Get all the data you need about the real estate market in Argentina
SUMMARY
Selling property in Argentina is now mostly tax-free at the federal level for qualifying individual owners: the old 1.5% ITI is gone, and qualifying real-estate gains covered by Article 99 can be exempt from Income Tax for transfers from 2026 onward.
The change is much broader than Argentina’s old main-home exemption. An investment apartment, second home or other personally held property can now qualify even if the seller never lived there.
The old acquisition-date divide has also lost much of its importance. Before the reforms, properties acquired before and after 2018 could fall into very different federal tax regimes; today, both branches can lead to a zero federal tax bill for an ordinary qualifying individual sale.
Foreign ownership does not automatically remove the benefit. The implementing rules extend the exemption to qualifying individuals and undivided estates resident in Argentina or abroad, although a non-resident may still owe tax in the country where they live.
Ownership structure now matters more than it did before. A personally owned investment property can qualify for the exemption while the same economic gain inside a company can remain subject to Argentina’s corporate income-tax system.
The reform also does not turn property development into tax-free activity. Building units for resale, subdividing land or carrying on an organized real-estate business can still produce taxable business income even when privately held investment property receives much more favorable treatment.
“Tax-free” therefore needs one important qualification: local taxes did not disappear. Buenos Aires City, Buenos Aires Province and other jurisdictions can still impose stamp duty or related transaction taxes under their own rules.
The financial effect can be substantial for appreciated property. A gain that would previously have produced a 15% federal tax under Article 99 can now generate no federal capital-gains charge if the current exemption applies.
The relief reaches beyond a final escritura. Qualifying assignments of property rights, including certain rights under a boleto de compraventa, can also fall inside the new framework, which matters in a market where economic ownership often changes before final title is transferred.
The overall result is a much cheaper exit for many private property investors. Sellers still have notary, registry, brokerage and sometimes local tax costs, but for a qualifying individual the federal tax that once took 1.5% of the sale value or 15% of the calculated gain can genuinely be zero.
Thinking of buying real estate in Argentina?
Acquiring property in a different country is a complex task. Don't fall into common traps – grab our guide and make better decisions.
Is selling property tax-free in Argentina now?
For many individual owners, selling property in Argentina is now effectively free of federal tax on the sale and the capital gain.
That is a much bigger change than the old primary-home exemption. The 1.5% Impuesto a la Transferencia de Inmuebles, or ITI, was abolished in 2024. Then Law 27,802 exempted the real-estate gains covered by Article 99 of the Income Tax Law when the property or property rights are transferred from 2026 onward.
Until recently, the tax treatment depended heavily on when the property had been acquired. Older qualifying properties could fall under ITI, while many properties acquired from 2018 onward faced a 15% tax on the calculated gain. For an individual making a qualifying sale today, both of those federal charges can now be zero.
There are still taxes and costs around the transaction. Provincial or Buenos Aires City stamp duty can apply, companies do not get the same capital-gains exemption, and sellers can still face notarial, registry and brokerage costs. So “tax-free” works as a description of the main federal taxes paid by many individual sellers. It does not mean the entire closing costs nothing.
| Seller or transaction | Main federal treatment today | Other taxes or costs? | Overall judgment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Individual selling an investment property | Gain can be exempt | Yes | Mostly tax-free |
| Individual selling a second home | Gain can be exempt | Yes | Mostly tax-free |
| Individual selling a primary home | Exempt | Yes | Mostly tax-free |
| Foreign individual selling Argentine property | Can qualify for exemption | Possibly | Mostly tax-free in Argentina |
| Company selling property | Corporate tax can apply | Yes | Not tax-free |
| Property-development business | Business income can remain taxable | Yes | Not tax-free |
What actually changed in Argentina's property taxes?
Argentina removed the two federal taxes that used to catch most ordinary property sales by individuals.
The first disappeared in 2024, when Law 27,743 repealed the ITI. That tax generally took 1.5% of the transfer value from sales falling under the older regime. Because it was charged on the value of the transaction rather than the owner's profit, a seller could owe a meaningful amount even after making little economic gain.
