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SUMMARY
Yes, qualifying long-term residential rental income can now be free from Argentina’s national Income Tax when an individual owns the property and the tenant genuinely uses it as a permanent home. Calling all Argentine rental income “tax-free,” though, is too broad.
The reform is much bigger than the old landlord incentives. Law 27.802 created the exemption and Decree 406/2026 made the test concrete, while the older 10% landlord deduction has effectively been overtaken for individuals covered by the new treatment.
The decisive factor is how the property is actually used, not what the apartment looks like, whether it is furnished, or where the tenant was found. Two identical units in the same building can now have different Income Tax treatment if one houses a permanent resident and the other is run as a tourist rental.
That is why Airbnb-style and other short-term stays generally remain outside the exemption. Temporary accommodation can also bring more VAT complexity when the operation starts to resemble a hotel or apart-hotel.
The exemption is not limited to new leases. Qualifying rent accruing from 2026 can be exempt even when the residential lease was signed earlier, so existing long-term landlords did not need to rewrite contracts just to enter the new regime.
There is also no general federal rent ceiling or stated apartment-count limit inside this Income Tax exemption. An individual with five qualifying long-term residential units can potentially have exempt rent across all five.
Ownership structure matters more than nationality. A foreign individual can benefit from the exemption on qualifying Argentine residential rent, while a company owning the same apartment cannot use the individual exemption.
For some landlords, the federal tax stack can become unusually light. Qualifying rent can be exempt from Income Tax and generally exempt from VAT, while the property itself and a dedicated rental bank account can sometimes receive separate Bienes Personales and bank-tax relief if their own conditions are met.
A lot of confusion comes from importing limits from other regimes. The two-property Monotributo benefit, Bienes Personales thresholds, and provincial rental exemptions are separate tests; they do not create a two-apartment cap on the national Income Tax exemption.
The remaining catch is that “zero national Income Tax” does not mean zero tax or zero paperwork. Provincial Ingresos Brutos, local property charges, registration, invoicing and reporting can still matter, so the cleanest shorthand today is: qualifying permanent-home rent can be Income-Tax-free, but the rental activity is not automatically tax-free in every sense.
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Is rental income actually tax-free in Argentina now?
Yes, qualifying long-term residential rental income earned by an individual is currently exempt from Argentina’s national Income Tax, but that does not make every kind of rental income tax-free.
Argentina made a major change through Law 27.802. Rental income from property used as the tenant’s permanent home was added to the exemptions under the Income Tax Law for income accruing from 2026 onward. Decree 406/2026 later clarified the rule and confirmed that the exemption covers qualifying rentals by individuals and undivided estates.
This goes much further than Argentina’s previous landlord incentives. Before the change, residential landlords could benefit from deductions and special regimes, but the underlying rental profit was still generally part of the Income Tax system. Individuals can face Income Tax rates reaching 35%, so removing qualifying rent from that calculation can change the after-tax return substantially.
The catch is the definition of qualifying rent. The tenant must genuinely use the property as a permanent home. Airbnb-style stays, vacation rentals, offices, shops and other non-residential uses fall outside this specific exemption. Companies also do not get the same treatment as individual owners.
So the headline is broadly correct for someone personally owning an apartment and renting it to a long-term resident. Once the property, tenant or ownership structure changes, we have to check the other rules.
What changed in Argentina’s rental tax rules?
Argentina has recently gone from giving residential landlords tax breaks to exempting qualifying residential rent from Income Tax altogether.
The earlier system was built around Law 27.737. It created several incentives for landlords, including a 10% Income Tax deduction on qualifying rent, special Monotributo treatment for small landlords, a possible Bienes Personales exemption and relief from the bank debit-and-credit tax.
Those measures could lower the bill, although the rent itself generally remained taxable.
Law 27.802 changed that. Its Article 192 rewrote the relevant Income Tax exemption so that rent from properties used as a tenant’s home can now be exempt. Decree 406/2026 then defined a qualifying home as a unique, family and permanently occupied dwelling and spelled out how the exemption applies.
There is even a small sign of how fresh the change is. Some ARCA web pages currently still tell landlords that they can deduct 10% of residential rent from Income Tax. The newer decree says that this deduction no longer applies when the landlord is an individual or undivided estate covered by the new treatment. In practical terms, the full exemption has overtaken the old landlord deduction.
