Key Benefits:
The Senate and Chamber of Deputies of the Argentine Nation assembled in Congress, etc. sanction with force of Law:
PROMOTION LAW OF SOFTWARE INDUSTRIA
CHAPTER I
Definition, scope and scope
ARTICLE 1 Consider a Regime for the Promotion of the Software Industry that will govern the entire territory of the Argentine Republic with the scope and limitations set out in this Law and the regulatory rules which the national executive branch accordingly dictates. This regime will be framed by the strategic policies established by the national executive branch through its competent agencies and will be effective within 10 years of its adoption. ARTICLE 2 Individuals and legal entities established in the Argentine Republic whose main activity is the software industry, which are empowered to act within their territory in accordance with their laws, duly registered and develop in the country and on their own the activities defined in Article 4. ARTICLE 3 Those interested in taking part in this regime should register with the registration authorized by the implementing authority.Please refer to the enforcement authority to conclude the respective conventions with the provinces adhering to this regime, with the aim of facilitating and ensuring the registration of the stakeholders of each provincial jurisdiction in the registry authorized in the preceding paragraph.
ARTICLE 4 The activities covered by the law regime are the creation, design, development, production and implementation and completion of the developed software systems and their associated technical documentation, both in their basic and applicable aspect, including the one that is designed to be incorporated into processors used in different types of goods, such as consoles, telephone, cell phone, machines and other devices. Software self-development activity is excluded from the regime established in this Act. ARTICLE 5° For the purposes of this law, the software is defined as the organized expression of a set of orders or instructions in any high-level, intermediate-level, assembly or machine language, organized in structures of various sequences and combinations, stored in magnetic, optical, electrical, discs, chips, circuits or any other that is appropriate or that develops in the future, intended for a computer or any machine with a specific processing capacity of information not.CHAPTER II
Fiscal treatment for the sector
ARTICLE 6 Subjects carrying out the activities covered by this regime in accordance with the provisions of chapter I shall be applicable to the general tax regime with the modifications set out in this chapter. Beneficiaries adhering to the present regime shall be in the normal course of fulfilling their tax and forecast obligations. ARTICLE 7 Subjects adhering to this regime shall enjoy fiscal stability for the term of ten (10) years after the entry into force of this law. Fiscal stability reaches all national taxes, including direct taxes, tax rates and contributions that are passive to registered beneficiaries. Fiscal stability means that those who develop software production activities will not be able to see their national total tax burden increased at the time of the company's incorporation into this general regulatory framework. ARTICLE 8 Beneficiaries of this law that carry out research and development activities in software and/or software quality certification processes developed in the national territory and/or software exports (insuring workers of the activity the current labour legislation), may convert into an intransferable tax credit bond up to 70% (sixty per cent) of the employers' contributions that have actually paid on the company's total salary payroll. Beneficiaries may use such bonds for the cancellation of national taxes originating in the software industry, in particular the value-added tax (VAT) or other national taxes and advances, in case of proceeding, excluding the tax on profits. The bond may not be used to cancel debts prior to the effective incorporation of the beneficiary into the regime of this law and, in no case, any balances in his favour will result in refunds or returns by the State. ARTICLE 9 Subjects attached to the promotional regime established by this law shall have a degravation of sixty percent (60%) in the total amount of the income tax determined in each exercise. This benefit will reach those who credit research and development costs and/or quality certification processes and/or software exports, in the quantities determined by the application authority. ARTICLE 10. For the purposes of the perception of the benefits set out in the preceding articles, subjects adhering to this regime must comply with a recognized standard of quality applicable to software products. This requirement will begin to govern from the third year of this promotional framework. ARTICLE 11. . Subjects that adhere to the benefits set out in this Law, which in addition to the software industry as the main activity develop others of different nature, will carry their accounting in a way that allows the determination and evaluation separately from the activity promoted by the rest of the developed. The imputation of expenses shared with activities other than those promoted shall be contiguously attributed with respect to objective distribution criteria, such as the number of staff employed, the amount of salaries paid, the physical space allocated or others, being this merely narrative and non-limitative enumeration. They shall be declared and submitted annually to the implementing authority in the manner and time that it establishes the percentages of appropriation of expenses between different activities and their justification.CHAPTER III
Imports
ARTICLE 12. Imports of computer products carried out by subjects adhering to this promotional regime are excluded from any present or future restriction for the foreign exchange turn corresponding to the payment of imports of hardware and other components of computer use that are necessary for software production activities.CHAPTER IV
Trust Fund for the Promotion of the Software Industry (Fonsoft)
ARTICLE 13. Trust Fund for the Promotion of the Software Industry (Fonsoft), which will be composed of:1. The resources allocated annually through the budget law.
