FEHGRA asks Argentina to offset employer contributions against VAT
Daniel Prieto, president of the Federación Empresaria Hotelera Gastronómica de la República Argentina, asked the national government for targeted tools for hotel and restaurant businesses. He put the request at no additional fiscal cost. FEHGRA published the remarks on 18 September 2026 from an interview with the outlet Mensajero Turístico.
Prieto said the tools would let companies hold their structures until activity and purchasing power recover.
The Hotelga address
Prieto said he had raised the same position in his opening address at Hotelga 2026, the FEHGRA trade fair at La Rural in Buenos Aires. The fair ran from 2 to 4 September 2026.
He said the sector values the macroeconomic ordering the national government is carrying out, and that hotels and restaurants are making an effort on supply, prices and rates.
Stabilisation and domestic demand
Prieto called economic stabilisation a condition for business development. He said the improvement in macroeconomic variables coexists with a strong contraction of domestic demand.
The Decreto 814 proposal
The federation's proposal targets the weight of employer social security contributions on an activity that runs on labour. Prieto said FEHGRA put a tool on the table for discussion: a mechanism on the lines of the old Decreto 814, to offset part of employer contributions against VAT.
Decreto 814/2001 is dated 20 June 2001. It gave employer social security contributions the character of a VAT fiscal credit in defined cases, and it applied to contributions accrued from 1 July 2001. InfoLeg records the decree as abrogated by article 26 of Ley 27.541, published in the Boletín Oficial on 23 December 2019.
Prieto framed the request as a temporary measure. He said the tools carry no extra fiscal cost.
The interview that carried it
The remarks sit inside a Mensajero Turístico feature on the national government's first 1,000 days, counted from 10 December 2023. The feature collects assessments from tourism federation leaders.
Ángel Brisighelli, president of the Federación de Cámaras de Turismo de la República Argentina, told the outlet that the regularisation of the economy was the most valuable change of the period. He cited the end of multiple exchange rates and lower inflation, and said the tax burden has not fallen in any of the sector's branches.
Prieto made the labour argument at Hotelga on the same ground. He said hotels and restaurants reach across the country and generate hundreds of thousands of jobs. He said sector growth follows ordered national accounts and private activity.
The hotel association's line
Gabriela Ferrucci, president of the Asociación de Hoteles de Turismo de la República Argentina, made a related case in the same feature. She said the pending work sits in the domestic market, and that internal consumption has to recover to sustain destinations that depend on Argentine travellers.
Ferrucci said consolidating activity requires easing the tax burden with particular focus on the tax on labour. She called for more domestic flights and better national roads.
What the federation represents
FEHGRA states on its own site that it groups more than 84,000 hotel and catering establishments through its member entities.
Where the request stands
The FEHGRA item records no response from the national government to the proposal. The federation's stated aim is to carry the sector through the period of low consumption with operating capacity and employment intact.