Duty on electronics when arriving to Argentina
- By
- Aparna Patel
- |
- 29 Jul, 2023
- |
As of Sept. 2018, you are exempted for two personal items: one laptop/tablet and a cell phone.
Sources: Resolución General 4315, La Nacion
Anecdotally, you can get away with more if you make sure to take everything out of its packaging, take off price tags, spread your devices across bags and clothing, and do what you can to make it look used. Officials have been known to ask you to turn on devices just to see that it looks used– if you turn on your phone and they see a welcome setup wizard, they’ll know it’s brand new and charge you.
You can bring in merchandise up to a value of $300 by air or sea or $150 by land.
Technically, bringing in merchandise with an industrial or commercial purpose is prohibited.
You need to fill out form OM-2132.
For the laptop you are importing you can pay by credit card (Mastercard, Cabal or Visa only) but there is a 15% surcharge. The authorities may request a copy of an invoice confirming the value of the new laptop. If you can’t supply one they will arbitrarily assign a value.
If the customs guys don’t speak good English you’re looking for ‘el formulario para derechos de importacion’ (the form for import duties). My Spanish isn’t that good, but that will get you the right one.
Credit:stackoverflow.com‘