After a marathon session that extended from Thursday until Friday morning, the Buenos Aires City Legislature approved the 2026 Budget, which is surplus and contains a series of reforms and significant tax cuts.
The project finally secured the 38 votes needed after intense negotiations, where the decisive condition for its passage was the firm stance of La Libertad Avanza (LLA), the party of President Javier Milei, which forced Jorge Macri's city government to accept a series of tax reductions and fiscal reforms.
The interventions of the libertarian legislators themselves made it clear that the key modifications—bonuses in Gross Income Tax, relief for self-employed taxpayers, updates to billing thresholds, and exemptions from Stamp Tax—were incorporated only because LLA conditioned its vote on those specific points.
El presidente Javier Milei.
"We supported the Budget because this time there was real listening from the Head of Government to the proposals of our bloc, in line with President Milei's agenda," stated Pilar Ramírez, president of the libertarian bloc and direct negotiator.
"In that sense, we achieved bonuses in Gross Income Tax, provided real relief to self-employed taxpayers and small contributors, and updated billing thresholds to prevent unfair bracket jumps. We also advanced with Stamp Tax exemptions for mortgage loans and for credit card purchases, a direct relief for thousands of city residents," she added.
LLA's pressure was also reflected in the detailed structure of the benefits: a 100% bonus for the first three categories of the Simplified Regime and 75% for the next five; expansion of Gross Income Tax exemptions for Mutual Funds; a 20% update in billing thresholds to prevent automatic rate increases; reduction of the Stamp Tax to 2.70% for real estate transactions up to $226 million; and total exemption from Stamp Tax for mortgage loans intended for a first home.
Javier Milei, presidente de Argentina.
PRO, with support from UCR, Civic Coalition, and Public Trust, managed to maintain other aspects of the budget, which projects 5% growth for 2026, an estimated inflation of 10.1%, and a dollar at $1,423. Fiscal calculations anticipate a financial surplus of $6 billion.
This way, the central political fact is that the tax cut now celebrated by the city government was not part of the original design, but rather the direct and exclusive result of the pressure exerted by La Libertad Avanza, which today emerges not only as a key partner, but as the actor that most conditions the fiscal direction of the City under the banner of Javier Milei's agenda
