Importer of Record in Argentina: how the service works and how to choose one

An Importer of Record in Argentina is a locally established company that clears goods in its own name on behalf of a foreign seller or buyer with no Argentine entity. It holds the CUIT and the customs importer profile, files through a despachante de aduana, pays duties, VAT and perceptions, and answers to customs for the declaration.

Argentina is one of the few large markets where a foreign company cannot simply appoint a broker and import in its own name. The rules have loosened a lot since 2023, the SIRA and SEDI approvals are gone and paying suppliers abroad is far easier than it was, but one thing has not changed: customs wants a party with an Argentine tax ID on the declaration, and that party carries the legal responsibility for everything written on it.

This guide explains how the Importer of Record model works in Argentina today. It covers what the IOR actually does, who is allowed to import after the 2023 reform of the Customs Code, why the despachante de aduana is still central, how a shipment moves step by step, how the IOR compares with other routes and what to check before you choose a provider. If the general concept is new to you, our guide on what an Importer of Record is is a good starting point.

What does an Importer of Record do in Argentina?

It becomes the legal importer of the goods. The IOR appears on the import declaration, pays or guarantees the duties and taxes, keeps the customs and tax records and is the party customs contacts if a classification, a value or an approval is questioned, during clearance or years later.

In practice, an Argentine IOR service bundles several jobs that a foreign company would otherwise have to arrange separately. It reviews the commercial invoice and packing list before the goods ship, agrees the tariff classification in the Mercosur Common Nomenclature with the despachante, checks whether any item needs a prior approval, such as an ENACOM registration for radio equipment, and calculates the landed cost so there are no surprises at clearance. Once the goods arrive, it files the declaration, pays the import duty, the statistics fee, VAT and the advance perceptions collected by ARCA, and coordinates release and delivery to the final site.

The commercial relationship usually stays with the foreign company. The vendor keeps its customer, its price and its warranty, while the IOR handles the import and, depending on the structure agreed, either delivers the goods to the end customer under a service agreement or invoices them locally. That choice matters for taxes, because only an Argentine registered taxpayer can credit the VAT and perceptions paid at customs. Our earlier guide on how to import technology into Argentina covers those taxes and the 2026 ENACOM changes in more detail.

Who can legally import into Argentina after the 2023 reform?

Any person or company with an Argentine CUIT and an active importer profile with ARCA, the federal tax and customs agency. Decreto de Necesidad y Urgencia 70/2023 removed the old importer register from the Customs Code, but ARCA still requires a registration profile, so a foreign company without a local tax ID still cannot import in its own name.

The reform is often misread. DNU 70/2023, published in the Boletín Oficial on 21 December 2023, rewrote Article 92 of the Customs Code, Law 22.415, so that foreign trade operations no longer depend on registration in a specific customs register, and it repealed the separate register of customs brokers. ARCA then adapted its own system through Resolución General 5472/2023, which converted the old registers into profiles inside the Registros Especiales Aduaneros: a Perfil de Importador/Exportador and a Perfil de Despachante de Aduana/Declarante. The paperwork changed shape, but the substance did not disappear.

To obtain the importer profile, a company needs an active CUIT, registration for VAT as Responsable Inscripto, a level 3 Clave Fiscal with updated biometric data for its directors, a special customs address and enrollment in SICNEA, ARCA's electronic customs notification system. ARCA runs an automatic solvency check, and a company that does not meet it, which is typical for a new subsidiary, must post a performance guarantee. Once the file is complete, approval usually takes around a week.

For a foreign group, the real obstacle is everything that comes before that: incorporating a company, obtaining a CUIT, appointing local directors or representatives and opening a bank account. That is several months of work, which is why many companies use an Importer of Record for the first projects and decide on a subsidiary only when volumes justify it.

Why does the despachante de aduana still matter?

Because the despachante is the professional who files the declaration, defends the classification and value, and deals with each customs office day to day. The 2023 reform made the despachante optional in law, but commercial imports of high-value hardware are almost always handled by one.

Under Article 36 of the Customs Code, despachantes de aduana are the individuals who carry out customs procedures on behalf of others. Since DNU 70/2023, Article 37 allows companies to manage the clearance of their goods themselves or through an authorized person, and Article 41 now lists only the grounds that disqualify someone from acting as a despachante. In theory, an importer can act as its own declarant. In practice, the despachante's experience with tariff classification, valuation, inspection channels and the habits of a particular customs office is what keeps a shipment of servers from sitting in a warehouse at Ezeiza at a daily storage cost.

Location matters more than many foreign companies expect. Argentina's customs service is organized in customs offices spread across the country, from Ezeiza international airport and the port of Buenos Aires to inland offices and border crossings with Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay. Equipment for a data center in Córdoba, a mining project in the northwest or a wind farm in Patagonia may be cleared far from Buenos Aires, and the IOR should have a despachante who knows that office and can be physically present for inspections.

