How to Start a Company in Argentina

Starting a company in Argentina is an orderly process: you choose the corporate form, incorporate and register the company with the public registry, obtain the tax ID (CUIT) and only then open the bank account. This guide walks through how to create, open or register a company step by step, with the real timelines, capital rules and legal requirements, for residents and for foreigners.

Incorporating with a foreign shareholder? The path depends on who the shareholder is. A foreign individual can hold equity without Argentine residency, with a CUIT obtained through a local representative: see the requirements for foreigners. A foreign parent company must first complete a mandatory prior registration under Article 123, which changes the project's timeline: see foreign corporate shareholders. We run both scenarios end to end as a service: company formation in Argentina.

Can a Foreigner Start a Company in Argentina?

Yes. There is no immigration requirement to hold equity in an Argentine company. Owning shares, acting as an administrator, working locally and residing in Argentina are four different questions: this section deals with ownership and management. The right to work or to reside is a matter of immigration law and is not granted by holding equity.

Foreign individual shareholders

A foreign individual can be a partner or shareholder without being a resident. The participation can be executed while in Argentina as a tourist, or directly from abroad through a power of attorney. The concrete requirements are three:

• a.Tax identification. A foreign shareholder who has no CUIT or CUIL obtains a CUIT from ARCA. Since March 2, 2026, ARCA General Resolution No. 5803/2025 replaced the old CDI with a single CUIT procedure: a shareholder residing abroad applies through an authorized representative with domicile in Argentina, and CDIs issued earlier remain valid until any data update converts them into a CUIT. It pays to start early: without the tax ID, the participation cannot be registered.
• b.Domicile. The company establishes its legal domicile in Argentina.
• c.Management with local presence. In the SA, an absolute majority of the directors must have their real domicile in Argentina (Section 256, General Companies Law), and the same rule reaches the managers of an SRL, because the law applies the directors' regime to them (Section 157). In the SAS, at least one administrator must be a resident (Law 27,349). The foreign shareholder can keep corporate control and appoint local administrators.

The distinction that organizes the analysis: owning from abroad is possible with nothing more than a CUIT obtained through a representative; managing requires local presence. Deciding who the resident administrator will be before drafting the bylaws avoids redoing documents later.

Foreign corporate shareholders

When the shareholder is a company incorporated abroad, a mandatory prior step appears: its registration under Article 123 of the General Companies Law, which in the City of Buenos Aires can be filed jointly with the local incorporation under IGJ General Resolution No. 4/2026. The scenario has its own documents, issuers and certification chain: see foreign corporate shareholders for the regime and the documentation matrix for who issues each document and in which order to prepare them.

Corporate Forms: SAS, SRL and SA

The General Companies Law No. 19,550 governs the classic forms, the SRL and the SA; Law No. 27,349 added the SAS in 2017. In practice, the decision comes down to these three.

The SRL (limited liability company) is the starting point for most new businesses. It is run by one or more managers, with no board of directors, its upkeep is simple, and it is a fully consolidated form before registries, banks and counterparties.

The SA (corporation) is the full corporate form: shares, a board of directors and shareholders' meetings. It makes sense when the company expects investors, changes in ownership, more formal governance or regulatory requirements. It has a legal minimum capital set by regulation and a heavier maintenance structure.

The SAS (simplified shares company) is, on paper, the fastest and cheapest form: a digital filing, a single shareholder allowed and a minimum capital of two minimum monthly salaries. That said, we generally do not recommend it as the default vehicle. Registry practice, bank onboarding and regulatory perception tend to favor the SRL and the SA, and speed of incorporation is usually the least important factor in the decision.

In short:

If the business will be regulated (payments, lending, crypto, securities) or will have a foreign company as shareholder, the choice of vehicle deserves specific analysis before filing. That is the work we do in our company formation in Argentina service.

Timelines: How Long It Takes

Timing depends on the form chosen, the jurisdiction, the type of filing and the shareholders' nationality:

• a.SRL or SA with local shareholders: in simple cases, between 7 and 15 business days from signing to registration. The IGJ offers an urgent-track filing that compresses review times in exchange for a higher fee.
• b.SAS in the City of Buenos Aires: the filing is digital and can be completed in a few days.
• c.With a foreign individual as shareholder: add the time for the CUIT and the powers of attorney (apostille and sworn translation if signed abroad), normally a few additional weeks; the same power of attorney can appoint the local representative who requests the CUIT.
• d.With a foreign company as shareholder: the horizon becomes 8 to 16 weeks, because of the prior Article 123 registration explained in the last section.

Two typical causes of delay worth anticipating: registry observations (vistas) on the bylaws, and foreign documents with formal defects in the apostille or translation. Registration, moreover, is not the end of the road: the CUIT takes days, and the bank account takes days to weeks depending on the bank and the shareholders' profile.

Minimum Capital and Contributions

The capital rules, by corporate form:

• a.SRL: no specific legal minimum; the capital must bear a reasonable relation to the corporate purpose. A token capital invites registry observations and, above all, banking friction.
• b.SA: a legal minimum set by regulation, updated periodically.
• c.SAS: the equivalent of two minimum monthly salaries.

