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Buenos Aires has activated “BA Cripto,” a policy initiative that enables residents and enterprises to settle municipal taxes and administrative charges with cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin. Launched on Tuesday, August 19, 2025, the scheme encompasses municipal taxes such as ABL (property tax), Patentes (vehicle excise), and Ingresos Brutos (gross revenue tax), along with non-tax activities like driver’s licenses and traffic violations, payable through a city QR system.
Buenos Aires Embraces Crypto
The municipality’s action is more comprehensive than merely a payment switch. Officials revealed four initiatives: integrating crypto-related operations into the city’s economic-activity categorization to streamline filings; exempting virtual-asset service providers (PSAVs) from specific bank-collection protocols under the gross revenue tax; adjusting the taxable basis for crypto trading from total transaction value to the net margin; and allowing QR crypto payments for both taxes and administrative tasks. The authorities presented the initiative as a regulatory enhancement that minimizes barriers while aligning taxation with the actual operations of digital-asset markets.
Mayor Jorge Macri described the initiative as an organizational modernization aimed at attracting investment and simplifying compliance. “The goal is for the City to excel globally in crypto,” he remarked, adding: “We already possess the human resources, and now we are developing the infrastructure by cutting red tape to facilitate taxpayer compliance and to encourage new businesses to establish here.” These comments were made at The Slow Kale in Colegiales, a venue that accepts cryptocurrency transactions.
Macri further asserted that the initiative demonstrates a more welcoming stance towards the industry: “These actions guarantee the crypto community recognizes that the City is increasingly supportive. The digital economy necessitates our evolution and adaptation with a modern, responsive, efficient, and intelligent government. We want talent to flourish, innovate, and excel without hindrances.”
The context is an increasing utilization. According to municipal data mentioned at the announcement, approximately 10,000 individuals in Buenos Aires earn income from overseas via crypto or PayPal, and the application of PIX infrastructure has been on the rise. Nationwide, Argentina has “over 10 million” crypto accounts—about 22% of Latin America’s total—figures the city claims warrant customized regulations and public-service frameworks that inherently accommodate digital assets.
For businesses, the categorization update is significant because it provides crypto operations a definitive classification in the tax nomenclature, improving clarity “without fiscal implications” and facilitating cross-jurisdictional information coordination. Excluding PSAVs from bank-collection systems aims to limit automatic withholdings that could impede working capital, while the new margin-based tax framework acknowledges the discrepancy between high-volume, low-margin trading and a gross-receipts model. Collectively, these measures constitute what the city describes as a more “dynamic” and “transparent” setting for digital-asset enterprises to function in the capital.
From the consumer perspective, the payment process is designed to be uncomplicated: scan a city QR and pay the chosen tax or fee using a compatible wallet. Officials noted that only a few wallets currently support crypto payments, but a Buenos Aires–developed “aggregator” is on the horizon to enable “neighbors and businesses” to pay “from any wallet, directly, more swiftly, and easily.” The government did not release a technical specification or a list of supported assets at the launch.
Hernán Lombardi, the city’s Economic Development Minister, portrayed the reforms as a recalibration of the legal and tax framework for digital assets. “These adjustments signify a shift in the legal and tax treatment of digital assets. Reduced bureaucracy, enhanced legal clarity, and explicit regulations will lead to increased investment,” he stated, mentioning that the updated nomenclature will assist in “identifying and clarifying the activities of firms and individual crypto-asset users, thereby preventing withholdings that jeopardize the sector’s working capital.”
At publication time, the total cryptocurrency market cap was $3.77 trillion.
Featured image created with DALL.E, chart from TradingView.com
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