Overview
- The Executive promulgated the 2026 Budget and the Fiscal Innocence Law by decrees published in the first Official Gazette of the year.
- The budget targets a financial surplus, authorizes roughly ARS 148 trillion in total spending, prioritizes social services, and tightens hiring across the national public sector.
- The Fiscal Innocence Law sharply raises criminal thresholds for tax crimes (to ARS 100 million for simple evasion and ARS 1,000 million for aggravated), enables penalty extinguishment upon full payment, creates an optional simplified income tax regime, and prompted a government warning that Banco Nación staff who add extra paperwork will be dismissed.
- From January 1, more than US$20 billion in CERA funds from the 2024 asset disclosure became freely available, and firms may remit dividends from fiscal years starting in 2025 with audited balances, with flows expected from mid‑year and subject to reserve monitoring.
- The Central Bank will adjust the exchange‑rate bands by the latest INDEC inflation reading rather than a fixed 1% monthly crawl, while the government uses the recess to seek votes for a February labor reform led in talks by Interior Minister Diego Santilli.