International Tax 2026 Comparisons

Primary Legislation

The main source of international tax law in Argentina is the Income Tax Law and its implementing decree. This statute governs the taxation of Argentine-source and foreign-source income for both residents and non-residents. The Personal Assets Tax Law and the Value Added Tax Law also contain provisions with cross-border implications.

Regulatory and Administrative Sources

The Federal Tax Authority (Agencia de Recaudación y Control Aduanero or ARCA) issues general resolutions and concrete-case interpretative rulings that form a critical layer of administrative guidance. While interpretative rulings are not formally binding on third parties, they carry substantial weight in practice and are routinely followed by taxpayers and advisers.

Case Law and Constitutional Principles

Argentine courts, including the Supreme Court of Justice, have developed a body of constitutional tax jurisprudence centred on the principles of legality (no tax without law), equality, non-confiscation and ability to pay. The economic reality doctrine (or substance over form) codified in the Tax Procedure Law allows the authorities to look through form to substance in interpreting transactions.

Treaty Network

Argentina has concluded 23 comprehensive double tax treaties (DTTs), currently in force, with countries including Germany, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Denmark, Finland, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the UAE, and the United Kingdom. Argentina has also entered into tax information exchange agreements (TIEAs) with several jurisdictions. The treaty network is relatively modest in scope compared to those of OECD member states, but continues to expand gradually.

In Argentina’s constitutional framework, international treaties – once ratified and incorporated – have supra-legal status; that is, they rank above ordinary legislation but below the National Constitution. This hierarchy, established in the Constitution, means that where a tax treaty conflicts with domestic tax law, the treaty generally prevails.

Domestic tax law’s hierarchy starts with congressional laws, which are then regulated by presidential decrees. ARCA’s regulations are legally subordinate to both treaties and statutes. However, its officials will uphold the provisions contained in the organism’s resolutions without questioning potential conflicts with superior legislation. Thus, given the practical importance of regulatory resolutions in day-to-day compliance, taxpayers must monitor these closely alongside statutory law.

Argentina is not an OECD member, though it participates in the OECD’s Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) Inclusive Framework. Argentina’s treaty practice draws on both the OECD Model Tax Convention and the UN Model Double Taxation Convention, with a general preference for the latter given its greater source-state taxation orientation – consistent with Argentina’s position as a capital-importing country.

Notable deviations from the OECD Model include broader definitions of royalties and expanded source-state taxing rights over technical services fees (which Argentina historically treats as royalties or similar remuneration subject to withholding). Argentina has generally resisted the OECD’s narrower interpretation of the permanent establishment (PE) concept and has maintained source-based taxing rights in line with UN Model preferences.

Argentina’s domestic law also imposes withholding taxes on certain payments to non-residents that may not align with treaty-reduced rates, unless the taxpayer actively invokes the applicable convention and complies with its local regulations.

Argentina signed the OECD Multilateral Convention to Implement Tax Treaty-Related Measures to Prevent Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (the “Multilateral Instrument” or MLI). It has been ratified and it came into force on 1 January 2026.

Argentina has opted into the MLI’s provisions on hybrid mismatch arrangements, treaty abuse (adopting the Principal Purpose Test as its minimum standard for satisfying the BEPS Action 6 requirement), and dispute resolution. It has made reservations on mandatory binding arbitration under Article 18. The MLI is modifying a number of Argentina’s covered tax agreements, though the precise treaties affected depend on the matching positions of counterparty states. Taxpayers and practitioners should review the MLI synthesised texts for each relevant treaty to determine the applicable rules.

Argentina operates a worldwide taxation system for tax residents – both individuals and legal entities – meaning that Argentine tax residents are subject to income tax on income derived from all sources, whether Argentine or foreign.

Non-residents, by contrast, are taxed only on Argentine-source income. The concept of Argentine-source income is defined broadly in the Income Tax Law to include income from assets located, placed, or used economically in Argentina; income from activities carried out in Argentina; and income from acts performed in Argentina, regardless of the nationality or residence of the parties, or the location where contracts were concluded.

Certain special regimes apply to income from financial instruments, international transportation, and news agencies, which have their own source rules. There are no special territorial regimes for particular geographic areas within Argentina that would materially alter these principles, though certain provinces and the City of Buenos Aires impose their own provincial-level taxes – turnover tax – with their own territorial rules.

