The governor of Río Negro, Alberto Weretilneck, will fold an exemption from Ingresos Brutos on foreign visitors' lodging into the province's 2027 fiscal package. He announced the measure at a Bariloche business event on 17 September 2026. The Asociación Empresaria Hotelera Gastronómica de Bariloche promoted the initiative, and FEHGRA, the national hotel and food-service federation, backed it.
The exemption is worth 4 percent of the room rate, per Diario Río Negro. Foreign visitors have held a 21 percent IVA rebate on lodging in Argentina since 2017. The two benefits stack to about 25 percent off a hotel night.
What the governor said
"When it is implemented, Río Negro will be the first province in the country with a measure of this type," Weretilneck said. "We want to make our destinations more competitive, attract more international tourism and generate more activity, investment and employment."
Weretilneck first raised the idea in Bariloche in July. He told the September event that the fiscal law would reach the Legislature within 30 days.
The fiscal route and the timing
The Executive will send the fiscal package to the Legislature in the coming months. Approval before the end of the year puts the exemption in force from the 2027 summer season. Diario Río Negro reports the reform will travel inside the fiscal law.
No Argentine province applies a full exemption today, per the same report. Salta and Córdoba offer discounts on tourism taxes.
The trade response
FEHGRA president Daniel Prieto framed the relief around licensed operators. "Reducing the tax pressure on licensed establishments improves the competitiveness of the companies that comply with the rules, generate registered employment and make an important contribution to regional economies," he said.
Belén García Bertone coordinates FEHGRA's Patagonia region. She said the exemption gives the province a promotional advantage over other destinations and encourages operators to formalise. Martín Lago, president of the Bariloche hotel and food-service association, spoke at the same event.
The companion investment law
The province presented the exemption alongside the Ley de Promoción de la Inversión Turística. That law sets tax incentives for new lodging investment and carries larger benefits for localities with less tourism infrastructure.
What the announcement leaves open
Ladevi reports that the material circulated so far names no covered activities, no method for verifying a foreign visitor's spending and no start date. The provincial benefit still requires legislative approval.
Bariloche's private sector put the forgone revenue at about 2 million dollars a year when the governor first raised the idea in July. That figure is unofficial.
Why Bariloche carries the case
Diario Río Negro reports that 15.2 percent of Bariloche visitors in 2025 came from bordering countries, Brazil and Chile most of them, and 9.7 percent from the rest of the world, out of nearly one million tourists who stayed in the city.