Is Airbnb income tax-free in Argentina now?

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Why are people saying Airbnb income is tax-free in Argentina now?

Airbnb income in Argentina can currently end up with a zero federal Monotributo bill for some small hosts, but Argentina has not created a general tax exemption for Airbnb rentals.

Two different tax changes are getting mixed together. Earlier this year, Argentina introduced a full Income Tax exemption for rent from properties used as the tenant’s permanent home. Separately, Argentina already had a Monotributo benefit for people whose activity consists exclusively of renting no more than two properties.

The second rule is the one that can apply to Airbnb. ARCA’s current guidance says the two-property Monotributo benefit applies to rental properties “whatever their destination.” A tourist apartment can therefore qualify if the owner meets the other conditions.

The new Income Tax exemption works differently. It was written for permanent housing. Once we separate these two rules, the apparent contradiction largely disappears.

Current rule	What it covers	Can it cover a normal Airbnb?	Main condition
New Income Tax rental exemption	Permanent residential rent	Usually no	Tenant uses property as permanent home
Two-property Monotributo exemption	Small rental-only landlords	Yes	Maximum 2 rented properties
Monotributo social contributions exemption for landlords	Rental-only Monotributistas	Yes	Registered as landlord under the simplified regime
Provincial / city taxes	Depends on location	Often yes	Local rules apply separately

Did Argentina actually make rental income tax-free?

Argentina has now made qualifying permanent residential rent fully exempt from Income Tax, which is a much bigger tax break than landlords had before.

Law 27.802 amended the Income Tax Law for fiscal years beginning in 2026. Decree 406/2026 then clarified what kind of rental qualifies.

The government defines a qualifying “casa-habitación” as the occupant’s unique, family and permanent home. For rental properties, we look at the tenant’s use of the apartment rather than the landlord’s own housing situation.

The exemption can cover more than one property. Decree 406 says an individual or undivided estate can apply it to all units that genuinely meet the permanent-home requirement. Furniture, accessories and some services charged alongside the rent can also fall within the exempt amount.

That is a meaningful change for conventional landlords. Someone renting several apartments to households living there permanently can now have those qualifying rents outside Income Tax entirely.

Does Argentina’s new rental tax exemption cover a normal Airbnb?

A normal Airbnb tourist stay does not qualify for Argentina’s new permanent-housing Income Tax exemption.

The distinction is unusually clear in the current rules. Decree 406 requires permanent occupation, while ARCA separately defines temporary tourist rentals as furnished accommodation provided for stays from one day to three months.

A two-week Airbnb in Palermo, a ten-night apartment in Mendoza and a one-month beach rental in Mar del Plata all fit naturally into the temporary-tourism side of that divide.

The new Income Tax benefit asks whether the tenant is actually using the property as a permanent home. Nightly pricing, repeated guest turnover and short tourist stays point in the opposite direction.

The property itself can still be a residential apartment. What changes the tax analysis is how the occupant uses it.

Example	Typical use	Permanent-home exemption?
Apartment rented to one family for two years	Permanent residence	Yes, if requirements are met
Apartment rented to tourist for 7 nights	Temporary tourism	No
Apartment rented to visitor for 30 days	Temporary stay	Normally no
Furnished apartment rented to tourist for 3 months	Temporary tourism under ARCA definition	Normally no
Apartment genuinely occupied long term as tenant’s main home	Permanent residence	Potentially yes

Can a three-month Airbnb ever count as tax-free permanent housing?

A three-month Airbnb still falls squarely inside ARCA’s current definition of temporary tourist accommodation, while a much longer stay needs to be judged on what the tenancy really looks like.

ARCA currently treats stays from one day through three months as temporary rentals when the property is being used to accommodate tourists. Crossing the three-month mark does not automatically unlock the Income Tax exemption.

Imagine a digital nomad booking furnished apartments for four months at a time while moving between cities. A longer booking alone gives us weak evidence that any of those apartments became the person’s permanent family home.