For cash contributions, the general rule of the Companies Law applies: 25% paid in at incorporation and the balance within two years. In-kind contributions are paid in full. The relevant exception for groups: the SAU (the single-shareholder corporation) pays in 100% of its capital at incorporation and remains under permanent state oversight (Section 299).

A practical criterion: size the capital with the bank and the first months of operation in mind, not the legal minimum. Visibly undercapitalized companies start bank onboarding at a disadvantage.

CUIT and the Tax Code

Once the company is registered, tax identification follows:

• a.The company's CUIT is obtained from ARCA once the bylaws are registered. Without a CUIT there is no invoicing, no contracts and no bank account.
• b.Shareholders and administrators need their own identification: CUIT or CUIL for residents; foreigners without Argentine identification obtain a CUIT, through a local representative when they reside abroad (RG 5803/2025).
• c.The legal representative's clave fiscal (tax access code) enables the company's digital operation before ARCA: tax registrations, invoicing and information regimes.

The sequence is strict: registry first, CUIT second, bank last. Inverting the order only produces back-and-forth.

The Steps Before the IGJ

These steps describe the procedure before the IGJ, the public registry for companies domiciled in the City of Buenos Aires, which is the most common track for foreign-owned companies. In the provinces, the same sequence runs before the local Public Registry, whose forms, fees and review practice vary by jurisdiction; the registry that corresponds to the company's legal domicile is the one that registers it. The full process, in order:

• 1.Name reservation (optional but advisable). It secures the chosen name for 30 calendar days while the documents are prepared, and avoids redrafting the bylaws if the name is already taken.
• 2.Drafting and signing the incorporation instrument. The SA is incorporated by notarial deed (Section 165, General Companies Law). The SRL also admits a private instrument, with the partners' signatures certified before a notary public. The bylaws define, at a minimum, name, domicile, corporate purpose, capital, duration, management and oversight bodies and fiscal year-end. In the SAS, the filing is digital, with a model or tailored bylaws.
• 3.Acceptance of offices and sworn statements. The appointed administrators accept their positions, establish a special domicile in the country and file the required sworn statements: politically exposed person status and beneficial-owner information.
• 4.Evidence of capital contribution. For cash contributions, the initial 25% is evidenced with a deposit at Banco de la Nación Argentina or with a notary's certification that the funds are paid in at the act of incorporation.
• 5.Publication in the Official Gazette. The SA and the SRL publish the Section 10 notice for one day, with the company's essential details.
• 6.Professional pre-qualification opinion. The IGJ filing is accompanied by the opinion of a notary or a lawyer, depending on the type of instrument, verifying compliance with legal and regulatory requirements.
• 7.Filing and registration. The file is submitted with the forms, the applicable fee and the shareholders' documentation (including the CUIT of foreign shareholders), on the ordinary or urgent track, today mostly digitally. If the registry raises observations (vistas), they are answered; once cured, the company is registered.
• 8.Rubrication of books. With the company registered, the corporate and accounting books are rubricated (digital in the SAS) and the initial resolutions are documented.

Official and third-party charges include registry fees, Official Gazette publication and notarial certifications. Peso-denominated amounts change over time, so confirm them near the filing date.

With the registration in hand come the CUIT, the tax access code, the tax registrations (including gross receipts tax depending on the jurisdiction) and the bank account, with the beneficial-ownership and source-of-funds file the bank will request.

What If the Shareholder Is a Foreign Company?

When the investor is not an individual but a company incorporated abroad, a mandatory prior step appears: its registration under Article 123 of the General Companies Law, with apostilled and translated corporate documents, a local legal representative and beneficial-owner disclosures.

IGJ General Resolution No. 4/2026 simplified this regime in the City of Buenos Aires: it allows filing the foreign company's registration and the local company's incorporation together (the latter conditioned on completion of the former), accepts foreign documents with digital apostille and eliminated redundant documentary requirements. We analyzed the reform in detail in our note on RG 4/2026.

Even with the simplification, this scenario (subsidiaries of foreign groups, investment vehicles, holding structures) has its own logic of timing, documents and decisions. We cover it in depth in the Doing Business in Argentina guide and execute it as a service in company formation in Argentina.

Foreign Shareholder Documentation: Who Issues What

The documentary file depends first on one question: is the shareholder an individual or a company? The two sets are different, and mixing them up is the most common cause of rework.

For a foreign individual, preparation typically involves (a) a valid passport or identity document; (b) an Argentine CUIT, requested through a representative or authorized third party domiciled in Argentina when the person resides abroad, under ARCA's procedure for residents abroad; and (c) a power of attorney when the person will not sign in Argentina. What matters for the CUIT procedure is residence, not nationality: a foreign citizen who already resides in Argentina follows the ordinary route, while an Argentine citizen who resides abroad needs the representative route like any other non-resident.

For a foreign corporate shareholder, the file grows: (a) evidence of the company's existence and good standing, issued by the registry of its home jurisdiction; (b) its constitutional documents; (c) the corporate approvals authorizing the Argentine investment and the grant of powers, issued by the company's own organs; (d) identification of beneficial owners; and (e) the Article 123 registration before the public registry, which RG 4/2026 allows filing together with the local incorporation in the City of Buenos Aires.

