When You Become a Venezuelan Tax Resident
Answer
The general rule applies to you
No exception is recorded for citizens of Argentina on this topic. That is the answer, not a gap - everything below is the rule you get, unchanged.
81 exceptions recorded across 33 countries · none match Argentina to Venezuela · When you become a tax resident
Venezuela taxes a resident on income from anywhere in the world and a non-resident only on income arising in Venezuela. The day count is 183 days, and the way it is written is unusual enough to be worth reading slowly. The income tax law defines who is not resident: someone whose stay does not run beyond 183 days in a calendar year and who is not domiciled in Venezuela under the tax code. Its sole paragraph then says when such a person is treated as resident - when they have stayed a continuous period of more than 183 days in the calendar year immediately before the year being taxed. So it is the previous year that is counted, and it has to be a continuous spell, which is not how most of the region writes the same test. A non-resident individual is taxed at a flat 34 per cent.
At a glance
- Basis of taxation for residents
- Worldwide income
- Basis of taxation for non-residents
- Income arising in Venezuela only
- Day count
- More than 183 days
- Year counted
- The calendar year immediately before the tax year
- Continuous or cumulative
- Continuous, under the income tax law's own test
- Non-resident individual rate
- 34 per cent
- Presumption for Venezuelan nationals
- Resident, unless proved otherwise
Requirements
- Count the days of a continuous stay in the calendar year immediately before the year being taxed; more than 183 of them makes you resident for that year under the income tax law
- Separately, the tax code treats you as domiciled if you have established your residence or place of habitation in the country
- A Venezuelan national is presumed resident in the national territory unless proved otherwise
- To be treated as resident abroad under that escape clause, produce a certificate from the competent authorities of the state where you are resident
What applies to you
Nothing changes for a citizen of Argentina
We have no rule recorded that treats your citizenship differently here, so the general rule above is the one that applies to you. That is an answer, not a gap.
What the law says
«toda persona natural o jurídica, residente o domiciliada en la República Bolivariana de Venezuela, pagará impuestos sobre sus rentas de cualquier origen, sea que la causa o la fuente de ingresos esté situada dentro del país o fuera de él.»Our translation - not official
Every natural or legal person resident or domiciled in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela shall pay tax on income of any origin, whether the cause or the source of the income is situated inside the country or outside it.
Taken from our own recognition of the gazette facsimile the National Assembly publishes, which has no text layer. The recognition carries doubled letters in places; the passage quoted here was read character by character against the surrounding text.
«Las personas naturales o jurídicas no residentes o no domiciliadas en la República Bolivariana de Venezuela estarán sujetas al impuesto establecido en este Decreto con Rango, Valor y Fuerza de Ley, siempre que la fuente o la causa de sus enriquecimientos esté u ocurrra dentro del país, aun cuando no tengan establecimiento permanente o base fija en la República Bolivariana de Venezuela.»Our translation - not official
Natural or legal persons not resident or not domiciled in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela shall be subject to the tax established in this Decree-Law provided the source or cause of their income is or occurs inside the country, even where they have no permanent establishment or fixed base in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.
The word 'ocurrra' is our recognition's doubled letter, not the gazette's. Taken from our own recognition of the gazette facsimile the National Assembly publishes, which has no text layer. The recognition carries doubled letters in places; the passage quoted here was read character by character against the surrounding text.
«Artículo 51. A todos los fines de este Decreto con Rango, Valor y Fuerza de Ley, se entiende por persona no residente, aquella cuya estadía en el país no se prolongue por más de ciento ochenta y tres (183) días dentro de un año calendario y que no califique como domiciliada en la República Bolivariana de Venezuela, conforme a lo establecido en el Código Orgánico Tributario.»Our translation - not official
For all purposes of this Decree-Law, a non-resident person means one whose stay in the country does not extend beyond one hundred and eighty-three (183) days within a calendar year and who does not qualify as domiciled in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela under the Organic Tax Code.
Taken from our own recognition of the gazette facsimile the National Assembly publishes, which has no text layer. The recognition carries doubled letters in places; the passage quoted here was read character by character against the surrounding text.
«Las personas a que se refiere el encabezamiento de este artículo se consideran como residentes a los efectos del mismo, cuando hayan permanecido en el país por un período continuo de más de ciento ochenta y tres (183) días en el año calendario inmediatamente anterior al del ejercicio al cual corresponda determinar el tributo.»Our translation - not official
The persons referred to in the opening words of this article are treated as residents for its purposes when they have remained in the country for a continuous period of more than one hundred and eighty-three (183) days in the calendar year immediately before the year for which the tax is to be determined.
Two things decide the answer here and both are easy to lose: the period must be continuous, and it is the previous calendar year that is counted, not the year being taxed. Taken from our own recognition of the gazette facsimile the National Assembly publishes, which has no text layer. The recognition carries doubled letters in places; the passage quoted here was read character by character against the surrounding text.
