How to import technology into Argentina: registration, ENACOM and what changed in 2026

To import technology into Argentina, the goods must be cleared by an importer registered with ARCA, the federal tax and customs agency, which requires a CUIT tax ID. A foreign company without a local entity usually works through its customer, a trading company or an Importer of Record, and radio or telecom hardware also needs ENACOM approval.

Argentina has changed more in the last two years than in the previous decade. The SIRA and SEDI import approvals are gone, the PAIS tax on foreign currency purchases has expired, used capital goods no longer need a special certificate, and the telecom regulator is moving to a new approval system on 1 December 2026. For anyone shipping servers, network equipment or data center hardware, the country is easier to reach than it was in 2023, but the basic rule has not moved: someone with an Argentine tax ID has to sign for the goods.

This guide explains how a company with no local structure can import technology into Argentina in 2026: who can act as importer, what ARCA registration involves, which approvals and taxes apply, what to do with used equipment, how clearance works in practice and when an Importer of Record is the simplest route.

Can a foreign company import technology into Argentina without a local entity?

Not in its own name. Argentine customs only accepts import declarations from a person or company registered in ARCA's Registro de Importadores y Exportadores, and that registration requires a CUIT and an Argentine tax address. A foreign seller therefore needs a local party to act as importer.

In practice there are three routes. The first is to let the Argentine customer import the goods, which works when the customer is already registered and ready to pay duties, taxes and the customs broker. The second is to sell through a local distributor or trading company that buys the equipment and resells it. The third is to use an Importer of Record, a registered company that takes the legal role of importer for the shipment while the foreign vendor keeps the commercial relationship with the end customer. If the concept is new to you, our guide on what an Importer of Record is explains how the role works in general.

Setting up an Argentine subsidiary is also possible, but it takes time. The company has to be incorporated, obtain its CUIT, register for VAT and then complete the importer registration. For a first project with a deadline, that sequence rarely fits, which is why many vendors start with an IOR and decide on a local entity once the volume justifies it.

The choice is not only legal. It decides who appears on the import declaration, who pays and can later credit the VAT, who holds the ENACOM registration when one is needed and who answers to customs if a classification or value is questioned months later.

What does it take to register as an importer with ARCA?

The applicant needs an active CUIT, a level 3 Clave Fiscal, VAT registration as Responsable Inscripto, a special customs address and a clean record. ARCA checks economic solvency automatically and, if the threshold is not met, asks for a performance guarantee. Approval usually takes around a week once the file is complete.

ARCA, the Agencia de Recaudación y Control Aduanero, replaced the former AFIP in late 2024 and now runs both the tax administration and the Dirección General de Aduanas. Registration is filed online through form F.420/R after the general requirements are met. For a company, the directors or managing partners must have their own fiscal keys with updated biometric data, and the company must declare its partners and authorities. Monotributistas, the simplified small-taxpayer category, cannot register as importers under the general regime.

Two requirements catch foreign groups off guard. The first is the criminal record certificate issued by the national registry of criminal records, which has to be uploaded within five days of issue and covers the members of the company. The second is the solvency test: a new subsidiary with little tax history will usually fail it and has to post a Garantía de Actuación, through a surety insurance policy, a bank guarantee, cash or government bonds. Supporting documents must then be presented to a customs office within 30 calendar days.

Registration is only the start. The importer also needs a licensed customs broker, a despachante de aduana, who files the declarations in the customs system on its behalf, and a bank relationship to pay suppliers abroad.

What changed in Argentina's import rules since 2024?

Most of the changes removed barriers. The SIRA import approval was replaced in December 2023 and its successor, the SEDI, was eliminated in February 2025. The PAIS tax expired at the end of 2024, used capital goods lost their certificate requirement in April 2025, and companies regained much broader access to foreign currency to pay imports.

