Knowledge Economy Promotion Regime (Ley 27.506)

Ley 27.506 ('Régimen de Promoción de la Economía del Conocimiento') was passed in May 2019 and, after amendment by Ley 27.570, took effect with registration backdated to 1 January 2020. It is administered nationally by Argentina's Ministerio de Economía (via the Secretaría de Industria y Desarrollo Productivo), with AFIP handling registration, and covers software/SaaS, biotechnology, nanotechnology, aerospace, nuclear engineering, Industry 4.0, audiovisual production, export-oriented professional services and R&D. It builds on an earlier 2004 software-promotion law.

The regime is a deliberate, industry-co-designed policy instrument explicitly aimed at preventing Argentina's tech talent from leaving the formal economy, using targeted, transferable payroll tax credits rather than blanket subsidies, with extra incentives for hiring women, people with disabilities, postgraduates, or workers in disadvantaged regions.

Registered firms get a corporate-income-tax cut (down to 60–80% of the standard rate depending on firm size) and a transferable tax credit worth 70% of employer social-security contributions (80% for firms hiring under-represented groups), usable against other national taxes for 24 months, plus VAT and export-duty relief.

Registered companies grew from 582 (November 2022) to roughly 800–957 by 2024–25, over 90% of them SMEs. The Ministerio de Economía counted about 494,000 jobs in the broader knowledge-economy sector in Q4 2023 (about 7.3% of registered employment); sector exports reached US$8.9 billion in 2024 and US$9.685 billion in the year to mid-2025 (Argencon). The narrower software subsector (CESSI) saw exports fall to US$2.445 billion in 2023 (down 6.8% year-on-year), with the sector's layoff rate doubling from 3% to 6% that year.

No causal or quasi-experimental evaluation isolates the law's effect from confounders such as peso devaluation, global remote-work trends or macroeconomic cycles — all published figures are descriptive statistics. Bloomberg documented an ongoing 'exodus' of Argentine developers into informal, dollar-paid remote freelancing (estimated at US$1.8 billion), with one firm reportedly losing 80 of 600 employees this way, and software exports fell even as the regime remained in force. Under the Milei government, public science and technology employment fell about 3.6% (Dec 2023–Sept 2024), and 2025 reporting describes continued outbound talent migration despite official 'AI hub' ambitions.