Police State? If lucky at the end of the labyrinth, CFK might bless you with a few bucks

The following is an instructive of the steps to follow in the labyrinth set up by the Argentine bureaucracy to have access to a limited amount of US dollars. The instructive should help clear some of the latest measures implemented by the administration of President Cristina Kirchner and was published on Tuesday by The Buenos Aires Herald and Ambito Financiero.

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If you are an Argentine resident and you’re planning on going abroad and you need to buy dollars, you must first inform the AFIP revenue office about which kind of travel package you purchased, which currency you used to pay for it, in how many payments you will be paying for it and the CUIT id of your travel agency of choice, among other things.

In order to obtain the AFIP's permission to purchase foreign currency, you must visit the office’s website (www.afip.gob.ar) and click on “Compra de moneda extranjera” (Foreign currency purchase), or click on the flap reading “Acceda con clave fiscal” (Enter using tax password), then enter the system.

Once inside, click on the flap reading “Consulta de operaciones cambiarias-contribuyente” (Check for currency exchange-taxpayer) and then enter the full name of the person looking to purchase the dollars.

Two options will pop-up: “Consultar situación ante la AFIP” (Check AFIP status, currently used for purchasing dollars regularly) and “Viajes al exterior” (travel abroad).

The form that every tourist must fill out in order to check if they qualify to purchase foreign currency can be found after clicking on “Ingreso de Solicitud, Consultas, Menú Principal” (Send request, Check status and Main Menu). Click on “Ingreso de solicitud.”

Among other things, travellers must enter the amount of pesos that they wish to sell. Once you press “Confirmar” (Confirm), users will get an automatic response by the AFIP.

On Monday, several new Government regulations went in effect in order to create a database including additional information on people who buy foreign currency to travel abroad.

The new regulations were applied after AFIP resolution 3,333 went in effect, as the Government keeps applying restrictions in order to stop people from purchasing dollars in the currency exchange market, which has caused the value of the dollar in the black market to skyrocket.

“Anyone currently residing in the country who wishes to purchase foreign currency in order to travel abroad must previously fill out the necessary AFIP form,” the resolution states.

By filling out the form, the AFIP gathers all that is considered “relevant information” which will be automatically validated online by the agency’s controls.

This new “online tool,” as the AFIP called it, is looking to stop travel agencies, currently enjoying free access to the official currency exchange market, from using the black market exchange rate to charge their customers for their travel packages.

The AFIP website will ask users for:

1. CUIT (tax paying identification number)/CUIL (unique code of labour identification number), and DNI number.

2. First and last name

3. Birth date

4. Occupation

5. Country of origin

6. Reason for travel

7. Departure date

8. Return date

9. Travel agency CUIT number

10. Mode of transport

11. Amount of currency you wish to purchase (in pesos)