The SEDI, the Sistema Estadístico de Importaciones, was repealed by Resolución General Conjunta 5651/2025 of ARCA and the Secretaría de Industria y Comercio. Since then, the importer files the import declaration directly with customs, without a prior statistical filing or approval. For anyone who remembers waiting months for a SIRA in 2022 or 2023, that is the single biggest change.

Payments followed the same direction. During 2025 the Banco Central de la República Argentina relaxed the rules that forced importers to pay suppliers in installments, and today most payments for imported goods can be made without the long waiting periods of earlier years. The exact conditions depend on the type of goods and the importer, so the payment route should still be confirmed with the paying bank before the order is placed.

Two changes affect technology directly. Decreto 273/2025 eliminated the Certificado de Importación de Bienes Usados, which had been required for more than 30 years, and ENACOM approved a new equipment approval regime through Resolución ENACOM 57/2026. And for large projects, the Régimen de Incentivo para Grandes Inversiones, known as RIGI and created by Ley 27.742, was extended by Decreto 105/2026: companies can now apply until 8 July 2027, and the eligible sectors expressly include artificial intelligence and software. Approved projects can import new capital goods, parts and components for the investment plan free of import duties, which matters for large AI data center builds.

Does your hardware need ENACOM approval?

Anything with a radio or a telecom function does. Wi-Fi access points, 5G and LTE equipment, microwave links, satellite terminals and modules with Bluetooth need a RAMATEL registration with ENACOM before they can be marketed in Argentina. Plain servers and storage arrays usually do not, but their accessories often do.

RAMATEL is the Registro de Actividades y Materiales de Telecomunicaciones. Resolución ENACOM 57/2026 rewrote its rules and moved approvals to private certification agencies and recognized laboratories, with registrations that no longer expire. The start date was then pushed back: under the ENACOM homologation timeline set by Resolution 843/2026, published in the Boletín Oficial on 28 August 2026, the new RAMATEL regulation applies from 1 December 2026. Until 30 November 2026, approvals continue under the previous framework, Resolution 729/80, and registrations obtained under it remain valid for three years, after which they must be adapted to the new rules or can be cancelled.

For a project shipping now, that creates a real choice. Registering under the old route before the end of November gives a valid approval quickly, but it will need to be adapted later. Waiting for the new system avoids that step, but certification agencies and laboratories under the new rules are only starting to operate. Either way, the registration has to be in the name of a party registered with ENACOM, and the names on the registration, the invoice and the import declaration should match.

A practical habit saves weeks: review the packing list line by line. A rack of servers can carry an out-of-band LTE modem, wireless sensors or a management module with Wi-Fi, and that single item is enough to hold the shipment. Our guide to telecom equipment homologation compares how ENACOM, Anatel, the FCC, CE marking and URSEC handle radio equipment.

Which taxes apply when you import technology into Argentina?

The main charges are the import duty, known as Derecho de Importación, the 3% statistics fee and VAT, plus advance perceptions of VAT, income tax and provincial gross income tax collected at clearance. The duty depends on the tariff line of each item, and much of the perception amount can later be credited by a registered importer.

The import duty is set by the tariff line in the Mercosur Common Nomenclature, the NCM, and goods from outside Mercosur pay the extra-zone rate. Rates on computing and network equipment have changed several times in recent years, so the duty should be checked item by item in ARCA's integrated tariff before quoting. Goods originating in Mercosur countries generally enter free of duty under the regional rules.

The statistics fee, the tasa de estadística, is 3% of the customs value and has been extended by Decreto 1140/2024 until 31 December 2027. The decree also sets maximum amounts by value bracket: 180 US dollars up to 10,000 dollars, 3,000 dollars up to 100,000, 30,000 dollars up to one million and 150,000 dollars above that. For a shipment of AI servers worth several million dollars, that last cap is the one that counts. Goods originating in Mercosur are exempt.