It also explains why searches for Argentina rental taxes still produce contradictory answers. Some pages describe the previous regime correctly, but they no longer give the full picture for an individual earning qualifying residential rent today.
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Which rentals qualify for Argentina’s new Income Tax exemption?
Argentina’s new rental Income Tax exemption covers property that the tenant genuinely uses as a unique, family and permanent home.
The wording comes directly from the current Income Tax regulations. For a rented property, the relevant home is the tenant’s home, rather than the landlord’s. The property also has to be used exclusively in that way.
A conventional apartment leased to a person or family who lives there permanently is the clearest case. A house leased under the same conditions also qualifies. Furnishing the property does not automatically cause a problem either. The regulation specifically includes amounts paid for furniture, accessories and services supplied by the landlord as part of a qualifying home rental.
The physical property alone therefore tells us very little. Two identical apartments in the same Buenos Aires building can have completely different Income Tax treatment if one is occupied by a permanent tenant and the other is continuously rented to tourists.
| Rental | Current Income Tax treatment for an individual landlord | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Apartment used as the tenant’s permanent home | Exempt | Meets the casa-habitación test |
| Furnished apartment used permanently by the tenant | Exempt | Furniture and related services can be included |
| House used as the tenant’s permanent family home | Exempt | Qualifying residential use |
| Airbnb or vacation apartment | Generally taxable | Temporary use does not meet the permanent-home test |
| Office or professional practice | Taxable | The tenant is not using it as a home |
| Shop or other commercial property | Taxable | Commercial use falls outside the exemption |
Does Airbnb rental income qualify for Argentina’s tax exemption?
Airbnb and other short-term tourist rental income generally remains outside Argentina’s new residential Income Tax exemption.
The problem is temporary use. Argentina’s current rule requires the property to serve as the tenant’s permanent home. Argentine rules separately recognize tourist and temporary rentals, including accommodation provided for periods from one day up to three months. Those stays clearly sit in a different category from a permanent residence.
The booking platform itself is secondary. A landlord does not lose the exemption simply because the tenant was found online, and avoiding Airbnb does not magically turn a six-week tourist stay into permanent housing. We have to look at how the occupant actually uses the apartment.
This creates a real tax difference between two popular property strategies. Someone renting an apartment conventionally to a permanent resident can currently receive that qualifying rent free from national Income Tax. Someone rotating tourists through the same apartment cannot rely on the same exemption.
VAT can also become more complicated for temporary accommodation, particularly when services make the activity resemble a hotel or apart-hotel. The tax gap between long-term and tourist rental can therefore extend beyond Income Tax.
For investors choosing between long-term rent and Airbnb, comparing only gross rent now misses an important part of the economics.
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Do leases signed before the new tax exemption qualify?
Yes, an older Argentine residential lease can currently qualify for the Income Tax exemption even if the contract was signed before the tax rule changed.
As seen above, Decree 406/2026 deals with this point directly. The exemption applies to qualifying residential rent accruing from the beginning of 2026 regardless of when the lease itself was signed.
A landlord with a tenant who moved into an apartment earlier therefore does not need to terminate the contract and sign another one simply to enter the new regime.
The relevant question is what the property is being used for when the rent is earned. If an existing tenant occupies the apartment as a permanent home, rent accruing during the exempt period can qualify. Rent belonging to an earlier taxable period does not become retroactively exempt.
This detail made the reform effective much faster than it would have been if Argentina had restricted it to newly signed contracts. Existing long-term residential portfolios could move into the new treatment immediately as qualifying rent began accruing.
Is there a rent cap or apartment limit for the Income Tax exemption?
There is currently no general rent ceiling and no maximum number of apartments in Argentina’s new Income Tax exemption for qualifying residential rent earned by an individual.
This is where the newer rule differs sharply from some of Argentina’s other landlord incentives.
The exemption itself does not disappear because the monthly rent is high. It also does not stop after the first or second apartment. The implementing regulation says that it reaches all units an individual or undivided estate rents or sublets as qualifying permanent homes.
That makes the rule much broader than the well-known Monotributo benefit for landlords with up to two rented properties.
