Argentina Removes the Debit and Credit Tax for Crypto and Other Digital Payment Operations

The government has widened exemptions from Argentina’s debit and credit tax, better known as the impuesto al cheque, for crypto wallets, out-of-bank collection firms, card processors, and cash-in-transit companies. For high-risk payment operators, the important bit is simple: registered virtual asset service providers now get a clearer tax treatment than unregistered ones.

1. By decree published today in the Boletín Oficial, the government extended exemptions from the tax on bank debits and credits to several financial-sector businesses, including crypto wallets, extrabank collection companies, card administrators, and cash transport firms.
2. The biggest winner is the crypto sector, which will stop paying the tax on crypto-related transactions, with an additional provision aimed at formalizing the activity. The decree also creates a specific exemption for companies registered as Virtual Asset Service Providers (PSAV) under the CNV, Argentina’s securities regulator.
3. The decree repeals a 2021 rule that had granted exemptions for money transfers but excluded transactions involving cryptoassets. Even if a person was exempt from the tax, they still had to pay it when buying crypto. That barrier is now gone, so buying and selling digital currencies falls under the exemption.
4. Accounts used exclusively for crypto operations are also exempt, as long as their holders are operators registered in the CNV’s PSAV registry. In practice, that gives a clear regulatory signal in favor of registered wallets over unregistered ones.
5. According to Lemon CFO Maxi Raimondi, the decree 475/2026 “corrects a tax asymmetry” that added costs for PSAVs and limited the development of new financial solutions. He framed the change as a move toward a more competitive and efficient framework for innovation within Argentina’s financial system.

For context, Bitso’s recent Panorama Cripto report found that stablecoins accounted for 71% of crypto purchases in Argentina, while bitcoin leads local portfolios with 52% of total holdings. That is the kind of usage pattern that turns a tax rule into a very practical payments issue.