Important Argentine Federal Supreme Court Ruling in Oil & Gas Taxation

Abstract

The stamp tax is a provincial duty levied upon the execution in writing of non gratuitous acts or contracts, including those entered into by correspondence, being the existence of a written document essential for the triggering of the taxable event. In a relevant decision for the oil and gas industry, Argentine Federal Court of Justice ruled on April 15, 2004 in re “Yacimientos Petrolíferos Fiscales S.A. s. Tierra del Fuego”, “Shell Compañía Argentina de Petróleo S.A. v. Neuquén” and “Transportadora de Gas del Sur S.A. v. Santa Cruz” that the taxable event of the stamp tax cannot arise out of the strict limit foreseen in the applicable regulations, and that licit efforts to avoid the tax are not reprehensible.