The second change went further. Law 27,802 amended Article 26 of the Income Tax Law so that gains covered by Article 99 are exempt when the property or property rights are transferred from 2026 onward. Article 99 is the provision that had imposed a 15% tax on qualifying gains made by individuals and undivided estates.
Put the two reforms together and the change is unusually large. ITI disappeared, then the federal capital-gains charge was switched off for the individual real-estate sales covered by Article 99.
| Regime | What was taxed | Previous federal rate | Treatment now |
|---|---|---|---|
| Older ITI regime | Transfer value | 1.5% | Repealed |
| Article 99 regime | Calculated property gain | 15% | Exempt for qualifying current transfers |
| Corporate property gains | Company profit | 25%–35% scale | Still taxable |
Don't buy the wrong property, in the wrong area of Argentina
Buying real estate is a significant investment. Don't rely solely on your intuition. Gather the right information to make the best decision.
Is Argentina's new property tax exemption only for a main home?
No. Argentina's current exemption can also cover an individual's investment property, second home or other qualifying real estate.
That is one of the biggest differences from the previous system. Argentina already had special protection for a qualifying casa-habitación, so someone selling a main residence could often avoid the 15% tax even while an investor selling another property remained taxable.
The new wording is much broader. Law 27,802 exempts the results covered by Article 99 rather than limiting the relief to someone's main home.
Decree 406/2026 later confirmed the application of that rule to individuals and undivided estates. The decree does not turn the exemption back into a primary-residence benefit.
For a private investor, that changes the answer considerably. An appreciated rental apartment can now receive the same federal capital-gains exemption even though the owner never lived there.
Does it still matter whether an Argentina property was bought before or after 2018?
Much less than before. For an ordinary individual selling property today, the old 2018 dividing line no longer determines the main federal tax bill in most cases.
Until these reforms, acquisition date was crucial. Transactions linked to properties acquired before 2018 could fall into the ITI system. Properties acquired from 2018 generally moved into Article 99, where the taxable gain was charged at 15%.
The older branch disappeared when ITI was repealed. The newer branch has now been exempted for qualifying transfers.
Dates still need to be checked carefully in some transactions, especially inherited property, rights acquired through earlier contracts, deals spanning several tax periods or assets connected to a business. Argentine law also has specific rules for deciding when an acquisition or disposal legally occurred.
But someone asking today whether a privately held apartment bought in 2016 or 2020 can be sold without one of those old federal taxes will often end up with the same answer: yes.
Get to know the market before buying a property in Argentina
Better information leads to better decisions. Get all the data you need before investing a large amount of money.
Can foreigners sell property in Argentina without capital-gains tax?
Yes. A foreign individual can currently qualify for the same Argentine exemption on a covered property sale.
Decree 406/2026 settles a point that could otherwise have remained ambiguous. It states that individuals and undivided estates resident either in Argentina or abroad can use the exemption for qualifying disposals of Argentine real estate and property rights.
That makes the relief considerably more useful for Argentina's investor market. A non-resident who owns an apartment in Buenos Aires is not automatically pushed back into the old 15% regime just because the owner lives abroad.
The remaining issue is the seller's home-country tax system. Argentina may exempt the gain while France, the United States, Spain or another country still treats the gain as taxable for one of its residents. Double-tax treaties and domestic rules can change that result.
So a foreign owner can genuinely have zero Argentine capital-gains tax while still owing tax somewhere else.
| Seller | Argentine treatment of qualifying gain | What still needs checking |
|---|---|---|
| Argentine resident individual | Exempt | Local transaction taxes and costs |
| Foreign resident individual | Exempt can apply | Tax in country of residence |
| Argentine company | Corporate rules apply | Company tax and distribution tax |
| Foreign company | Separate corporate/cross-border rules | Entity structure and treaty position |
Are property sales tax-free when a company owns the property?
No. A company selling Argentine property can still pay income tax on the profit.