How does an IOR shipment into Argentina work, step by step?

It starts weeks before the freight is booked. The IOR reviews the documents and approvals first, confirms the landed cost, files the declaration once the goods arrive and releases them only after duties, taxes and any inspection are cleared. The sequence below reflects how a typical technology shipment runs:

1. The foreign company shares the commercial invoice draft, packing list with serial numbers, technical data sheets and the delivery address.
2. The IOR and its despachante classify each item in the NCM, check duty rates and confirm whether any item needs ENACOM registration or, for used equipment, the sworn statement required by Decreto 273/2025.
3. The IOR prepares a landed cost estimate covering the import duty, the 3% statistics fee, VAT and the advance perceptions of VAT, income tax and provincial gross income tax.
4. The parties sign the IOR agreement and the commercial documents are issued with the IOR as importer and consignee.
5. The goods ship and, on arrival, the despachante files the import declaration and the IOR pays the duties and taxes.
6. The customs system assigns a control channel, green for release, orange for a document review or red for a physical inspection, and the despachante handles any check.
7. Once released, the goods are delivered to the final site, and the IOR keeps the full file for later audits.

The statistics fee is set at 3% of the customs value until 31 December 2027 by Decreto 1140/2024, with maximum amounts by value bracket, and VAT is charged at 21% or at the reduced 10.5% rate for qualifying capital goods. Getting those numbers right before the order is placed is what allows a vendor to quote a delivered price with confidence.

Importer of Record Argentina compared with the other routes

An IOR is not the only way to get hardware into Argentina, but it is the one that works when neither the seller nor the buyer wants to act as importer. The right choice depends on who has a local entity, how much the shipment is worth and how quickly it must be delivered.

The courier route deserves a warning. Its higher ceiling made it tempting for samples and small parts, but it was not designed for commercial lots of servers or network equipment, and goods sent that way still need any approval that applies to them.

What is the importer actually responsible for?

For everything the declaration says. The importer answers for the tariff classification, the declared value, the origin, the description of the goods and any approval they require, and customs can review all of it after release. Mistakes are expensive, so a serious IOR checks the documents before it signs.

The penalty most often applied is the one for an inaccurate declaration. Under Article 954 of the Customs Code, a declaration that differs from what customs finds on verification, and that could change the amount of duties or taxes paid, is punished with a fine of one to five times the difference. A wrong NCM code, a value that does not reflect the real price or used equipment declared as new can all trigger it, even when the error came from the supplier's invoice.

That is why the IOR's file matters as much as the clearance itself. It should hold the invoice, the packing list, the transport document, the classification analysis, any ENACOM registration, the sworn statement for used goods when it applies and the proof of payment of duties and taxes. For servers with advanced GPUs, it should also match the export documents from the country of origin, with the same end user, site and serial numbers. Our guide to telecom equipment homologation explains which radio items need approval before they ship.

How do you choose an Importer of Record in Argentina?

Look for a provider that already holds an active importer profile with solvency and guarantees in place, works with despachantes at the customs offices your shipments will use, knows your type of hardware and explains its fees and tax handling in writing before the first shipment.

Four questions separate a reliable IOR from a forwarder that only lends its tax ID. First, how is the tax position handled: who invoices the end customer, who credits the VAT and perceptions, and how quickly that cash comes back. Second, who is the despachante, and do they operate at the customs office where your goods will arrive. Third, what experience does the provider have with your equipment, whether that is GPU servers, network switches or radio equipment with ENACOM requirements. Fourth, what exactly is in the price, from the classification review to storage, inspection and delivery.

ComexAR, the Argentine operation of Comex IOR Services, was built around those questions. Its team brings more than 35 years of experience in Argentine foreign trade, and it works with despachantes de aduana at every customs office in the country, so a shipment can be cleared at Ezeiza, at the port of Buenos Aires or at a border crossing in the provinces without changing provider. And because ComexAR is part of Comex IOR Services, which provides Importer of Record services in Argentina, Brazil, the United States, the European Union and Uruguay, a project that spans several countries, or stock held in a Uruguayan free trade zone, can stay with one team.

Planning an import into Argentina without a local company?

The best moment to bring in an Importer of Record is before the purchase order, when the classification, the approvals and the invoicing structure can still be adjusted at no cost. Once the goods are on a plane, every gap becomes a delay.

If you need to deliver servers, network equipment or other hardware in Argentina and do not have a local structure, tell us what you are shipping, where it needs to go and when it has to be running. Through our Importer of Record services in Argentina, the ComexAR team will review your documents, tell you plainly which structure fits and give you a landed cost before anything ships.