«Parágrafo Único: En los casos de los enriquecimientos obtenidos por personas naturales no residentes en el país, el impuesto será del treinta y cuatro por ciento (34%).»Our translation - not official
Sole paragraph: in the case of income obtained by natural persons not resident in the country, the tax shall be thirty-four per cent (34%).
The article number this paragraph belongs to is not legible: our recognition dropped the heading, leaving the Tarifa N° 1 table above it. Taken from our own recognition of the gazette facsimile the National Assembly publishes, which has no text layer. The recognition carries doubled letters in places; the passage quoted here was read character by character against the surrounding text.
«2. Las personas naturales que hayan establecido su residencia o lugar de habitación en el país, salvo que en el año calendario permanezcan en otro país por un período continuo o discontinuo de más de ciento ochenta y tres (183) días, y acrediten haber adquirido la residencia para efectos fiscales en ese otro país.»Our translation - not official
Natural persons who have established their residence or place of habitation in the country, unless in the calendar year they stay in another country for a continuous or discontinuous period of more than one hundred and eighty-three (183) days and show that they have acquired residence for tax purposes in that other country.
Numeral 1 of this article and the article's opening words were dropped by our recognition of the facsimile, so what the 2020 Code says about counting days under that numeral is not stated here.
«Parágrafo Primero. Cuando las leyes tributarias establezcan disposiciones relativas a la residencia del contribuyente o responsable, se entenderá como tal el domicilio, según lo dispuesto en este artículo.»Our translation - not official
Sole first paragraph: where the tax laws contain provisions about the residence of the taxpayer or person liable, residence shall be understood as domicile, as laid down in this article.
This is what ties the income tax law's word 'residente' to the Code's test of domicile.
«Salvo prueba en contrario, se presume que las personas naturales de nacionalidad venezolana, son residentes en territorio nacional.»Our translation - not official
Unless proved otherwise, natural persons of Venezuelan nationality are presumed to be resident in the national territory.
This instrument is published only as an image. The wording above was read off that picture and checked by eye, so it did not pass the machine verbatim check the other quotations passed. Treat it as accurate but re-read the scan before relying on it.
«En los casos establecidos en el numeral 2 de este artículo, la residencia en el extranjero se acreditará ante la Administración Tributaria, mediante constancia expedida por las autoridades competentes del Estado del cual son residentes.»Our translation - not official
In the cases set out in numeral 2 of this article, residence abroad shall be proved to the Tax Administration by a certificate issued by the competent authorities of the State of which they are residents.
This instrument is published only as an image. The wording above was read off that picture and checked by eye, so it did not pass the machine verbatim check the other quotations passed. Treat it as accurate but re-read the scan before relying on it.
Practical notes
The income tax law's own test and the tax code's test are not written the same way. The income tax law's sole paragraph counts a continuous period in the previous calendar year; the tax code counts continuous or discontinuous days. We could not quote the tax code's numeral 1 because our recognition of the 2020 gazette facsimile lost it, and we have not restated it from the repealed 2001 Code.
The reading behind the income tax figures is our own recognition of a scanned gazette. The National Assembly publishes this law only as an image.
- issuesDecreto con Rango, Valor y Fuerza de Ley de Impuesto sobre la Renta, texto único impreso por el Decreto N° 2.163, Gaceta Oficial N° 6.210 Extraordinario de 30 de diciembre de 2015
Asamblea Nacional de la República Bolivariana de Venezuela
About this source
Venezuela's legislature, and the only reachable index of Venezuelan law. Its database of laws in force gives, for each instrument, the Gaceta Oficial number and date, the vacatio legis, what it repealed, a condition flag reading 'Vigencia Total', and a PDF of the gazette page. It carries decretos constituyentes and decretos-leyes as well as its own Acts, so the 2015 income tax law, the 2020 Tax Code and the 2020 customs law are all here. With the Imprenta Nacional's gazette service unreachable, this is the nearest thing to the publisher of record that can be read.
Standing: Issues the instrument
Cannot be cited for: Its PDFs are scans with no text layer - OmniPage output, jbig2 images, pdftotext returns nothing - so anything quoted from them is our own recognition and must carry extractMethod 'ocr'. The recognition reads the gazette's two columns out of order, drops article headings and whole numerals, and on at least one law invents text outright: the Ley Orgánica de Aduanas comes back with Chinese characters spliced into Spanish clauses. A negative claim must never rest on a reading taken from here. It must not be cited for the law as consolidated either: each PDF is one gazette issue, and where that issue reprints a single text the reprint date is the date of the last amendment, not a sweep. There is no working site search and no working pagination - every listing URL with a query string returns an empty response to both Firecrawl and a direct fetch - so an instrument can only be found by guessing its slug, and failing to find one here is not evidence that it does not exist.
