Argentina CUIT for non-residents: how to get a tax number now that the CDI is gone

Since March 2, 2026, individuals get a CUIT, not a CDI. If you live abroad, a representative with an Argentine address files for you, and the main risk is the power you hand over.

In detail

Argentina stopped issuing the CDI to individuals on March 2, 2026. If you live abroad and a bank, a registry or your Argentine company asks for a tax number, the answer is now a CUIT, filed without a trip by a representative with an address in Argentina. ARCA, the national tax agency formerly called AFIP, charges nothing for the number, so your costs are the notary, the apostille, the translation and the representative. The real risk is not the two-page form but what you allow that representative to do in your name.

The CDI is gone, the old instructions are not

ARCA General Resolution 5803/2025 closed the CDI procedure for individuals and put the CUIT in its place. Only organizations such as diplomatic missions can still get a CDI. The old code covered bank accounts, financial transactions and buying registrable assets, but not tax or social security duties. A CUIT is a full taxpayer number, and any change to your data must be reported within 10 working days.

Government pages still describe form 663 and 30 working days for non-residents: a deadline for reporting a new address, not a processing time. That procedure is gone.

Three situations, three routes

The route depends on where you live and whether you hold a DNI, the Argentine national ID. The first row catches people out: if you live abroad, a DNI does not spare you the representative.

Row two saves money if you are flying in anyway, but the same certification and translation rules apply and the office checks originals.

What goes into the file

The filing runs through ARCA's online service Presentaciones Digitales (digital filings), procedure Alta CUIT personas humanas - Situaciones especiales (special situations). Your representative states why you need the number and attaches the papers from the table.

The form is short: personal details, non-resident status, tax and actual addresses, phone and email, then a declaration that it is complete and correct.

The hard part starts with certification. Under Article 31 of the resolution, every foreign official document must be certified, legalized or apostilled, and anything in a foreign language needs a translation by a sworn translator (traductor matriculado). An ordinary translation may come back with your application.

Then there is proof. The resolution demands evidence of representation and non-resident status without naming the documents, and in special cases the office can ask for or accept others. The closest guide is the rule for attorneys-in-fact, where ARCA wants proof of residence abroad, legalized or apostilled, with a translation countersigned by the translators' college.

A deficient filing comes back rejected, with reasons, to the filer's electronic tax address (Domicilio Fiscal Electrónico), and must be refiled. The resolution sets no processing deadline, so apply well before a company signing or bank visit.

The power of attorney is where mistakes get expensive

Filing for the number and running your tax account are different powers. The resolution lets your representative become your attorney-in-fact at ARCA (Administrador de Relaciones Apoderado) but does not require it. Becoming one is a separate filing: form 3283/F, proof of residence abroad and, online, a notary's digital certification. It changes the stakes. A representative need not be a lawyer, only have an Argentine address, a portal password of their own and an electronic tax address, so who acts in your name is entirely your choice.

Under Resolution 5048/2021, whatever is done under a portal password, with every legal and tax consequence, is attributed to the person the user acts for. A wrong return or an acknowledged debt lands on you, not on them.

Two very different forms matter here.

A number for a bank does not need full power over your account. A director with monthly contributions needs someone running it, so the question is who gets that power and how you take it back.

Taking it back is harder than it sounds. Without a DNI, a working level 3 portal password is in-person only, passport in hand: online, it takes the QR code on a DNI. While you stay abroad, your attorney-in-fact is your only way into the account. Their power ends when you appoint a new one, revoke the appointment or get your own password, and they can walk away themselves with notice to ARCA.

Notices do not wait. Requests and assessments go to the electronic tax address and count as delivered when opened or, if nobody opens them, at 00:00 on the following Monday. If the only person with access has stopped answering your emails, the deadlines run without you. ARCA alerts the email or phone on file, so make them yours; a second person can get access to notices.

If you already hold a CDI

Issued CDIs remain valid, so there is no rush. For an individual, though, the code lasts only until the first change to registered data, when ARCA converts it into a CUIT. A CDI holder can change only the representative in Argentina, the legal address and the code itself, so replacing your representative, which sounds like housekeeping, triggers the conversion.

Conversion takes the same form 460 F/PD, a face photo and an ID document, and foreign papers need the same certification and translation. Directors have no reason to wait: a CDI cannot carry taxes or pension contributions.

What a CUIT will and will not do for you

Getting a CUIT is free and creates no debt to ARCA. What costs money is the activity behind the number.

A bank. A CUIT meets the tax number requirement but does not open an account, and here the trip comes back: some banks open a non-resident account on a personal visit, with proof of address and source of funds. Banks decide after checking sanctions lists and the origin of the money, as our guides to CBU, CVU and alias and personal accounts in Argentina explain.

Living and working. A tax number is neither a residence permit nor a work permit; for those, see our page on Argentine residency. Nor does it make you a tax resident: our guide to Argentine taxes explains who counts as one.

If the number is for a company

The law on simplified companies, or SAS (Law 27,349), has not caught up with the tax agency. Article 51 still requires a CDI from a foreign administrator, and Article 60 promises one to non-resident founders within 24 hours. Individuals no longer get a CDI, so forget the 24 hours. The rest of Article 51 stands: a foreign administrator appoints a representative in Argentina and gives a local address for notices, and at least one member of the management body must live in the country.

In the company application a founder is entered by number and the system pulls in their data; a wrong entry goes back to ARCA for correction. A typo on form 460 F/PD will follow you into the company registration, so get a clean number first.

The costly part is monthly. Article 6 of Resolution 5803/2025 mentions people living abroad who must pay into the pension regime for self-employed workers (autónomos) because they run an Argentine company. A salary is beside the point: a director with no pay, for whom this is the only self-employed activity, sits in category III at minimum. According to official data, that category has cost 156,541.75 pesos a month since October 15, 2026, and categories are reviewed every May. Whether you owe it depends on how you run the company: the pension law speaks of habitual management in Argentina. Settle this before accepting the post.

Tax registration is a separate step. The electronic tax address comes first, and whoever acts, you or your attorney-in-fact, confirms their identity by face scan in the ARCA app or at an office.

How Murblz handles a non-resident CUIT

You can try this on your own: the procedure is public. It is more reliable with professionals, because filing remotely takes a representative anyway and the resolution's open questions are better settled before filing than after a rejection.

We set the route around what the number is for, check your documents, arrange certification, apostille and translation, draw up powers that fit the job and follow the filing until the CUIT is issued. Legal representation is handled by Murblz specialists together with partners and notaries licensed in Argentina. The process is clear and transparent: you know in advance what you are signing, what powers you grant and to whom. For the cost, ask a manager.

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