The new real-estate exemption is tied to Article 99, which deals with gains made by individuals and undivided estates. It does not wipe out the ordinary corporate tax system.
ARCA's current corporate scale runs from 25% to 35% of taxable income, depending on the company's level of net taxable profit. A property gain inside an Argentine company therefore remains part of a very different tax calculation from the same gain earned by an individual.
The ownership structure can now create a large gap. Imagine two similar apartments with the same appreciation. One is owned personally by an investor and qualifies for the new exemption. The other sits inside a company and the profit feeds into corporate taxable income.
Anyone evaluating an Argentine property investment should therefore look at who owns the asset before assuming the exit is tax-free.
Buying real estate in Argentina can be risky
An increasing number of foreign investors are showing interest. However, 90% of them will make mistakes. Avoid the pitfalls with our comprehensive guide.
Can property developers use the new Argentina tax exemption too?
Property developers cannot simply treat their business profits as tax-free private property gains.
Argentina's Income Tax Law has separate rules for commercial real-estate activity. Profits from land subdivisions for urbanization, construction and sale under the horizontal-property regime, and several other development activities can fall into taxable business income.
That distinction is particularly important now because the individual exemption is so generous. Otherwise, someone running a property business could try to describe every unit sale as the disposal of a privately held asset.
The law looks at what produced the income. Selling a personally held investment apartment is very different from building ten apartments for resale or subdividing land as an organized commercial operation.
There is no useful rule saying that a person becomes a developer after exactly three or five sales. The facts of the activity carry more weight than a simple transaction count.
Does selling property in Buenos Aires still trigger stamp duty?
Yes. Buenos Aires City still has stamp duty even though qualifying individual property gains can now escape federal income tax.
This is probably the biggest reason people will continue to see taxes on closing statements and wonder whether the new exemption is real.
AGIP currently applies its own rules to property transfers in the City. It has also recently expanded the relief available for purchases of a unique, family and permanent home: the 2026 threshold was raised from ARS 56 million to ARS 226.1 million. When a qualifying transaction exceeds that limit, the exemption can apply up to the threshold rather than disappearing altogether.
That local relief concerns stamp duty and has its own conditions. It does not change the national exemption on the seller's capital gain.
The layers are separate. The individual seller's federal capital-gains tax may be zero while a tax attached to the deed or transfer still appears at the City level.
| Buenos Aires City item | Current position | Removed by the federal reform? |
|---|---|---|
| ITI | Abolished nationally | Already gone |
| Qualifying individual capital gain | Exempt | Yes |
| Stamp duty | Still applies under CABA rules | No |
| Unique-home stamp relief | Available subject to conditions | Separate local benefit |
| Notary and registry costs | Still payable | No |
Don't lose money on your property in Argentina
100% of people who have lost money there have spent less than 1 hour researching the market. We have reviewed everything there is to know. Grab our guide now.
Is selling property in Buenos Aires Province also tax-free?
The federal exemption applies in Buenos Aires Province too, but provincial stamp-tax rules still sit on top of it.
ARBA continues to administer the Impuesto de Sellos on taxable instruments and transactions. The province's current legislation also contains specific relief and fixed charges for certain transfers involving a unique, family and permanent home.
This creates the same basic split seen in Buenos Aires City. A qualifying individual can escape the federal tax on the gain while the documentation used to transfer the property remains subject to provincial rules.
The exact local bill can therefore change depending on whether the property is in CABA, Buenos Aires Province or another province.
That is why a single “Argentina property tax rate” is no longer a very useful way to think about a sale.
How much can Argentina's new property-sale exemption actually save?
For a highly appreciated property, eliminating the former 15% tax on the gain can save a seller a substantial amount of money.
Take a simplified Article 99 example with a taxable gain of ARS 50 million. Under the old 15% treatment, the federal tax would have been ARS 7.5 million. If the same type of gain qualifies for the current exemption, that charge falls to zero.