Each document has its own issuer, and that determines the certification chain. Documents issued abroad need an apostille when the issuing country is a party to the Hague Apostille Convention, or consular legalization when it is not, and a certified translation into Spanish by a registered public translator when they are not in Spanish. The IGJ accepts digital apostilles under RG 4/2026; which documents may be digital depends on the specific procedure.

A practical preparation order, because of the dependencies between steps:

(a) define the structure first: the vehicle and shareholder mix determine the document set, so no document should be commissioned before this decision; (b) start with the slowest documents: registry certificates and corporate approvals issued abroad, since apostille and translation can only follow the originals; (c) draft powers of attorney to cover everything the signing and filings will require, so a second grant is not needed; (d) request the CUIT of foreign shareholders through the local representative while registry documents are in progress, as the tracks can advance in parallel; and (e) leave translations for last, once each document is final and apostilled, so a correction abroad does not force retranslation.

You do not need to assemble any of this before a first conversation. The checklist for your specific case follows from the structure, and that is part of the work we scope in company formation in Argentina.

Before You Write to Us

You do not need a legal file to make first contact. Five points are enough for a useful initial review: (a) the activity the company will carry out; (b) who the partners will be, and whether any of them is a foreign individual or a foreign company; (c) the country of the parent company or of the partners; (d) whether you plan to hire staff in Argentina; and (e) your target date to start operating.

Use them to describe the project in your own words. Formal documentation and detailed identification come later, once the path is defined.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I start a company in Argentina on a tourist visa?

Yes, as a shareholder: there is no immigration requirement to hold equity, and the incorporation can be executed while in the country as a tourist or from abroad through a power of attorney. A tourist visa does not authorize working locally, and management needs local presence. See the requirements for foreigners.

How long does it take to start a company in Argentina?

An SRL or SA with local shareholders, in simple cases, between 7 and 15 business days; the IGJ also offers an urgent track. An SAS in the City of Buenos Aires can be registered in a few days. With foreign shareholders the timeline extends: a few additional weeks for individuals (CUIT and powers of attorney) and 8 to 16 weeks if the shareholder is a foreign company, because of the prior Article 123 registration.

How much capital do I need to incorporate?

The SRL has no specific legal minimum, but the capital must be adequate to the corporate purpose. The SA has a legal minimum set by regulation. The SAS requires the equivalent of two minimum monthly salaries. For cash contributions the rule is 25% at incorporation and the balance within two years; the SAU pays in 100% from the start.

Should I choose an SAS, an SRL or an SA?

For most new businesses, the SRL is the starting point; the SA, when there are investors, scale or regulated activity. The SAS is the fastest on paper, but we generally do not recommend it as the default vehicle: registry and banking practice favor the SRL and the SA. The choice deserves case-by-case analysis.

Do I need to live in Argentina to own a company?

No. Ownership can be exercised entirely from abroad. What the law requires is local presence in management: in the SA and the SRL, an absolute majority of the administrators must have their real domicile in the country (Sections 256 and 157, General Companies Law); in the SAS, at least one must be a resident. It is common for foreign founders to appoint local administrators and keep control as shareholders.

What changed with IGJ RG 4/2026?

It simplified the registration of foreign companies before the Public Registry of the City of Buenos Aires: joint filing of the Article 123 registration and the local company's incorporation, acceptance of digital apostille and fewer documentary requirements. It mostly impacts projects that have a foreign company as shareholder.

What are the legal requirements to start a company in Argentina?

The core requirements are choosing a corporate form (generally SRL or SA), drafting and signing the bylaws, registering them with the public registry (the IGJ in the City of Buenos Aires), paying in the capital (25% at incorporation for cash contributions), obtaining the CUIT from ARCA and appointing a management with at least one resident in the country. Foreign shareholders also obtain a CUIT (through a local representative when they reside abroad); there is no immigration requirement to hold equity.

How do you open or register a company in Argentina, step by step?

In order: reserve the name, draft and sign the bylaws, evidence the capital contribution, publish the legal notice, file with the public registry and rubricate the books; the CUIT, tax registrations and bank account come after registration. The full sequence, with what each step involves, is in the steps before the IGJ.

What do you need to incorporate a company in Argentina?

You need a chosen corporate form, signed bylaws (notarial deed for the SA; private instrument with notarized signatures for the SRL), payment of 25% of cash contributions, the Section 10 notice in the Official Gazette, the pre-qualification opinion and the registry filing. You also need a management with at least one Argentine resident, and tax identification for every shareholder: CUIT or CUIL for residents, and a CUIT requested through a representative for foreigners abroad.

How do you form an SRL in Argentina?

An SRL is formed by public or private instrument with the partners' signatures certified before a notary, with capital adequate to its purpose (there is no specific legal minimum), a management with a majority domiciled in the country, and registration with the IGJ or the applicable provincial registry. It is the starting point for most new businesses; the SA, with its board and legal minimum capital, is kept for structures with investors or regulated activity.