For anyone who sells a lot on Mercadolibre, this information could be useful and is worth bearing in mind when selling items of high value.
I advertised and sold an iPhone on ML for $50,000 which caused more problems than solutions.
It may be recalled that in this post I highlighted the need to register with AFIP (Inland Revenue) as self employed in order to avoid paying 21% VAT (IVA) if your monthly sales go beyond AR$5000.
This I did, but was unable to register in some obscure classification: Registro de Comercializadores de bienes usados no registrables, due to an error on the AFIP website.
This meant that not only was I going to pay 13% commission to ML, but also 18% VAT to the government. If I had been able to register with the obscure classification above, the VAT would have been 9%.
Either way, I would have lost a substantial amount of money, so in agreement with the buyer, we cancelled the sale and are trying to arrange an alternative method of payment.
The end result of all this is that if I sell an item with a single value of AR$15,000 (about US$350), I will pay VAT at either 9% or 18%, depending on my classification.
This direct from Mercadolibre:
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Para los monotributistas, el impuesto aplicara cuando el precio unitario de bienes vendidos supere los $15.000, o cuando superen el monto de facturación anual de $1.344.065,86.
It's little wonder that so many Argentines employ such imaginative tricks in the financial sector, since the system is designed to claw back every possible cent.