Take an individual who owns five apartments. If all five are genuinely occupied as the respective tenants’ permanent homes, the third, fourth and fifth apartments do not suddenly become subject to national Income Tax merely because the owner has crossed a property-count threshold.
Other taxes can still impose their own ceilings, so the distinction is important. Monotributo has separate conditions. Bienes Personales has a value test. Provincial Ingresos Brutos rules can limit the number of exempt properties or the rent collected.
For national Income Tax itself, though, a large individually owned residential portfolio can currently qualify across multiple units.
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Can foreign landlords get Argentina’s residential rental tax exemption?
Yes, a foreign individual owning Argentine property can currently benefit from the residential rental Income Tax exemption when the property is used as the tenant’s permanent home.
The exemption is attached to qualifying residential rental income earned by an individual or undivided estate. Argentine residence is not one of the conditions imposed on the rental exemption. Current 2026 tax analyses applying the new rules consequently show qualifying Argentine residential rent as exempt for both resident and nonresident individual owners.
That is a meaningful change for foreign property investors.
When Argentine rental income earned by a foreign beneficiary is taxable, the Income Tax Law normally uses a withholding system. For real-estate rent, the standard presumption treats 60% of the gross payment as net taxable income and applies the 35% rate. That combination corresponds to an effective 21% of gross rent before considering alternatives available under the law.
A qualifying permanent-home rental avoids that taxable starting point because the underlying income is exempt.
Foreign ownership can still create more paperwork than local ownership. ARCA registration, invoicing, representatives, payment mechanics and the owner’s tax position in another country can all remain relevant. A zero Argentine Income Tax bill also says nothing about whether the owner’s country of residence taxes worldwide rental income.
But for the Argentine national Income Tax itself, being a foreign individual does not automatically destroy the residential-rental exemption.
Can a company earn tax-free residential rent in Argentina?
No, a company-owned apartment does not currently receive the same residential rental Income Tax exemption as an apartment owned directly by an individual.
The current implementing rule gives the rental exemption to personas humanas and sucesiones indivisas, meaning individuals and undivided estates.
A company therefore stays inside the corporate Income Tax system when it earns rent from its property, even when a family uses the apartment as its permanent home.
That difference can become important before buying. Imagine two investors acquiring identical apartments for the same price and charging the same rent. One holds the apartment personally, while the other holds it through a company. The first investor can potentially receive qualifying residential rent free from national Income Tax. The company cannot use that individual exemption.
There can still be good reasons to use a company, including multiple shareholders, liability management, governance or succession planning. Those benefits need to compensate for a tax treatment that has lately become much more favorable to direct individual ownership of conventional residential rentals.
So before calling an Argentine rental “tax-free,” check who owns it.
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Is long-term residential rent also exempt from VAT in Argentina?
Yes, qualifying long-term residential rent is currently generally exempt from Argentine VAT as well as the newer Income Tax exemption.
This VAT treatment predates the latest Income Tax reform. Argentina’s VAT law exempts the rental of property used exclusively as the home of the tenant and the tenant’s family.
That creates a favorable combination for the conventional residential landlord. When an individual rents an apartment as the tenant’s permanent home, the rent can now sit outside VAT while also being exempt from national Income Tax.
The word “exclusively” is worth noticing. An apartment genuinely used as a home fits comfortably. Commercial use, professional use and temporary accommodation can produce different results.
Temporary rentals deserve particular care because VAT regulations contain specific rules for accommodation resembling hotels and similar services. Cleaning, reception, hospitality services and the way the unit is operated can all affect the analysis.
For a plain long-term apartment lease, however, the federal tax position has become unusually light. Two major national taxes that investors would normally worry about, Income Tax and VAT, can both be absent from the rental payment.
Does Argentina’s two-property Monotributo rule still matter?
Yes, Argentina’s two-property Monotributo benefit still matters today, although it answers a different question from the new Income Tax exemption.
A landlord whose income comes exclusively from renting no more than two properties can qualify for exemption from the integrated Monotributo payment if the other requirements are met. ARCA still lists this benefit in its current guidance and requires the relevant rental contracts to be registered in RELI.
ARCA’s latest Monotributo table puts the category K annual gross-income ceiling at about ARS 126.6 million. The table also confirms that people registered exclusively as landlords can avoid the integrated tax when they rent no more than two properties.