The economics were different under ITI. A qualifying ARS 200 million sale under the old 1.5% system could have produced ARS 3 million of ITI even if the owner's actual profit was small.
The reforms therefore helped different sellers in different ways. Repealing ITI removed a charge on gross transfer value. The newer exemption becomes especially valuable when an individual sells property after a large price increase.
The examples below deliberately simplify the historical tax-base calculation, which could include acquisition cost, indexation, amortization and directly related expenses.
| Simplified transaction | Previous federal tax | Previous amount | Qualifying treatment now |
|---|---|---|---|
| ARS 200m transaction formerly subject to ITI | 1.5% of value | ARS 3m | ARS 0 |
| ARS 20m Article 99 taxable gain | 15% of gain | ARS 3m | ARS 0 |
| ARS 50m Article 99 taxable gain | 15% of gain | ARS 7.5m | ARS 0 |
| ARS 100m Article 99 taxable gain | 15% of gain | ARS 15m | ARS 0 |
Get the full checklist for your due diligence in Argentina
Don't repeat the same mistakes others have made before you. Make sure everything is in order before signing your sales contract.
Does the exemption also cover selling rights to an Argentina property?
Yes. Argentina's current exemption can cover qualifying transfers of rights over real estate, not only the final sale of a completed property.
The implementing rules specifically address assignments of a boleto de compraventa or similar commitment where possession has not yet been obtained, as well as other ways of transferring rights over Argentine property.
That is useful in the local market because the economic transfer of a property does not always happen in one clean step. A buyer can acquire contractual rights before receiving final title, and those rights can later be assigned to someone else.
The reform was drafted around Article 99 rather than around the narrow idea of signing a final escritura. In practice, that gives the exemption a wider reach than the phrase “property sale” might suggest.
Could the timing of an Argentina property sale change the tax result?
Yes. Deals that cross the start of the new regime need more care because the exemption depends on when Argentine tax law treats the property or property rights as transferred.
For a straightforward sale completed these days, that issue is usually easy. Older or unfinished transactions are different.
Argentine law can look at events such as the transfer deed, possession combined with a purchase agreement, or the assignment of rights under a boleto de compraventa when deciding when a disposal has taken place.
So the date money arrives in the seller's bank account does not necessarily settle the tax question.
Anyone with a deal negotiated before the exemption but legally completed afterward should check the transaction documents rather than assuming the payment date controls everything.
Don't sign a document you don't understand in Argentina
Buying a property over there? We have reviewed all the documents you need to know. Stay out of trouble - grab our comprehensive guide.
Does “tax-free” mean an Argentina property seller has no closing costs?
No. Sellers can still lose a meaningful part of the sale price to transaction costs even when federal tax on the property gain is zero.
A normal sale can involve an escribano, registry work, certificates, brokerage commissions and the settlement of outstanding property liabilities. Stamp duty can also appear depending on the jurisdiction and how the parties allocate the cost.
Some of those expenses can be sizeable, particularly brokerage fees. They should simply be separated from the tax question rather than mixed together.
A seller who receives USD 200,000 does not necessarily walk away with USD 200,000. But the deduction between the headline price and the seller's net proceeds can now come largely from closing costs rather than from a 15% federal tax on the capital gain.
Has Argentina actually become more attractive for individual property investors?
Yes. The current tax treatment makes personally owned Argentine property noticeably more attractive at the exit than it was a few years ago.
The change is broader than a single tax break. Investors with qualifying personal ownership no longer face ITI on the old side of the system, while Article 99 gains on the newer side can now be exempt. The previous acquisition-date split has therefore lost much of its importance.
The benefit is particularly strong for assets that appreciate substantially. Under the former Article 99 treatment, a large gain produced a proportionally large federal tax bill. Today, a qualifying individual can keep that gain without the same 15% haircut.
Local stamp duty, transaction costs and Argentina's broader economic risks still affect the investment case. But the basic tax comparison is hard to miss: the exit has become materially cheaper for many individual owners.
Get fresh and reliable information about the market in Argentina
Don't base significant investment decisions on outdated data. Get updated and accurate information.
