The day you sell is the day the tax question finally comes due, and for foreign owners it is the part most poorly understood, because Argentina changed the rules partway through and the internet never quite caught up. Whether you owe a small transfer tax or a real capital gains bill depends on one date: when you bought. Let me make it simple, because it genuinely is, once you know which side of the line you are on.
Argentina reformed the taxation of real estate sales for individuals around 2018. The result is two regimes, and your purchase date assigns you to one.
| When you acquired the property | Tax on sale (individuals) |
|---|---|
| Before 1 January 2018 | ITI: 1.5% of the sale price |
| 2018 or later | Capital gains: 15% on the gain (sale price less indexed acquisition cost) |
That is the whole fork. If you have owned since before 2018, you fall under the old Impuesto a la Transferencia de Inmuebles, a flat 1.5% of the sale price, regardless of profit. If you bought in 2018 or after, you fall under the capital gains regime: 15%, but only on the actual gain, with the acquisition cost adjusted for inflation.
Under the capital gains regime, you are taxed on the gain, not the gross price, and the acquisition cost is indexed to soften the effect of inflation between purchase and sale. In a high-inflation economy this is not a footnote, it is the difference between a fair bill and a punitive one. A correctly indexed cost base can dramatically reduce, sometimes nearly eliminate, the taxable gain on a property held through inflationary years. This is precisely the kind of calculation where a competent escribano and accountant earn their fee.
Under the ITI regime, there is a meaningful relief: if you are selling your primary residence in order to buy or build another primary residence, you can apply for a certificado de no retención and avoid the 1.5% withholding. It is not automatic, you request it, but for an owner-occupier trading up or relocating, it can remove the tax entirely. A foreign owner who used the property as a genuine home should ask their escribano whether they qualify before assuming they owe.
You do not file these taxes separately and hope. The escribano withholds the applicable tax at closing and remits it, which is one more reason the notary sits at the centre of every Argentine transaction. Your responsibility as seller is to arrive with the documentation that establishes your acquisition cost and date, so the right regime and the right number are applied. Keep your original deed and purchase records; they are what prove your cost base years later.
A quick but important distinction. The taxes above are what you pay when you sell. They are separate from the taxes you pay while you own, the ABL city tax, and potentially Bienes Personales (the personal-assets tax) depending on your total Argentine assets and the year's thresholds. Those holding taxes are covered in our note on property taxes for foreign owners. Confusing the two is the most common error I see in foreign owners' mental accounting.
Two reassurances. First, there is no foreigner-specific exit surcharge in 2026; the old extra withholding once applied to foreign sellers is no longer in effect. You are taxed as a local is taxed. Second, the structures above are well-trodden and predictable, which is exactly what you want from a tax system: not low, necessarily, but knowable. A foreign seller who plans the exit, keeps the records, and lets a good escribano and accountant run the numbers will not be surprised at the table.
The mistake is to discover the capital gains question on closing day. Plan it when you list, or better, when you buy. The full exit choreography, taxes, the escribano, and getting your dollars home, is in our exit guide, and the personal version of the numbers is a conversation worth having early.
Max.-
Thirty minutes. Free. In English. We answer everything in this note plus everything not in it.