A different case would be someone relocating to Argentina, renting an apartment for a year, living there continuously and treating it as their actual home. In that situation, the underlying relationship starts to look much more like ordinary residential housing.

Airbnb itself does not decide the outcome. ARCA’s RELI rules explicitly cover contracts made through digital platforms and mobile apps, so a digitally arranged lease can still be a real residential lease. We would look at the actual occupation, duration and purpose rather than the logo on the booking confirmation.

Can a small Airbnb host really pay zero federal Monotributo?

Yes. A qualifying Airbnb host who earns rental income through no more than two properties can currently end up paying zero Monotributo at the federal level.

This is the part of the “Airbnb is tax-free” story that has real substance.

ARCA says taxpayers who join Monotributo exclusively as landlords are exempt from the integrated tax when they rent no more than two properties and meet the registration requirements. Current ARCA guidance explicitly extends the benefit to properties regardless of their destination, which is why tourist rentals are not automatically excluded.

There is another unusually generous piece. ARCA also exempts taxpayers who join Monotributo for rental of property from the standard retirement and health-insurance contributions.

Put the two together and an eligible rental-only host with one or two properties can have no normal monthly Monotributo component left to pay.

The paperwork still counts. ARCA requires the appropriate rental activity to be declared and the relevant contracts to be registered through RELI when required. This is a tax benefit inside the formal system, rather than a way to keep Airbnb revenue undeclared.

How much Airbnb revenue can still fit inside Monotributo now?

An Airbnb landlord can currently remain inside Monotributo with annual gross revenue of roughly ARS 126.6 million, assuming the other eligibility rules are also satisfied.

ARCA’s latest Category K table puts the maximum annual gross-revenue threshold at ARS 126,610,838.75. That is around 34% higher than the roughly ARS 94.8 million ceiling shown in the previous annual table we checked.

The increase is important because the two-property landlord exemption becomes much more useful when the simplified-regime ceiling rises. Two reasonably productive tourist apartments can generate far more revenue today before the owner is forced out purely because of turnover.

The revenue ceiling does not replace the two-property test. A host earning ARS 60 million from three rented apartments has a different problem from a host earning ARS 100 million from two. The first exceeds the property limit for the special integrated-tax exemption even though the second earns considerably more money.

Example Airbnb host	Annual gross revenue	Properties rented	Within current revenue ceiling?	Two-property tax break potentially available?
Small host	ARS 25m	1	Yes	Yes
Active host	ARS 60m	2	Yes	Yes
High-revenue host	ARS 110m	2	Yes	Yes
Over-limit host	ARS 140m	2	No	No
Small portfolio operator	ARS 60m	3	Yes	No

What makes an Airbnb host lose the two-property Monotributo break?

A third rented property, excessive revenue or another activity that means the taxpayer is no longer registered exclusively as a landlord can take an Airbnb host outside the special Monotributo exemption.

The third property creates the clearest cliff. The law exempts rental income from up to two properties from the integrated Monotributo payment. Once the host rents three, that specific benefit no longer applies.

Revenue creates another boundary. The host still has to remain eligible for Monotributo, including staying under the current gross-revenue ceiling and meeting the regime’s broader conditions.

Other economic activity also needs attention. ARCA phrases the benefit around taxpayers who adhere to Monotributo exclusively in their capacity as landlords. Someone combining the rentals with another activity inside Monotributo should not assume the rental exemption continues unchanged.

There is some nuance here. ARCA says income that is not counted as gross revenue for Monotributo purposes does not by itself prevent the landlord from using the benefit. We therefore would not treat every peso earned from somewhere else as an automatic disqualifier.

For a small investor, the practical dividing line is still striking. Two tourist apartments can receive much more favorable federal treatment than three very similar tourist apartments.

What tax does a larger Airbnb host pay in Argentina?

A larger Argentine Airbnb host who falls outside the special Monotributo treatment can face ordinary Income Tax, with individuals taxed progressively and companies taxed under the corporate scale.