VAT on imports is charged at the general 21% rate, or at the reduced 10.5% rate for goods included in the capital goods list of the VAT law, which can cover IT equipment depending on the tariff line. On top of that, ARCA collects perceptions: an additional VAT perception, an income tax perception and, in most provinces, a gross income tax perception. They are advance payments, not final costs, but they lock up cash until they are credited, and a foreign vendor that is not registered in Argentina cannot use them at all. MiPyMEs with a Certificado PyME benefit from a partial suspension of some perceptions, extended by Resolución General 5868/2026 until 31 December 2026, but this does not help a foreign company.

The table below summarizes who does what in a typical technology import into Argentina.

Can you import used or refurbished servers into Argentina?

Yes, and it is easier than before. Decreto 273/2025 eliminated the Certificado de Importación de Bienes Usados, so used capital goods no longer need that certificate, but the importer must file a sworn statement that the goods are not waste and are not intended for energy recovery or final disposal.

The decree, published in the Boletín Oficial on 16 April 2025, amended the old framework of Resolution 909/1994, voided all pending certificate applications and narrowed the list of used goods subject to restrictions. For refurbished servers, storage arrays and network equipment, the practical consequences are three. First, the invoice and packing list must describe the goods as used or refurbished, with serial numbers, because declaring used equipment as new is a customs offense. Second, the customs value of used goods is often questioned, so a refurbisher's invoice with a clear price breakdown helps. Third, ENACOM rules apply to used radio equipment exactly as they apply to new equipment.

This is one of the clearest contrasts with Brazil, where used goods still need a non-automatic license and are approved only in narrow cases. Our guide on how to import IT equipment into Brazil explains those rules if your project covers both countries.

How does customs clearance work at Ezeiza and the port of Buenos Aires?

The despachante de aduana files the import declaration in the customs system, the importer pays duties, taxes and perceptions, and the system assigns a control channel: green for release, orange for a document review or red for physical inspection. With complete documents and the right approvals, high-value air shipments are often released within a few days.

Most high-value technology arrives by air at Ezeiza international airport, with heavier equipment such as UPS systems, cooling units and racks coming by sea through the port of Buenos Aires. The documents customs expects are the commercial invoice, the air waybill or bill of lading, the packing list with serial numbers, the certificate of origin when a preference is claimed, and any approval tied to the goods, such as the RAMATEL registration.

Delays almost always come from the same few sources. A classification that does not match the description on the invoice, a value that customs considers low, a radio item without approval or a missing sworn statement for used goods can turn a green-channel release into a red-channel inspection. Storage at Ezeiza is charged by the day, and on a shipment of GPU servers that cost adds up quickly.

For AI and GPU hardware, there is also the export side. Servers with advanced accelerators may need a US export license or an end-user statement before they leave the factory, and the Argentine import file should tell the same story: same end user, same site and same serial numbers. Our guide to GPU server export controls covers how those checks work.

When does an Importer of Record make sense in Argentina?

When the hardware has to be delivered and cleared before you have an Argentine entity, when your customer does not want to act as importer, or when the shipment is too valuable to depend on a forwarder's standard terms. The IOR takes the legal importer role and coordinates the despachante, the taxes and the approvals.

The typical cases are familiar. A US server vendor wins a project with a data center in the Buenos Aires metropolitan area and must deliver duty and tax paid. A Brazilian integrator sends network equipment and wireless access points to a customer in Córdoba and has no Argentine CUIT. A mining company in the northwest needs refurbished servers and storage on site before its own entity is registered. In each case, the work is the same: a registered importer, a clean tariff classification, the right ENACOM registrations, a tax position that does not lock up cash longer than necessary and a payment route that the bank will accept.

Argentina is more open to technology imports today than it has been in years, but the details still decide whether a shipment clears in days or waits for weeks. If you are planning to import technology into Argentina, tell Comex IOR Services what you are shipping, where it needs to go and when it has to be running. As your Importer of Record in Argentina, we will tell you plainly which structure fits the shipment, what we need from you and what it will take to get your hardware cleared and delivered on time.