After a January with low sales levels for what is usually the first month of the year, car brands they begin to publish their first price lists after the Government announced the new tax minimums for what is known as the luxury tax.
This is a tax that applies two rates based on certain values: one is 20% and the other is 30%. But since it is executed before other taxes, the impact on the sale price is 25% and 53% respectively.
This tax It was instrumented by Axel Kicillof ten years agowhen he was Minister of Economy of the Government of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, with a more brutal original scheme: a first scale with a 35% tax that ended up being impacted by 50% of the final value and a second of 50% that represented a 100% price increase.
With the Government of Mauricio Macri there was an important change: the percentages of the first and second scale were modified, which became 10% and 20% respectively, with impacts of 11% and 25% on the final price. Then Alberto Fernández increased the rates again to leave them at the current percentages.
In all cases, what this tax did was generate distortion in prices and construct fictitious price lists. Inflation and the acceleration of prices collided with an update of the tax minimum that was adjusted with the same speed.
A tax that reaches the most popular
In this way, the tax that had been created with the supposed intention of “defending the national industry” ended falling on models manufactured in the country and on the lowest ranges From the market. The only ones that were saved were pickups and commercial vehicles.
The collapse occurred around the end of 2023 and the beginning of this year. For December, the minimum taxable amount of the first scale should have been paid by models that had a retail price of more than 14.7 million pesos.
This is how versions of the popular Fiat Cronos and Peugeot 208 appeared, the two best-selling cars in the country and of national production, which were covered by the internal tax and which brought their list prices to almost 20 million pesos.
But the increases did not fully reflect the December devaluation. Therefore, another increase was expected for January that never came because the luxury tax remained unchanged. If they had been done, all 0 km would be covered by that tax.
After some initial rumors indicating that the Government of Javier Milei was going to remove the tax, last week an update of the taxable minimums was published with a strong increase.
In this way, the first scale, which until now applied to models that cost more than 14.7 million pesos in list price, will now be from 28 million pesos. The 20% rate is maintained.
In the first month of the year there was a sharp drop in sales.The same goes for the second scale. Until now it reached models that had a list price greater than 32 million pesos and now that taxable minimum goes to 61 million pesos. And the 30% rate is preserved.
New prices
With these changes, and already with a lost January, brands begin to publish their price lists with increases mainly in the lower ranges. The thing is that they were the only models that remained on the verge of entering the tax.
Many companies prefer to disclose their official values directly with the February list. Below is a review of the companies that have already published and some of their models with a comparative price with the latest reference (in many cases they are “fictitious values” to avoid paying the internal tax).
Citroën
Old price $14,246,900 / New price $16,800,600
Old price $14,246,900 / New price $17,808,600
Old price $14,246,900 / New price $19,233,300
Old price $14,246,900 / New price $17,238,700
Old price $19,867,900 / New price $21,014,100
Old price $23,406,700 / New price $23,766,800
Fiat
Old price $14,582,000 / New price $18,081,700
- Cronos Drive 1.3 GSE CVT Pack Plus
Old price $14,582,000 / New price $18,500,000
Old price $19,551,500 / New price $22,100,000
- Cronos Precision 1.3 GSE CVT
Old price $21,042,900 / New price $23,800,000
Old price $14,582,000 / New price $17,790,000
Old price $24,336,700 / New price $26,000,000
Old price $25,124,800 / New price $27,000,000
Jeep
Old price $26,402,400 / New price $28,57,500
- Renegade Longitude T270 AT6
Old price $31,863,000 / New price $38,000,000
- Renegade Trailhwak T270 4×4
Old price $31,863,000 / New price $39,830,000
Old price $31,863,000 / New price $39,830,000
- Compass Longitude Plus T270
Old price $31,863,000 / New price $39,990,000
- Compass Trailhwak TD350 4×4
Old price $56,474,000 / New price $53,700,000
Peugeot
Old price $14,246,900 / New price $15,814,100
Old price $14,246,900 / New price $17,411,300
Old price $118,159,500 / New price $20,897,400
Old price $19,699,900 / New price $22,503,600
- Patagonian Partner 1.6 gasoline
Old price $14,246,900 / New price $18,521,000
- Patagonian Partner 1.6 HDi
Old price $14,246,900 / New price $19,233,300
Nissan
Old price $14,250,000 / New price $16,000,000
Old price $14,250,000 / New price $20,000,000
Old price $31,090,000 / New price $26,000,000
Old price $14,250,000 / New price $18,000,000
Old price $1,250,000 / New price $22,000,000
Old price $31,090,000 / New price $34,000,000
Toyota
Old price $10,631,000 / New price $12,927,000
- Etios XLS Pack MT 4 Puertas
Old price $12,935,000 / New price $15,729,000
- Etios XLS Pack AT 5 Puertas
Old price $13,317,000 / New price $16,193,000
Old price $12,661,000 / New price $15,0790,000
- Yaris XLS Pack CVT 4 Puertas
Old price $14,532,000 / New price $17,802,000
Old price $14,662,000 / New price $18,325,000
Old price $24,955,000 / New price $24,642,000
Volkswagen
Old price $14,180,300 / New price $17,016,400
Old price $14,414,300 / New price $18,640,900
Old price $14,753,000 / New price $21,138,850
Old price $14,753,000 / New price $18,854,550
- T-Cross Comfortline 200 TSI AT
Old price $28,409,700 / New price $24,165,750