For a resident individual in the general regime, rental income belongs to the normal Income Tax calculation when no exemption applies. Argentina’s personal rates currently run from 5% to 35%.

Those percentages apply to taxable net income rather than simply to every peso collected from Airbnb guests. Expenses and the normal rules for calculating taxable profit can change the final bill considerably.

A company sits in a different regime. Argentina’s current corporate Income Tax scale uses 25%, 30% and 35% bands depending on taxable net profit. The new permanent-residential-rent exemption is aimed at qualifying rent earned by individuals and undivided estates, so a company operating short-term apartments should not build its model around that exemption.

This is why quoting one “Airbnb tax rate in Argentina” is rarely useful. A one-apartment Monotributista and a company running twenty furnished apartments can be operating on the same platform while facing completely different federal tax bills.

Does IVA still matter for Airbnb rentals in Argentina?

IVA can still matter for Airbnb rentals in Argentina, especially when a short-term rental starts to look more like an accommodation business than a simple property lease.

Argentina’s IVA law exempts property rented exclusively as the tenant’s home and family residence. The IVA regulations then carve out temporary rentals in buildings where hotel-like accommodation services are provided.

That leaves an important factual distinction between someone handing over a furnished apartment and someone running an organized hospitality operation with services comparable to a lodging business.

We would avoid saying that every Airbnb automatically carries 21% IVA. Monotributo changes how small taxpayers interact with IVA, and the exact nature of the rental still matters.

What we can say confidently is that the new Income Tax exemption did not create a fresh Airbnb IVA exemption. Hosts outside Monotributo, particularly those offering a more hotel-like service, need to analyze IVA separately.

Does Buenos Aires still tax Airbnb even when federal Monotributo is zero?

Yes. Buenos Aires City currently taxes tourist property rentals at 6% under its Gross Receipts schedule, so a host can have a zero Monotributo payment federally and still owe a meaningful local tax.

The city’s current tariff law lists ordinary real-estate rental at 1.5% and real-estate rental for tourist purposes at 6%. Tourist rental therefore carries four times the headline rate.

At ARS 50 million of taxable tourist-rental revenue, 6% equals ARS 3 million. At ARS 100 million, the arithmetic reaches ARS 6 million. That is large enough to change a yield calculation materially.

Buenos Aires also has a specific regulatory framework for temporary tourist rentals. The city has treated short-term tourist accommodation as its own category for years, including a property-registration system.

Other Argentine provinces have their own Gross Receipts rules, rates and exemptions, so the Buenos Aires percentage should not be copied onto an Airbnb in Córdoba or Mendoza. The broader point is simple: federal Monotributo relief does not erase provincial or city taxation.

Taxable tourist-rental revenue in CABA	Current tourist rental rate	Approx. Gross Receipts tax	Tax at ordinary 1.5% rental rate
ARS 20m	6%	ARS 1.2m	ARS 0.3m
ARS 50m	6%	ARS 3.0m	ARS 0.75m
ARS 100m	6%	ARS 6.0m	ARS 1.5m

What tax does a foreign Airbnb owner pay in Argentina?

A foreign owner receiving taxable Airbnb rent from Argentine property can face an effective federal withholding of 21% of gross rent under Argentina’s standard nonresident presumption, although treaties and an alternative expense calculation can change the result.

Argentina’s Income Tax Law generally applies a 35% withholding rate to presumed net income paid to a foreign beneficiary. For rent from Argentine real estate, the law presumes that 60% of the gross payment is net income.

Thirty-five percent of 60% gives an effective 21% of gross rent.

That is a radically different starting point from the small local Monotributo host. On ARS 50 million of taxable gross rent, the statutory presumption produces ARS 10.5 million of federal withholding before considering an alternative calculation or treaty relief.

Foreign owners can, in qualifying circumstances, choose actual Argentine expenses recognized by ARCA instead of the 60% presumed-profit method. Tax treaties can also alter the final treatment.

For a foreign buyer looking at an Airbnb investment, residency status should therefore be checked before relying on stories about Argentina’s rental tax cuts.

