source: AFIP
Trámites, (‘procedures’ in Spanish) is the magic word in Argentine bureaucracy…
If you don’t believe us, check out the picture above. We promise, we did not make this image up…it’s an official guide from AFIP (Argentina’s Government Tax Agency). To their credit, AFIP’s graphic is actually rather accurate as the process is absolutely confusing.
When we decided to set up businesses in both Argentina and the United States, we accepted that we’d face some legal headaches. Saying that we were naive regarding the difficulty of legally creating a start-up in Argentina would be an understatement. Perhaps we were spoiled when we were able to set out business up in the US in about a week, and mostly online.
The challenges that we continue to encounter thanks to AFIP are really quite inexplicable. Looking back, we can laugh about (some of) it, but one thing is for certain: it’s been a constant battle. One of our favourite videos that encapsulates the ‘feel’ of Argentine bureaucracy can be found below (although this video was shot for Spain, the concept is rather similar):
Do you have experiences with setting up businesses in other countries and would like to share them with us? Drop us a line below and tell us about it!