Under the Income Tax Law, individuals are considered Argentine tax residents if they meet any of the following criteria:

• Argentine nationality – Argentine nationals are generally tax residents unless they have acquired foreign residence status through the effective change of domicile abroad under the conditions specified in the law.
• Foreign nationals with permanent residence – foreign nationals who have obtained permanent residence status in Argentina under immigration law are considered tax residents from the date they obtain such status.
• Presence test – foreign nationals who remain in Argentina for 12 months during any consecutive 12-month period are also treated as tax residents, with certain exceptions for temporary assignments and diplomatic personnel.

Once an individual qualifies as a tax resident, that status is maintained until residence is formally lost. Loss of residence occurs when the individual acquires permanent residence in a foreign country or is continuously absent from Argentina for more than 12 months, subject to specific procedural requirements including notification to tax authorities.

Argentine tax residents are subject to income tax on their worldwide income at progressive rates. The Income Tax Law schedules income into four categories:

• income from capital (rentals, interests);
• income from going concerns (business income);
• income from work in a dependency relationship (employment); and
• income from independent personal services (self-employment and professional fees).

Progressive income tax rates for individuals currently range from 5% to 35%, applied on net taxable income after allowable deductions and personal allowances. Resident individuals must also include foreign-source income in their annual income tax return and may claim a foreign tax credit for taxes paid abroad on that income, subject to per-country and overall limitations.

Special schedular rates apply to certain categories of income. Financial income – including interest on bank deposits, dividends from Argentine companies, and capital gains on financial instruments – is taxed at a flat rate of 5% or 15% depending on the currency denomination.

Non-resident individuals are subject to Argentine income tax exclusively on Argentine-source income. The mechanism for taxing non-residents is generally through withholding at source, administered by the Argentine payer who acts as the withholding agent.

The Income Tax Law establishes presumptive net income percentages for various categories of payment made to non-residents, to which the maximum individual rate of 35% is then applied. The effective withholding rates thus vary by income type. For example:

• Royalties and technical fees – typically subject to withholding tax on a presumed net income base, yielding effective rates of approximately 12.25% to 21% depending on the type of service.
• Interest payments – subject to withholding tax at effective rates ranging from 15.05% to 35%, depending on the nature of the lender and the loan.
• Dividends – distributed dividends are subject to a 7% withholding tax.
• Services rendered abroad but economically used in Argentina – subject to withholding tax under the technical services rules.

Treaty protection may reduce or eliminate withholding tax on specific income categories where Argentina has concluded a relevant double tax agreement.

Legal entities – including local corporations and branches of foreign entities – are considered Argentine tax residents if they are incorporated or organised under Argentine law. Foreign entities incorporated abroad are not considered Argentine residents, regardless of where their management and control are exercised, unless they have a branch or permanent establishment in Argentina, in which case, the branch/PE is taxed on the Argentine-source income attributable to it.

Argentine-resident companies are subject to corporate income tax on worldwide income. The corporate tax rate is currently 35% for taxable income exceeding certain thresholds, with a reduced rate of 25% for lower income brackets.

Domestic Definition

The domestic definition of PE is set out in the Income Tax Law and the implementing regulations. A PE is generally defined as a fixed place of business through which a non-resident entity carries out all or part of its activities in Argentina. The definition encompasses branches, agencies, offices, factories, workshops and installations, as well as construction or assembly projects lasting more than six months.

The domestic law also provides for a dependent agent PE, where a person acting on behalf of a foreign enterprise habitually concludes contracts or plays the principal role in the conclusion of contracts in Argentina without material modification by the enterprise.

Deviations From Treaty Definitions

Argentina’s domestic PE definition is broadly consistent with the OECD Model in structure, though some of Argentina’s older treaties retain features that are more closely aligned with the UN Model, including the force-of-attraction principle – under which, profits attributable to a PE include not only those directly generated by the PE’s activities but also income from goods sold or activities of the same or similar kind to those carried out through the PE. This principle was abandoned by the OECD Model but is retained in some bilateral treaties.