Gross taxable rent	Presumed taxable share	Tax on presumed income	Effective rate on gross rent
ARS 20m	60%	ARS 4.2m	21%
ARS 50m	60%	ARS 10.5m	21%
ARS 100m	60%	ARS 21m	21%

Is Argentina now giving long-term rentals better tax treatment than Airbnb?

Yes. Argentina currently gives genuine permanent housing a stronger Income Tax advantage than ordinary tourist Airbnb rentals.

The new permanent-home exemption is the clearest example. A qualifying landlord can receive long-term residential rent without paying Income Tax on that income.

Tourist rentals do not get the same new exemption. In Buenos Aires City, the local comparison becomes even sharper because tourist property rental carries a 6% Gross Receipts rate while the tariff schedule lists ordinary property rental at 1.5%.

The two-property Monotributo rule softens that difference for very small landlords. A person renting one or two Airbnbs can still receive unusually favorable federal treatment.

Once the business becomes larger, though, the tax advantage increasingly shifts toward genuine permanent residential renting. For an investor comparing long-term rent with Airbnb, the gap in headline gross revenue now tells less of the story than it used to.

Which Airbnb hosts in Argentina are closest to being genuinely tax-free?

The Airbnb owner closest to a genuinely tax-light structure today is a local individual who rents no more than two properties, has a rental-only Monotributo position, stays within the simplified-regime limits and keeps the required registrations in order.

ARCA allows the special two-property landlord benefit regardless of the properties’ destination. That makes a small tourist-rental host materially different from a larger operator.

A resident individual outside Monotributo moves closer to ordinary Income Tax. A company faces corporate tax rules. A foreign owner can face nonresident withholding. A Buenos Aires Airbnb can also carry local Gross Receipts tax even when the federal monthly Monotributo payment disappears.

Calling all of these owners “Airbnb hosts” hides more than it explains.

Airbnb owner	Current federal position	Main catch
Local individual, 1–2 rentals only, Monotributo eligible	Can potentially have zero Monotributo payment	Registration, limits and local taxes remain
Local individual with 3+ rentals	Special two-property exemption unavailable	Ordinary Monotributo/general-regime rules
Resident individual outside Monotributo	Tourist rental generally enters Income Tax calculation	Progressive tax on taxable net income
Argentine company	Corporate Income Tax applies	25%–35% corporate scale
Foreign individual	Nonresident Income Tax rules can apply	21% gross statutory baseline before alternatives/treaties
Buenos Aires City Airbnb host	Local Gross Receipts can still apply	Tourist rental rate currently 6%

So is Airbnb income tax-free in Argentina now?

No. Airbnb income is not generally tax-free in Argentina today, although some small hosts can legitimately end up with no federal Monotributo payment.

The confusion comes from two unusually favorable rules landing next to each other. Argentina has recently exempted qualifying permanent residential rent from Income Tax. Tourist Airbnb stays normally sit outside that benefit.

At the same time, the existing small-landlord Monotributo rule can cover one or two tourist rental properties. For the right local owner, that can wipe out the normal federal Monotributo components completely.

That exception is substantial, but it does not survive every structure. Larger portfolios, companies and many foreign owners face very different federal rules, while provinces and cities can still impose their own taxes. Buenos Aires City’s current 6% tourist-rental Gross Receipts rate is the clearest example.

Our conclusion is that the claim is partly true for a narrow group of small hosts and false as a general description of Airbnb taxation in Argentina. Argentina has made permanent residential renting much more tax-friendly and continues to give very small landlords an unusually generous Monotributo break. It has not created a nationwide Airbnb tax holiday.

Fact-checked and reviewed by our local expert

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Franca Berta

Marketing Specialist, KasaFinder

Franca Berta has a strong understanding of Argentina’s real estate market through her work with KasaFinder, a platform focused on helping international buyers explore property opportunities across Latin America. With local roots and a close view of the market, she brings useful insight into the different cities, property types, and investment opportunities available across Argentina.

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