Bunge Argentina

According to Afip, Bunge bilked the state out of more than 435 million pesos ($93 million) in taxes in 2006 and 2007.

Argentina has affirmed the suspension of international grain trader Bunge Ltd.’s local subsidiary from a key grain registry due to tax evasion charges.

The company, one of Argentina’s leading grain exporters, was included in a list of grain storage operators suspended from the registry published in the official bulletin Monday.

Exclusion from the registry means the income tax withheld on domestic grain trades rises from 2% to 15% and imposes the withholding of a 10.5% sales tax. The affected firms also face new, burdensome approval requirements imposed for domestic shipping permits.

A host of the country’s top grain traders, including Bunge, Molinos Rio de La Plata SA , Louis Dreyfus and Oleaginosa Moreno, were suspended from the registry due to accusations of evading taxes by triangulating their grain trading operations through other countries.

In 2010, the federal tax agency Afip accused four of the country’s 10 largest grain exporters of using shell companies in neighboring Uruguay for accounting purposes that left minimal profits on the books of their Argentine units.

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