So is selling property really tax-free in Argentina now?
Mostly yes. For a qualifying individual selling Argentine property today, the two federal taxes that used to define the sale—the old 1.5% ITI and the 15% Article 99 tax on qualifying gains—can both be absent.
The limits are now fairly clear. The exemption covers individuals and undivided estates under Article 99, including qualifying owners resident abroad. Companies and taxable real-estate businesses remain outside that simple answer. Provinces and Buenos Aires City can still impose stamp duty, while notarial, registry and brokerage costs continue as usual.
So the headline is no longer much of an exaggeration. If someone personally owns an apartment, house or investment property in Argentina and makes a qualifying sale now, the federal tax on the disposal can genuinely be zero.
Calling every Argentine property transaction completely tax-free would still be wrong. For ordinary individual sellers, though, “mostly tax-free” is now the clearest description of the regime.
| Situation | ITI | Federal tax on qualifying property gain | Other charges possible? | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Individual selling an investment property | 0% | 0% | Yes | Mostly tax-free |
| Individual selling a second home | 0% | 0% | Yes | Mostly tax-free |
| Individual selling a main home | 0% | 0% | Yes | Mostly tax-free |
| Non-resident individual | 0% | 0% can apply | Yes, including possible foreign tax | Mostly tax-free in Argentina |
| Company selling property | No ITI | Corporate tax can apply | Yes | Not tax-free |
| Property developer selling business inventory | No ITI | Business income can apply | Yes | Not tax-free |
OUR METHODOLOGY
This analysis tests a deceptively simple question: whether selling property in Argentina is now tax-free. Recent reforms changed different parts of the system at different times, so we broke the question into the dimensions that can actually change the answer rather than relying on a general impression of the market.
We prioritized the sources closest to the rules themselves: enacted legislation, implementing decrees, consolidated legal texts and current guidance from Argentina's tax authorities. Older legislation was used mainly to reconstruct the previous system and make the before-versus-now comparison clean.
We checked the current treatment separately for individual and corporate ownership, private investment and commercial real-estate activity, Argentine and foreign-resident sellers, property acquired under the pre-2018 and post-2018 regimes, completed property sales and transfers of property rights, and transactions crossing the effective date of the new exemption.
We also kept federal taxation separate from local transaction taxes and closing costs. A zero federal capital-gains bill does not make Buenos Aires City or provincial stamp duty disappear, and it does not remove brokerage, notarial or registry expenses.
Where several sources covered the same point, we gave priority to the newest rule and the highest level of legal authority. Law 27,802 and Decree 406/2026 were therefore central to the current exemption, while Law 27,743 and the earlier ITI legislation were used to reconstruct the regime that applied before the reforms.
The final “mostly tax-free” conclusion comes from aggregating those checks rather than from one headline rate. The same broad result survives across personally held investment property, second homes, main homes and qualifying non-resident individual ownership, while companies, business activity and local taxes remain meaningful exceptions.
Key sources used for this analysis include Law 27,802 on the 2026 exemption for qualifying property disposals, Decree 406/2026 on its implementation and treatment of residents and non-residents, the current consolidated Income Tax Law, the current consolidated Income Tax regulations, Law 27,743 on the repeal of ITI, Law 23,905 for the historical ITI framework, and Decree 976/2018 for the transition into the post-2018 property-gains regime.
For ownership structures and local taxes, we also used ARCA's current corporate Income Tax scale, AGIP's current Buenos Aires City stamp-duty guidance, AGIP's official stamp-duty material, ARBA's explanation of the Buenos Aires Province Impuesto de Sellos, and Buenos Aires Province Law 15,558 for the current provincial tax framework.
Get to know the market before buying a property in Argentina
Better information leads to better decisions. Get all the data you need before investing a large amount of money.
Related blog posts
- Is Argentina a good place to live as an expat?
- Will property prices rise in Argentina?
- Are property prices in Argentina still rising?
- How much is rent in Argentina now?