Argentina’s treaties generally do not include the anti-fragmentation rules introduced in the OECD’s 2017 Model update (following BEPS Action 7), except where treaties have been modified through the MLI. The domestic rules similarly pre-date these developments, meaning that sophisticated fragmentation of activities may still present opportunities in certain treaty contexts, though the substance requirements under the general anti-avoidance framework limit this in practice.

Residents

Argentine resident individuals and companies are taxed on income derived from immovable property located in Argentina as part of their worldwide income. Rental income of individuals is subject to the progressive rates described above, except when derived from residential property, which was recently exempted by a tax reform passed in March 2026. For companies, rental income is included in ordinary taxable income subject to corporate tax. Capital gains arising from the sale of Argentine real estate by individuals are now exempt under the same reform.

Non-Residents

Non-residents receiving rental income from Argentine real estate are subject to withholding tax. The presumed net income percentage applied under the domestic rules is 60% of gross rent, to which the 35% rate is applied, resulting in an effective withholding rate of 21%. Capital gains realised by non-residents on the sale of Argentine immovable property are subject to a 15% tax on the net gain. The exemption on capital gains and rental income arising from residential real estate applies to non-residents as well.

Argentine-resident entities are subject to corporate income tax on worldwide business profits at the applicable corporate rates (25% or 35% depending on the income bracket). Expenses necessary to obtain, maintain and preserve taxable income are generally deductible, subject to specific limitations (eg, on interest deductibility, on payments to related parties in low-tax jurisdictions, and on the deductibility of royalties).

Non-resident entities carrying on business through a PE in Argentina are taxed only on profits attributable to the PE. The attribution of profits to PEs follows the functionally separate entity approach, though Argentina’s rules in this area are less developed than those of many OECD members and administrative guidance plays an important role. The force-of-attraction principle mentioned in 2.6 Definition of Permanent Establishment applies under certain older treaties.

Argentina does not currently have a comprehensive participation exemption for dividends received from foreign subsidiaries by Argentine parent companies, though the foreign tax credit mechanism partially mitigates double taxation of foreign-source income.

Dividends

Dividends paid by Argentine companies to non-resident shareholders are subject to a 7% withholding tax on distributions.

Interest

Domestic withholding tax on interest paid to non-residents varies significantly depending on the nature of the recipient and the loan. Interest paid to qualifying foreign financial entities is taxed at an effective rate of 15.05%, while interest paid to other non-resident lenders is taxed at a rate of 35%.

Royalties

Royalties paid to non-residents are subject to withholding tax at effective rates that range from approximately 12.25% to 28%, depending on the type of intellectual property and the contractual arrangement. Domestic rules treat a broad range of technical assistance, technology transfer, and know-how payments as royalties. Treaty provisions may reduce these rates, and Argentina’s treaties generally define royalties broadly, consistent with the UN Model.

Resident individuals are subject to a flat 15% rate on gains from the disposal of shares, bonds and other securities denominated in foreign currency or in local currency with an adjustment clause, and a 5% rate on gains from instruments denominated in Argentine pesos without an adjustment clause. Corporate taxpayers include capital gains in ordinary taxable income, subject to the applicable corporate rates. Capital gains on the sale of listed shares is exempt.

Non-residents realising capital gains on Argentine-source assets are subject to withholding tax under the same presumptive income framework applicable to other passive income. Gains on Argentine real estate, shares of Argentine companies, and certain financial instruments are all within scope. Many of Argentina’s treaties contain provisions that preserve source-state taxation rights over capital gains on shares, the value of which derives principally from immovable property, consistent with OECD and UN Model approaches.

General Rules

Employment income received by Argentine tax residents is taxable at different rates according to bracket. Employers are required to withhold income tax from salary payments on a monthly basis. Resident employees are taxed on worldwide employment income, with a foreign tax credit available for taxes withheld abroad.

Short-Term Assignments and Cross-Border Employment

For individuals who are not Argentine tax residents but perform employment activities in Argentina, Argentine-source employment income is subject to withholding tax. The domestic rules follow a source approach based on the place where the work is physically performed, meaning that compensation for services physically rendered in Argentina is treated as Argentine-source, regardless of where the contract is concluded or payment is made.

Argentina’s tax treaties generally follow the OECD Model Article 15 approach, under which remuneration may be taxed in the state where employment is exercised.

