head of Customs, Guillermo Michel, took the floor to express the problem generated by the exchange rate gap with respect to under-invoicing in exports or over-invoicing in imports.Billing must be separated from that which is fraud against the state“, he said. And he clarified: “We cannot say that it is an overbilling of regular entry of platelets from China to a special customs area worth USD 1 million, or latex gloves that are brought in from a free zone for USD 6 million. This has to do with a criminal matter and fraud to the state not only at the tax level but also with the irregular entry of foreign currency; especially when one analyzes that the majority of the cases had to do with products covered under the framework of the health emergency where they had no right.”
Later, Michel referred to the precautionary measures. “Customs is questioning the period of the delay. This legal requirement was not considered at the time of extending the precautionary measure since most of the products that they tried to import with this judicial remedy are perishable products and were going into an overstock scheme.”
“We have already identified 168 companies. The stock of precautionary measures is USD 2600 billion, the top 25 are USD 700 million and the top 5, which have already been withdrawn by the importers themselves, were slightly over USD 300 million,” he explained. He stated that “Customs will continue working with this detailed scheme for the treatment of precautionary measures.”
The launch
During the sessions, specialists and officials from the AFIP, the National Tax Court and other organizations linked to customs law analyzed the valuation in essence, the triangulation of merchandise between related companies and the discussions that take place at the infringing and criminal level. stricto sensu. The days were also the focus of the launch of the Higher university diploma in customs litigation, tax litigation and economic criminal law, to further the training of specialized agents in Argentina.
Thus, the combined participation in each panel of exhibitors belonging to the General Directorate of Customs, the National Tax Court, the Judiciary, as well as the private sector, enriched the purposes of the meeting, which undoubtedly marked a contribution to the dialogue and the need to continue with collaborative meetings in order to address the needs demanded by current international trade.
The specialists
In this area of enormous relevance with respect to one of the most complex issues of customs law, which today generates many technical-legal controversies, renowned specialists such as Horacio Alonso from AFIP DGA, Juan Pablo Rizzi from Estudio Privado, Enrique Carlos Barreira from Estudio Privado and Gustavo Bustamante from AFIP DGA participated. In addition, Miguel Galeano from the Customs Clearance Center, Guillermo Felipe Coronel from Estudio Privado, Santiago Alais from Estudio Privado. Also speaking were expert Monica Noemi Murno from AFIP DGA, academic Juan Patricio Cotter from Estudio Privado and specialist Pablo Sebastian Borgna from AFIP DGA.
They were joined by Guillermo Vidal Albarracín (Private Firm), Alejandro Catania (Judge PE), Marcelo F. Lista (AFIP DGA) and Francisco Menéndez (Private Firm). Adrián Garbarino from Argentina also spoke, along with international specialists such as Leonardo Macedo from Brazil, Marco Antonio Huamán Sialer from Peru, and Pablo Labandera from Uruguay.
All panels were efficiently coordinated by Gisela Montenegro (AFIP DGA), Juan Manuel Francia (AFIP DGA), Cristian González Palazzo (TFN Member), Mariano Sejem (AFIP DGA) and María Luisa Carbonell (AFIP DGA).
Finally, it is important to highlight that the closing of the meeting was in charge of the President of the Customs Brokerage Center, Francisco Loizzo, and the General Secretary of SUPARA, Carlos Sueiro.
Aduana News is the first Argentine customs newspaper to launch its digital version. With 20 years of experience, its publications and initiatives aim to provide the most relevant knowledge on customs issues in order to contribute to safe trade in the region.
