{"id":385242,"date":"2026-01-03T08:49:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-03T08:49:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/385242\/"},"modified":"2026-01-03T08:49:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-03T08:49:09","slug":"argentina-targets-us-dollars-hoarded-under-mattresses-eases-tax-evasion-rules","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/385242\/","title":{"rendered":"Argentina targets US dollars hoarded under mattresses, eases tax evasion rules"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Argentine President <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/topics\/javier-milei?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Javier Milei<\/a> on Friday signed into law a so-called \u201ctax innocence\u201d bill, which aims to encourage people to bank dollars stashed under mattresses or in offshore accounts by forgiving a degree of tax evasion.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Over years of high inflation and currency controls, Argentines traded their battered pesos for dollars, which they often hoarded at home, in cash.<\/p>\n<p>The government estimates Argentines are sitting on some US$251 billion in what are commonly called \u201c<a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/topics\/currencies?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">mattress dollars<\/a>\u201d \u2013 six times the Central Bank\u2019s reserves, which stood at US$41 billion on December 30.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Milei has been on a mission to get citizens to bank their dollars to help the state meet foreign debt payments totalling US$19 billion this year, according to the Congressional Budget Office.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">To lure deposits, Congress in December voted to raise 66-fold the amount for which citizens can face prosecution for tax evasion to the equivalent of US$70,000 per financial year.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Then Argentine presidential candidate Javier Milei holds a giant 100-dollar bill with his face painted on it during a campaign rally in San Martin, Buenos Aires province, in 2023. Photo: AFP\" data-qa=\"BaseImage-handleRenderImage-StyledImage\" class=\"e1gf69pb2 css-6ikqhs e445x7d0\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/4a4285c3-0410-43f2-9b3b-73ce0733625a_73c99ee8.jpg\" title=\"Then Argentine presidential candidate Javier Milei holds a giant 100-dollar bill with his face painted on it during a campaign rally in San Martin, Buenos Aires province, in 2023. Photo: AFP\"\/>Then Argentine presidential candidate Javier Milei holds a giant 100-dollar bill with his face painted on it during a campaign rally in San Martin, Buenos Aires province, in 2023. Photo: AFP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Argentine President Javier Milei on Friday signed into law a so-called \u201ctax innocence\u201d bill, which aims to encourage&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":385243,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[12624,163836,163837,45,49,48,2097,163834,46,163839,163840,14027,163835,163833,127052,163838],"class_list":["post-385242","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-argentina","tag-argentine-president-javier-milei","tag-banco-nacion","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-congress","tag-currency-controls","tag-economy","tag-economy-minister-luis-caputo","tag-high-inflation","tag-international-monetary-fund","tag-jorge-taiana","tag-tax-amnesty-programme","tag-tax-evasion","tag-tax-innocence-bill"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385242","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=385242"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385242\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/385243"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=385242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=385242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=385242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}