2. Income for the penalties provided for in the absence of this law.
3. Legacy income or donations.
4. Funds provided by international agencies or non-governmental organizations.
ARTICLE 14. Please provide the Chief of Staff of Ministers with the appropriate budgetary changes, with a total of two million pesos ($ 20,000) for the first year in order to be able to comply with Article 13 (1). ARTICLE 15. The Secretariat of Science, Technology and Productive Innovation, through the National Agency for Scientific and Technological Promotion, will be the implementing authority in relation to Fonsoft and will act as a fiduciant in front of the trustee. ARTICLE 16. The implementing authority will define the criteria for the distribution of funds accredited in the Fonsoft that will be accorded priority to universities, research centres, SMEs and new enterprises that are dedicated to the software development activity.For the purposes mentioned in the preceding paragraph, the enforcement authority shall agree with the provinces adhering to the regime of this law, the manner and manner in which they, through their relevant agencies, shall be represented at the National Agency for Scientific and Technological Promotion.
ARTICLE 17. The application authority may finance through the Fonsoft:1. Research and development projects related to the activities defined in Article 4 of the present.
2. Tertiary or higher programmes for human resource training.
3. Programs for improvement in the quality of the processes of creation, design, development and production of software.
4. Programmes of assistance for the establishment of new enterprises.
ARTICLE 18. The application authority will give preference to the allocation of funding through Fonsoft, as defined in Article 16, to those who:(a) They are based in regions of the country with the lowest relative development
(b) Register in the Argentine Republic the rights of reproduction of software according to the existing rules;
(c) Generate through promoted programmes a certain and fruitful increase in the use of human resources;
(d) Generate through incremental promotional export programs;
(e) Adher to this promotional regime.
ARTICLE 19. The erogations of the application authority related to the Fonsoft administration should not exceed five percent (5%) of the Fonsoft's annual collection.CHAPTER V
Violations and sanctions
ARTICLE 20. Failure to comply with the rules of this Act and with the provisions of the implementing authority relating to the benefits set out in chapter II by the natural and legal persons who are in the promotion of this law shall determine the application by the enforcement authority of the sanctions described below:1. Revocation of registration established in Article 3 and of the benefits granted by Chapter II.
2. Payment of unregistered taxes on the basis of Chapter II, with more interest, in relation to specific non-compliance.
3. Disqualification to re-register in the registry set out in Article 3.
CHAPTER VI
General provisions
ARTICLE 21. The authority for the application of this law shall be the Ministry of Economy and Production of the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Small and Medium Enterprise, except as set out in chapter IV and without prejudice to the provisions of article 6 of decree 252/2000, as ordered by decree 243/2001. ARTICLE 22. The Ministry of Industry, Trade and Small and Medium-sized Enterprise shall publish on its respective website the registration of the beneficiaries of this regime, as well as the amounts of fiscal benefit granted to them. ARTICLE 23. For the purposes of this law, the solution of technical problems that have been overcome in previous projects on the same operating systems and computer architectures are excluded as research and software development activities. Also the maintenance, conversion and/or translation of computer languages, addition of functions and/or preparation of documentation for the user, guarantee or quality advice of existing non-repetitible systems. Routine data collection activities, the development of market studies for the marketing of software and other activities related to the production of software that do not involve functional or technological progress in the area of software are also excluded. ARTICLE 24. The implementing authority shall conduct audits and evaluations of the present regime, and the results of the same should be reported to the National Congress on an annual basis. Such information shall be made from the third year of the law. ARTICLE 25. The tax benefits provided for in this Act, while the current federal tax-sharing system remains, will be detracted from the amounts of the resources corresponding to the Nation. ARTICLE 26. The tax rate of benefits to be granted by this promotional regime shall be set annually in the General Budget Law of expenditure and calculation of resources of the National Administration.From the validity of this Act and during the first three subsequent fiscal years, the corresponding quota shall be granted on the basis of the demand and development of the promotional activities.
ARTICLE 27. Invite the provinces, the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires and the municipalities to adhere to this regime through the dictation of promotional standards similar to those set out in this Act. ARTICLE 28. Contact the Executive.IN THE SESSION OF THE ARGENTINE CONGRESS, IN GOOD AIRES, TO THE DIASS OF THE MONTH OF AUGUST OF THE YEAR DOS MIL CUATRO.
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EDUARDO O. CHANGE. A. GUINLE. . Eduardo D. Rollano. . Juan Estrada.
NOTE: The bold text was observed.