Buenos Aires, February 21. Argentine Customs is claiming $28 million from the Argentinian subsidiary of Chinese technology company Huawei for unpaid taxes and a fine of 407 million pesos ($2 million), official sources reported on Tuesday.
The claim arises because for Argentine customs, it is not possible for the Chinese company to import equipment (hardware) without purchasing the software and without canceling the license fees to the parent company abroad , according to an analysis of the domain of customs related companies on the value of imports from the Argentinian subsidiary of Huawei Tech Investment.
Argentine customs clarified that Huawei’s Argentine subsidiary imports equipment (hardware) for technological developments in Argentina from its parent company in China.
These teams are part of global contracts called “Systems”, with technical specifications that make hardware, software and license rights “must have” because they are complete purchase requirements, the state agency explained. .
Argentina relies on the fact that it is part of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), which establishes that the importer is obliged to pay, in addition to the agreed price for the goods, a additional amount called “canon, license fee or simply royalty” in exchange for the right to use this intellectual creation of the other party, and this sum of money “incorporates the customs value”.
For customs, the technology company was fully aware of the license fees it was required to pay for the importation of the goods and knew of the existence and the amount of the said obligation, but only declared the value of the ‘equipment without including in the basis of customs tax the value of software and licenses.
Due to the inaccurate declaration of the company which harms the Treasury, Customs claims the difference in tax and applies the fine. ECE
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