We re-read it every 180 days. More about this source
- issuesAsamblea Nacional - Decreto con Rango, Valor y Fuerza de Ley de Reforma Parcial de la Ley de Impuesto sobre la Renta
Asamblea Nacional de la República Bolivariana de Venezuela
About this source
Venezuela's legislature, and the only reachable index of Venezuelan law. Its database of laws in force gives, for each instrument, the Gaceta Oficial number and date, the vacatio legis, what it repealed, a condition flag reading 'Vigencia Total', and a PDF of the gazette page. It carries decretos constituyentes and decretos-leyes as well as its own Acts, so the 2015 income tax law, the 2020 Tax Code and the 2020 customs law are all here. With the Imprenta Nacional's gazette service unreachable, this is the nearest thing to the publisher of record that can be read.
Standing: Issues the instrument
Cannot be cited for: Its PDFs are scans with no text layer - OmniPage output, jbig2 images, pdftotext returns nothing - so anything quoted from them is our own recognition and must carry extractMethod 'ocr'. The recognition reads the gazette's two columns out of order, drops article headings and whole numerals, and on at least one law invents text outright: the Ley Orgánica de Aduanas comes back with Chinese characters spliced into Spanish clauses. A negative claim must never rest on a reading taken from here. It must not be cited for the law as consolidated either: each PDF is one gazette issue, and where that issue reprints a single text the reprint date is the date of the last amendment, not a sweep. There is no working site search and no working pagination - every listing URL with a query string returns an empty response to both Firecrawl and a direct fetch - so an instrument can only be found by guessing its slug, and failing to find one here is not evidence that it does not exist.
We re-read it every 180 days. More about this source
- issuesCódigo Orgánico Tributario, Decreto Constituyente, Gaceta Oficial N° 6.507 Extraordinario de 29 de enero de 2020
Asamblea Nacional de la República Bolivariana de Venezuela
About this source
Venezuela's legislature, and the only reachable index of Venezuelan law. Its database of laws in force gives, for each instrument, the Gaceta Oficial number and date, the vacatio legis, what it repealed, a condition flag reading 'Vigencia Total', and a PDF of the gazette page. It carries decretos constituyentes and decretos-leyes as well as its own Acts, so the 2015 income tax law, the 2020 Tax Code and the 2020 customs law are all here. With the Imprenta Nacional's gazette service unreachable, this is the nearest thing to the publisher of record that can be read.
Standing: Issues the instrument
Cannot be cited for: Its PDFs are scans with no text layer - OmniPage output, jbig2 images, pdftotext returns nothing - so anything quoted from them is our own recognition and must carry extractMethod 'ocr'. The recognition reads the gazette's two columns out of order, drops article headings and whole numerals, and on at least one law invents text outright: the Ley Orgánica de Aduanas comes back with Chinese characters spliced into Spanish clauses. A negative claim must never rest on a reading taken from here. It must not be cited for the law as consolidated either: each PDF is one gazette issue, and where that issue reprints a single text the reprint date is the date of the last amendment, not a sweep. There is no working site search and no working pagination - every listing URL with a query string returns an empty response to both Firecrawl and a direct fetch - so an instrument can only be found by guessing its slug, and failing to find one here is not evidence that it does not exist.
We re-read it every 180 days. More about this source
- issuesAsamblea Nacional - Decreto Constituyente mediante el cual se dicta el Código Orgánico Tributario
Asamblea Nacional de la República Bolivariana de Venezuela
About this source
Venezuela's legislature, and the only reachable index of Venezuelan law. Its database of laws in force gives, for each instrument, the Gaceta Oficial number and date, the vacatio legis, what it repealed, a condition flag reading 'Vigencia Total', and a PDF of the gazette page. It carries decretos constituyentes and decretos-leyes as well as its own Acts, so the 2015 income tax law, the 2020 Tax Code and the 2020 customs law are all here. With the Imprenta Nacional's gazette service unreachable, this is the nearest thing to the publisher of record that can be read.
Standing: Issues the instrument
Cannot be cited for: Its PDFs are scans with no text layer - OmniPage output, jbig2 images, pdftotext returns nothing - so anything quoted from them is our own recognition and must carry extractMethod 'ocr'. The recognition reads the gazette's two columns out of order, drops article headings and whole numerals, and on at least one law invents text outright: the Ley Orgánica de Aduanas comes back with Chinese characters spliced into Spanish clauses. A negative claim must never rest on a reading taken from here. It must not be cited for the law as consolidated either: each PDF is one gazette issue, and where that issue reprints a single text the reprint date is the date of the last amendment, not a sweep. There is no working site search and no working pagination - every listing URL with a query string returns an empty response to both Firecrawl and a direct fetch - so an instrument can only be found by guessing its slug, and failing to find one here is not evidence that it does not exist.
We re-read it every 180 days. More about this source