Argentina’s Tax Authority Conducts First-Ever Raids on Secret Crypto Miners

According to the agency, three crypto farms with irregularities were uncovered last week in the South American country.

Sep 12, 2022 at 5:22 p.m. UTC

Updated Sep 12, 2022 at 7:40 p.m. UTC

Argentina flag. (Angelica Reyes/Unsplash) — Angelica Reyes/Unsplash)

Marina Lammertyn is a CoinDesk reporter based in Argentina, where she covers the Latin American crypto ecosystem. She holds no crypto.

Follow @marinalammertyn on Twitter

Argentina’s tax collection agency (AFIP) conducted raids for the first time in search of secret crypto miners, the agency announced Friday.

Last Tuesday, AFIP carried out its first raid in the province of San Juan, where it found an agricultural producer housing crypto mining equipment in a fruit cooling area. AFIP didn’t disclose the amount of equipment discovered, nor the amount of cryptocurrency held by the miner.
Last week, AFIP also raided a crypto mining company operating in Buenos Aires, where it was working on a property registered for other commercial purposes. Inside the location, AFIP found 142 rigs and 1,355 video cards.
Finally, on Thursday, AFIP held a third raid in the province of Córdoba, although no further details were officially disclosed.
Currently, Argentina has no official registry for crypto miners and few companies operate legally. The bulk of miners in the country carry out the activity secretly to avoid paying taxes and to take advantage of residential electricity tariffs, which are heavily subsidized compared to industrial rates.

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