Within the framework of the tense dispute between the Government and the AFA, Javier Miley established that the current tax benefits regime for Argentine soccer clubs will end in six months starting this Tuesday, while created a committee to diagram, within that period, “a efficient, sufficient and sustainable system for its replacement”.
“The regime established by Decree No. 510 of October 10, 2023 will end six months after the entry into force of this one,” says the Decree 939/2024 published in the latest edition of the Official Gazette.
The document bears the signatures of the President; the Chief of Staff, Guillermo Francos; and the ministers of Deregulation and Economy, Federico Sturzenegger y Luis Caputorespectively.
The decision was made and officially communicated while a power struggle was developing that had its highest point on Thursday, when the AFA ignored the ruling of the General Inspection of Justice and held the Assembly in which Claudio Tapia was re-elected as president.
In 2023, Alberto Fernández signed DNU 510/2023 with which he restored the controversial decree 1212, that granted tax benefits to the clubs. It was, in short, a regulations that Mauricio Macri had overturned before losing the 2019 presidential election.
The brand new decree published this Tuesday argues that “one year after the modification of the regime, it has been confirmed that the total of perceptions and withholdings entered destined to cancel the obligations included in it result in little”.
It also specifies that “the application of the regime ordered by Decree No. 510/23 implied, between the months of November 2023 to April 2024, a loss of $7,091,928,560 in the general regime”.
In this framework, the Government came to the conclusion that “it is necessary to modify the current conditions of the regime to prevent the defunding of the system from continuing to widen” and that is why it is also imperative “set a deadline to evaluate and review the current regimeupon expiration of which, the regime provided for in the aforementioned Decree No. 510/23 will end.”
The Government also believed “pertinent create a Committee, whose opinions will not be bindingwhich will have as its purpose discuss the reformulation of the regime and diagram an efficient, sufficient and sustainable system for its replacement.”
It, as detailed, will have representatives from the AFA, the affected football clubs, the Ministries of Justice, Deregulation and Economy, the Undersecretariat of Sports of the Ministry of Tourism, the Federal Administration of Public Revenues (despite to which this Tuesday its dissolution and the creation of ARCA), of the Ministry of Labor and of the National Social Security Administration, were announced.
In that direction, he established that “the representatives of the football clubs that participate in the First Division will be chosen by the AFA” and that “one of them will be selected among the three clubs that prove to have had the greatest number of members during the year 2023. ”. “The representative of the football clubs that participate in the Lower Categories will be chosen by the AFA,” he clarified.
It was also reported that The Committee will be chaired by the representative designated by Justicea portfolio led by Mariano Cúneo Libarona, that its members will perform their functions ad honorem, and that “will begin to operate after 15 days of the publication of this decree.”
“The recommendations formulated by the Committee will be non-binding and will be sent to the Head of the Cabinet of Ministers for consideration with the competent areas, as appropriate,” established the Decree.