Remote Working

Argentina has not enacted specific legislation addressing the international tax treatment of remote work arrangements. In practice, the existing source rules apply: services performed remotely from Argentina by an Argentine resident for a foreign employer are treated as foreign-source employment income (since the work is performed in Argentina but for a foreign entity – the characterisation depends on the relevant treaty). Conversely, services performed remotely from abroad by a non-resident for an Argentine employer are generally not considered Argentine-source under the domestic rules. This area lacks specific regulatory guidance and continues to evolve in practice.

A noteworthy feature of Argentine international tax law is the treatment of fees for technical services paid to non-residents. Unlike many OECD Model-based systems in which technical service fees are treated as business profits (Article 7) rather than royalties (Article 12), Argentina’s domestic law characterises technical services payments as subject to withholding tax as though they were royalties. This broad treatment of technical services has been a source of treaty conflict in a number of cases.

As a member of the OECD/G20 Inclusive Framework, Argentina participated in the negotiations that produced the Amount B framework for simplifying the application of the arm’s length principle to baseline marketing and distribution activities. At the time of writing, Argentina has not yet formally incorporated Amount B into domestic law or regulations.

Argentina has constructively engaged in the Pillar One Amount A negotiations through its participation in the Inclusive Framework. As a significant developing economy and capital-importing country, Argentina’s interest in Amount A is primarily to ensure that it receives a fair allocation of taxing rights over the profits of large multinational digital and consumer-facing enterprises that generate significant revenue from Argentine users and consumers without having a physical presence in Argentina.

Argentina has not yet implemented the OECD’s Global Anti-Base Erosion (GloBE) rules – the Income Inclusion Rule, Undertaxed Profits Rule, and Qualified Domestic Minimum Top-up Tax under Pillar Two. At the time of writing, there is no enacted legislation or draft bill before congress introducing Pillar Two rules into Argentine domestic law.

As Argentina has not implemented Pillar Two, there are no domestic deviations to report at this stage.

Argentina does not have a standalone national digital services tax. However, the Argentine VAT system was extended to cover digital services supplied by non-resident providers to Argentine consumers through “reverse charge” and “payment intermediary” mechanisms. Under these rules, non-resident providers of digital services (including streaming, software, online advertising, and platform-based services) are required to register and collect VAT at the standard 21% rate on services supplied to Argentine final consumers, with payment facilitated through Argentine credit and debit card processors where direct registration is not effected.

Several Argentine provinces have also applied provincial turnover tax to digital services rendered by foreign providers. These provincial-level taxes add a layer of complexity for non-resident digital businesses operating in Argentina.

Tax Evasion and Fraud

Argentina’s Criminal Tax Regime establishes minimum thresholds to consider tax fraud a criminal offence. Simple tax fraud is a criminal offence when the amount of evaded tax exceeds ARS100 million (roughly USD70,000) per tax and per fiscal period, punishable by imprisonment from two to six years. Aggravated tax evasion – which includes the use of false invoices, interposed persons, tax havens or much larger amounts evaded – carries penalties of three-and-a-half to nine years’ imprisonment.

Tax Avoidance and the Economic Reality Doctrine

The general anti-avoidance rule in Argentina is primarily the economic reality doctrine. This doctrine permits the tax authority to recharacterise transactions in accordance with their true economic nature, disregarding legal forms that do not reflect economic substance. The doctrine has been applied extensively in cross-border contexts to challenge structures involving treaty shopping, artificial PE fragmentation, and the use of offshore holding companies without business substance.

Transfer Pricing Rules

Argentina introduced comprehensive transfer pricing legislation in 1998, applying the arm’s length principle to transactions between related parties and to transactions with entities in low-tax jurisdictions (regardless of whether the parties are formally related). The rules generally follow OECD Guidelines, with five transfer pricing methods available: comparable uncontrolled price, resale price, cost plus, profit split, and transactional net margin method. The sixth method – a specific rule for commodity transactions using publicly quoted prices on a reference date – is a notable feature of Argentine law with no direct OECD equivalent and has been a significant source of controversy in the agribusiness sector.

Controlled Foreign Corporation (CFC) Rules

Argentina enacted specific and complicated CFC rules that entered into effect in 2019. Argentine residents holding foreign interests must, in some cases, include their proportionate share of the foreign entity’s income in their Argentine taxable income on a current accrual basis, regardless of whether the income has been distributed.

