Susana Gimenez is in trouble. The Federal Administration of Public Revenues (AFIP) sued her for aggravated evasion and demands payment of $150 million. The agency assures that the diva failed to present her affidavit of Personal Assets for 2019 and suspects that the maneuver had the ultimate objective of hiding her assets so as not to pay the Solidarity and Extraordinary Contribution, which Congress approved in 2020 to mitigate the effects of the pandemic.
When she received the news, the driver was furious and Cesar Litving, his lawyer and accountant, became his main media defender: “There was no evasion, concealment or deception. The only thing there is is the right of defense exercised by a taxpayer against a tax that is confiscatory, ”he assured NEWS. However, when the details of how this situation was reached are advanced, everything seems to indicate that, sooner or later, the diva will have to pay.
In the driver’s environment they assure that she remains silent because it is a technical issue. In any case, they slip unusual hypotheses about the underlying reasons for the complaint. “They play with taxpayers of Susana’s stature at this juncture of crisis because these issues cover a bit of everything, like the Vialidad trial against Cristina,” say her relatives.
However, although these off-the-record statements may feed the media debate, the Justice will look at the technical details. In fact, living confirmed that in parallel to the complaint received by her client, her studio filed another lawsuit to review the constitutionality of the Personal Property Tax, whose rate was increased in 2019 by decision of Congress. His goal is for the matter to end up in court.
The complaint
In dialogue with NEWS, from the AFIP explained the circumstances by which this complaint was reached in the criminal tax jurisdiction. The crime for which the diva is accused has a penalty that ranges from 3 to 9 years in prison (although, it is known, in Argentina no powerful politician or media is imprisoned and less for tax issues).
Suzanne he had always filed his Income and Personal Assets affidavits in a timely manner. But it did not do so when the term for those corresponding to the 2019 period expired. Then, the protocol used by the agency for any taxpayer was activated: after five business days of the first expiration, it issued a summons accompanied by a fine. “That first fine is small, but symbolic. It is to put you on notice that you are at fault, ”explained the spokesmen for the AFIP.
After that first summons, twenty business days were allowed to run and, as Susana did not regularize her situation, the new summons came with the notice that a “systemic inspection” process was going to begin. With this mechanism that consists of crossing data, the AFIP makes an estimate of the assets of the taxpayer in question. “You cannot collect the tax if you do not know what assets that person has,” they added.
Time passed and, in mid-2020, Suzanne filed the Earnings affidavit, but not the Personal Assets affidavit. That decision helped the AFIP to know how much the diva earned in 2019 and thus better adjust the estimate made based on systematic control. In total, the AFIP concluded that it had to pay $50 million of Personal Assets.
In parallel, living went to court. He first requested a precautionary measure in court arguing that the 2019 reform in the tax rate is “confiscatory”. Justice rejected it and the lawyer went to another court. The answer was the same.
When the AFIP When he learned of these presentations, he understood that it was time to file a complaint: “He had two injunctions rejected and he continued to refuse to pay. The agency understood that this person had no intention of paying. Why aggravated evasion? Because in addition to all the attempts that were made to collect, we suspect that the non-declaration of Personal Assets is intended to hide their assets so as not to pay the Solidarity Contribution “, they stressed from the entity.
The amount of $150 million is a calculation made by the agency based on the $50 million of the original debt plus all the fines corresponding to the situation.
The defense
living He categorically denied all the accusations. He said the injunctions’ rejections “were not unexpected” and that they “do not go to the heart of the matter.”
According to the lawyer, the non-submission of the affidavit of Personal Assets had to do with the health crisis. “Before the term expired, Suzanne He went to live in Uruguay. It was the time of the pandemic and then she got sick. She didn’t show up on time because we couldn’t. There was a restriction on activities and it was difficult to make a statement as intense as Susana’s. When she got sick she couldn’t deal with it quickly, ”she assured.
To explain that there was no concealment intent, living He said: “With the affidavit of Earnings, a multinote equivalent to the affidavit of Personal Assets was presented. It is a technical issue, but if I presented the declaration of Personal Assets I would have to pay the tax. But since I did not want pay it for confiscation, I presented this multinote.” The spokespersons of the AFIP They responded: “The affidavit of Personal Assets is an irreplaceable procedure. It cannot be exchanged for a note.”
From now on, it will be the Justice that will determine if Suzanne evaded or not. For his lawyer, the discussion contains a deeper tax debate and that is why he made the parallel legal presentation. For him, the personal property tax and, in particular, the increase it had in 2019 is unconstitutional and means “a voracious advance of the State against the taxpayers’ pockets.”
In fact, living He said that, in 2020, some 65 of his clients changed their address to Uruguay as a strategy to pay less taxes. “In 2021 three taxes had to be paid: Personal Assets, the Solidarity Contribution and the Income Tax. In people who have assets outside 20 million dollars, it represented an annual 9 percent, and in Uruguay they do not have to pay anything. Because in Uruguay, with the idea of attracting people and investments, for ten years they do not charge you anything, ”he assured and returned to the subject. Gimenez: “There are very enterprising people who have built an empire and who, like Suzanne, has generated with a lot of effort and work an important patrimony. It is not illegal that they want to take care of their fortune.”
Beyond the crazy hypotheses that they launch in the environment of Suzanne and the great tax debate that he wants to give livingthe complaint against the driver is about particular facts that the Justice must analyze with a magnifying glass.