The key point is that the two-property limit belongs to this simplified-tax benefit. It does not cap the newer national Income Tax exemption for permanent residential rent.
A landlord with one or two properties can therefore potentially enjoy both favorable rules. Someone with five qualifying residential apartments may still have exempt Income Tax on the rent, even though the special two-property Monotributo benefit no longer fits.
| Rule | Property limit | Revenue limit | What the benefit does |
|---|---|---|---|
| Residential Income Tax exemption | No stated unit limit | No specific rent ceiling | Exempts qualifying permanent-home rent from Income Tax |
| Special landlord Monotributo treatment | Up to 2 rented properties | Must remain within Monotributo limits | Can remove the integrated Monotributo payment |
| Current category K ceiling | N/A | About ARS 126.6 million annual gross income | Sets the top current Monotributo revenue threshold |
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Can the rental property and its bank account also be tax-exempt?
Yes, qualifying Argentine landlords can currently combine the rental Income Tax exemption with separate relief for Bienes Personales and the bank debit-and-credit tax, although these extra exemptions have their own conditions.
Bienes Personales taxes assets rather than rental income. Argentina has a specific exemption for properties rented as residential homes when the contract is properly registered and the tax value of each property does not exceed the applicable home threshold.
ARCA’s latest published Bienes Personales figures put that property threshold at roughly ARS 1.347 billion for the latest completed fiscal period. The ordinary minimum applying to an individual’s broader taxable assets was roughly ARS 384.7 million for the same period.
Those figures will move as thresholds are updated. What matters here is the structure of the rule. A residential rental property can itself receive favorable treatment, but it must satisfy conditions that do not apply to the newer Income Tax exemption.
The bank tax has another separate benefit. Credits and debits through a savings or current account used exclusively for qualifying residential rental operations can be exempt when the rental contracts meet the registration requirements.
This creates a particularly favorable setup for some landlords: exempt residential rent, no VAT on the qualifying rent, a possible Bienes Personales exemption for the property and a possible exemption from the bank debit-and-credit tax on the dedicated rental account.
Getting the Income Tax exemption does not automatically unlock every one of those benefits. RELI registration, property value and how the bank account is used still have to be checked separately.
What taxes can landlords still owe on a tax-free Argentine rental?
Provincial Ingresos Brutos and local property taxes are currently the main reason we would avoid calling every qualifying Argentine residential rental literally tax-free.
Argentina’s new Income Tax exemption is national. Provinces and the City of Buenos Aires run their own tax systems, and their exemptions can be much narrower.
Buenos Aires Province is a clear example. Its current tax code generally brings property rental into Ingresos Brutos, while excluding rent from up to one residential property when the owner meets the conditions and stays below the amount set by the annual tax law.
For 2026, ARBA sets that amount at ARS 581,317 per month or ARS 6,974,660 per year. Owning a second rental property can already change the treatment because the provincial exemption is framed around up to one residential property. Companies and certain other structures are excluded as well.
Buenos Aires City uses different rules, and other provinces set their own exemptions, thresholds and rates. A landlord therefore cannot take a national Income Tax answer and assume that the same answer applies locally.
Property taxes also continue. A Buenos Aires apartment can still generate local real-estate charges even when every peso of qualifying rent is exempt from national Income Tax.
Argentina has removed a major national tax from qualifying residential rent. Taxes connected with owning or operating the property can still be very much alive.
| Tax | Qualifying long-term residential rental | Main catch |
|---|---|---|
| National Income Tax | Exempt for qualifying individual landlords | Permanent-home use and ownership structure matter |
| VAT | Generally exempt | Different rules can apply to temporary or hospitality-style rentals |
| Bienes Personales | Can be exempt | Property value and registration conditions apply |
| Bank debit-and-credit tax | Can be exempt | Dedicated account and qualifying registration required |
| Provincial Ingresos Brutos | Can still apply | Each jurisdiction has its own thresholds and property limits |
| Local property taxes | Still generally apply | Depends on the location and property |
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Do landlords still have to register and invoice tax-free rent in Argentina?
Yes, an Argentine landlord can currently owe zero Income Tax on qualifying residential rent and still have registration, invoicing and reporting obligations.