Some of the applicable parameters that may trigger this obligation are, among others: holding at least 50% participation in a foreign entity either directly or with relatives; effectively controlling the foreign entity; the foreign entity being subject to low taxation; or the foreign entity earning more than 50% of its income from passive sources.

Argentina maintains a list of non-cooperative and low-tax jurisdictions for tax purposes. A jurisdiction is classified as non-cooperative if it has not entered into effective information exchange arrangements with Argentina. A jurisdiction is classified as low tax if its applicable corporate tax rate is less than 60% of the lowest Argentine corporate rate. Currently, this threshold applies where a jurisdiction’s corporate tax rate is lower than 15%.

Transactions with entities located in non-cooperative or low-tax jurisdictions attract the following consequences:

• interest payments are subject to higher withholding rates;
• payments to service providers are generally non-deductible unless the taxpayer can demonstrate the genuine economic nature of the service and its market price;
• the CFC rules apply more broadly; and
• certain anti-deferral rules come into effect for income channelled through such jurisdictions.

Financial Account Reporting (CRS/FATCA)

Argentina has implemented the OECD’s Common Reporting Standard (CRS) for automatic exchange of financial account information and is an active participant in the global CRS exchange network. Argentina also has an intergovernmental agreement (IGA) with the United States for FATCA compliance (under the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act), according to which Argentine financial institutions report information on US account holders to local tax authorities for onward transmission to the IRS. The US also provides information to Argentina, although with a more limited scope.

Treaty Network

Several treaties provide for request-based tax information requests, which synergises with CRS/FATCA automatic reporting, often used by tax authorities to broaden the scope of information received automatically for tax assessments and criminal prosecution.

Federal tax authorities hold wide power to investigate tax fraud, such as:

• Access to books and records – Inspectors may require the production of accounting records, contracts, banking documents and any other documentation relevant to the determination of tax liability. Taxpayers are required to maintain records for a period of ten years.
• Tax audits – Both desk audits and field audits are routinely conducted. Large taxpayers are subject to permanent oversight by a dedicated large taxpayer division.
• Unannounced visits – In certain circumstances, inspectors may conduct unannounced visits to business premises to verify compliance with invoicing and registration obligations.
• Fiscal raids – For criminal tax cases, search and seizure operations may be conducted with the intervention of the Public Prosecutor’s Office and, where applicable, the federal police.
• Information requests – Information may be requested from third parties, including banks and financial institutions, under the bank secrecy lifting (levantamiento del secreto bancario) mechanism available in tax investigation proceedings.
• International co-operation – Federal tax authorities may request information from foreign tax authorities through the exchange of information mechanisms in Argentina’s tax treaties and TIEAs, as well as through the OECD Multilateral Convention framework.

The main administrative penalties applicable to cross-border transactions include:

• omission penalty – a fine of 100% of the unpaid tax for failure to pay taxes on time, rising to 200% when the omission relates to cross-border transactions or to transactions with non-cooperative or low-tax jurisdictions;
• fraud penalty – a fine of between two and six times the amount of the unpaid tax for deliberate fraud, including the use of false documentation or fraudulent schemes in cross-border contexts;
• formal infractions – fines for failure to comply with formal obligations (such as filing returns, maintaining documentation, and responding to information requests) where previously negligible, have been substantially raised; and
• transfer pricing penalties – specific penalties apply for failure to file transfer pricing documentation or for filing documentation that is incomplete or incorrect.

The courts ultimately rule on the validity of the penalties imposed by tax authorities and, once ruled, a different court enforces them.

Criminal liability can extend to directors, officers, and managers of legal entities who participated in or authorised the evasion. Legal entities themselves can be subject to administrative sanctions, including fines, suspension of tax registrations, and the loss of tax benefits.

The Tax Penal Regime requires the tax assessment to be issued by tax authorities before criminal charges can be filed; the tax authority files a criminal case once the relevant thresholds and indicators are met and the administrative audit discloses potential criminal conduct.

However, the tax assessment may be appealed to the courts and this may run concurrently with criminal procedures. The exception is monetary fines imposed by the tax authorities, which are deferred until the criminal case is settled.

Co-ordination between tax authorities and the judiciary is maintained through inter-institutional agreements and joint working protocols. The courts may also order precautionary measures – such as asset freezes – at the request of the prosecution in significant tax fraud cases.

Argentina’s international administrative co-operation in tax matters rests on several legal instruments:

• OECD Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters (MAC) – Argentina signed and ratified the MAC. This convention provides the broadest legal basis for information exchange, including automatic, spontaneous, and on-request exchange, as well as the possibility of joint audits.
• Bilateral tax treaties – Argentina’s double tax treaties all include provisions on the exchange of information, broadly modelled on Article 26 of the OECD or UN Model.
• Tax information exchange agreements – Argentina has entered into TIEAs with a number of jurisdictions, particularly offshore financial centres, where no comprehensive DTT exists.
• CRS competent authority agreements – Argentina has entered into multilateral automatic exchange of financial account information under the CRS framework.

Argentina participates in all three standard modalities of information exchange:

• On-request exchange – Argentina may request specific information from treaty partners relating to identified taxpayers or transactions, and must respond to incoming requests from foreign competent authorities within the standard timeframes.
• Automatic exchange – Argentina exchanges financial account information automatically under the CRS framework with over 100 jurisdictions annually. FATCA exchange with the United States also occurs on an automatic basis under the IGA.
• Spontaneous exchange – Argentina may spontaneously transmit information to foreign tax authorities when it becomes aware of information likely to be of interest to those authorities, consistent with the MAC and applicable treaty obligations.

Argentina has largely met the international standard for effective exchange of information and has received satisfactory ratings in OECD Global Forum peer reviews.

Argentina actively participates in the OECD/G20 Inclusive Framework on BEPS, attending meetings and contributing to the development of international standards. This participation provides a channel for technical collaboration with other tax authorities beyond formal legal instruments.

Argentina provides for the use of mutual agreement procedures (MAPs) under the MAP articles of its bilateral tax treaties, which generally follow Article 25 of the OECD or UN Model.

Argentina has also implemented the minimum standard on MAP under BEPS Action 14, committing to resolve MAP cases in a timely and effective manner. The country has published its MAP profile on the OECD website, which sets out its policies and procedures for initiating, processing, and resolving MAP cases. Argentina’s MAP programme is relatively nascent compared to those of OECD members, and the volume of MAP cases handled by the competent authority remains modest.

Under most of Argentina’s treaties, a MAP request must be submitted within three years of the first notification of the action giving rise to taxation not in accordance with the treaty – consistent with the OECD Model Article 25(1) standard. Some older treaties contain shorter limitation periods. Under Argentina’s domestic MAP guidance, requests must be submitted to the competent authority in writing with sufficient information to identify the taxpayer, the relevant treaty, the transactions at issue, and the basis for the claim of treaty non-compliance.

Argentina has not opted into mandatory binding arbitration under the MLI (Article 18) and has not included binding arbitration clauses in its bilateral tax treaties. This means that MAP resolution remains subject to the political will of both competent authorities, with no guaranteed mechanism for final resolution if they cannot reach agreement.

Argentina’s position reflects a broader reluctance among many developing and emerging economies to accept mandatory arbitration, given concerns about sovereignty, the costs of arbitration proceedings, and the perception that arbitration panels may not give sufficient weight to developing-country perspectives. Argentina has not signalled any near-term intention to adopt mandatory binding arbitration.

Argentina does not currently operate a formal advance pricing agreement (APA) programme. While the domestic transfer pricing rules contemplate the possibility of pre-filing consultation regarding transfer pricing methodology, there is no established programme under which taxpayers can obtain a legally binding ruling on the arm’s length price for prospective transactions.

Argentina does not operate a comprehensive system of advance tax rulings comparable to those available in many OECD jurisdictions. However, taxpayers may submit consultations on specific legal issues under a binding ruling procedure. A binding ruling, once issued, is legally binding on the tax authority with respect to the specific taxpayer and the specific factual circumstances described in the consultation. The process is relatively slow and the scope of questions addressed is limited; as a result, rulings on transfer pricing or complex treaty issues are uncommon.

Non-binding interpretative resolutions provide guidance on legal questions but are not formally binding on third parties. They are, nonetheless, an important source of administrative interpretation in practice and are routinely consulted by tax practitioners when no formal ruling has been sought.