ARCA’s current landlord guidance says property owners who rent real estate must be registered under the appropriate tax framework and issue the required invoices or equivalent documents.
For Monotributistas, that generally means electronic C invoices. Landlords under the general regime follow the corresponding invoicing and filing rules.
RELI also remains important, although its role needs to be understood correctly. The rental registry is explicitly required for several benefits created under Law 27.737, including the special Monotributo treatment, the residential-rental Bienes Personales exemption and the bank-tax exemption.
The new Income Tax exemption itself focuses on the use of the property as the tenant’s permanent home. That still leaves the landlord needing evidence that the arrangement really fits the rule.
A written lease, proper invoices and a clear record of the tenant’s residential use become especially useful if the property could otherwise look like temporary accommodation.
For foreign owners, local representation and compliance can add another layer. In practice, exempt income can still be reportable income, and “tax-free” should never be read as “paperwork-free.”
So, is rental income tax-free in Argentina now?
Mostly yes for an individual renting property as the tenant’s permanent home, and the current exemption is considerably broader than Argentina’s old landlord tax breaks.
Qualifying long-term residential rent can now be fully exempt from national Income Tax. There is no specific federal rent ceiling and no stated limit on how many qualifying apartments an individual can put under that exemption. Foreign individuals can also benefit when they own qualifying Argentine residential property.
The result gets even more favorable when we add taxes that were already treated separately. Permanent residential rent is generally VAT-exempt. Certain registered rental properties can qualify for a Bienes Personales exemption. Dedicated rental bank accounts can qualify for relief from the debit-and-credit tax. Small landlords can still use the separate two-property Monotributo benefit when they meet its conditions.
There are clear boundaries. Airbnb and tourist accommodation generally miss the permanent-home test. Commercial rentals stay taxable. A company cannot use the individual residential Income Tax exemption. Provincial Ingresos Brutos and local property taxes can still create a bill even when national Income Tax is zero.
So if someone says, “Argentina just made all rental income tax-free,” that goes too far.
If the claim is, “An individual can now own several apartments in Argentina, rent them long-term as people’s permanent homes and pay zero national Income Tax on that qualifying rent,” the current rules support it.
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OUR METHODOLOGY
We treated this as a current-rule question: is qualifying rental income actually exempt in Argentina now, and where does that exemption stop? We started with Law 27.802 and Decree 406/2026, then checked the consolidated Income Tax law and its implementing regulation for the effective date, the definition of casa-habitación, the owners covered, pre-existing leases and the treatment of multiple properties.
We used actual use of the property as the main dividing line. A permanent home and a tourist rental can be physically identical, so we did not use Airbnb, furnishing or the way the tenant was found as shortcuts. We looked at whether the tenant genuinely occupies the property as a unique, family and permanent home.
We also separated the new Income Tax exemption from Argentina’s older landlord incentives. Some current ARCA pages still describe the previous 10% landlord deduction, so where administrative guidance lagged the reform, we prioritized the newer legislation and implementing decree. ARCA guidance was still used for RELI, invoicing, Monotributo and the other compliance rules that remain relevant.
For limits, we checked each tax regime on its own terms. The Income Tax exemption itself reaches all qualifying units rented by an individual or undivided estate, so we did not import the two-property Monotributo rule, Bienes Personales thresholds or provincial limits into that exemption.
We applied the same separation to ownership structure. The implementing regulation specifically covers individuals and undivided estates, making legal ownership form more important here than nationality. For foreign owners, we used the normal withholding rules on taxable Argentine real-estate rent only as a comparison for what the exemption removes.
Finally, we tested the word “tax-free” against the other taxes and obligations a landlord can still face: VAT, Bienes Personales, the bank debit-and-credit tax, Monotributo, provincial Ingresos Brutos, RELI registration and invoicing. For changing monetary thresholds, we used the latest figures in the supplied tax-authority material rather than carrying older values forward.
Key sources include Law 27.802, Decree 406/2026, the consolidated Income Tax Law, the updated Income Tax implementing regulation, ARCA’s RELI guidance, ARCA’s current Monotributo categories, ARCA’s Bienes Personales exemptions, Argentina’s updated VAT law, the temporary tourist-rental definition, and ARBA’s Buenos Aires Province Ingresos Brutos guidance.
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