Researching a business in Argentina: registries, the Boletín Oficial and the CUIT

If you are about to sign with a supplier in Rosario, pay a deposit to a contractor in Buenos Aires or take on a distributor in Córdoba, you can learn a lot about the company from your desk. Argentina's public sources are spread across national and provincial bodies, and several of the national tools still sit at their old web addresses after the tax agency changed its name in 2024. This page sets out what exists, what each source tells you and which warning signs matter. It is about companies. A note on individuals' data comes near the end.

Start with the CUIT

Every business that invoices in Argentina has a CUIT, short for Clave Única de Identificación Tributaria (single tax identification key). It appears on every invoice, and a company will give it to you without hesitation because it cannot sell anything without it. The CUIT has 11 digits, and a company's number starts with 30, 33 or 34. Almost every source below can be searched with it, so get it first and copy it carefully. Our page on what a CUIT is explains how the digits are built and how to catch a mistyped number.

ARCA: the registration certificate

ARCA is the Agencia de Recaudación y Control Aduanero (Tax Collection and Customs Control Agency). Decree 953/2024, published in the Boletín Oficial on October 25, 2024, dissolved AFIP (Administración Federal de Ingresos Públicos, the Federal Administration of Public Revenue) and set up ARCA in its place. ARCA describes itself as AFIP's legal successor, and it handles national taxes, customs and the collection of social security contributions. Many of its online services still run on afip.gob.ar addresses, and plenty of people in Argentina still say "la AFIP" out of habit, so do not be thrown when you see both names.

The basic public document is the constancia de inscripción (registration certificate). Anyone can request it free of charge on ARCA's constancia page by typing the 11 digits without hyphens and the security code shown on screen. You do not need a clave fiscal (the agency's login) for this query.

The certificate shows:

• The razón social (registered legal name).
• The taxes and regimes the CUIT is registered for, with dates: IVA (Impuesto al Valor Agregado, value added tax), Ganancias (income tax), or the Monotributo (the simplified regime for small taxpayers) and its category.
• The declared economic activities.
• The domicilio fiscal (the address registered with the tax agency).

What to compare: the legal name against the contract and the invoice; the activities against what the company is actually selling you; and the tax status against the invoice you receive. A company registered for IVA, a responsable inscripto, issues type A invoices to other registered businesses and type B to consumers. A monotributista issues type C. The Monotributo has revenue ceilings for each category, so a very large contract with a supplier in a low category is worth a question to your accountant.

Print the certificate to PDF and keep it with the date. It describes the registration on the day you asked, and a file copy helps if something changes later.

Checking an invoice

Electronic invoices carry a CAE (Código de Autorización Electrónico, electronic authorization code), which shows the tax agency authorized that document. ARCA's constatación de comprobantes (receipt verification) lets the person who received an invoice confirm it: you enter the issuer's CUIT, the CAE, the date, the document type, the point of sale and number, and the total.

ARCA also publishes a list of apocryphal invoices (facturas apócrifas), searchable by CUIT. It records taxpayers whose invoices or equivalent documents the agency has classified as apocryphal, meaning it does not accept them as genuine support for a transaction. A supplier on that list is a serious warning. Invoices from it can cause tax trouble for the buyer who relied on them, and that is a conversation for your contador (accountant) before any money moves.

The company registry: IGJ and the provinces

Argentine companies register with the Registro Público (public registry) of the jurisdiction where they have their legal domicile. There is no single national company register that you can search in one place.

In the City of Buenos Aires, the registry is the IGJ (Inspección General de Justicia, General Inspectorate of Justice), part of the national Ministry of Justice. It registers and supervises commercial companies, branches of foreign companies, civil associations and foundations domiciled in the City. The IGJ does not offer a free instant search box for company files. Instead, you can file a pedido de informes (information request) through TAD (Trámites a Distancia, the national government's online procedures platform), and pay a fee. The reports available cover registry data, compliance with filing obligations, the current administrators, medidas cautelares (court-ordered precautionary measures) and whether the company appears in the register of inactive entities.

Outside the City, each province runs its own registry. In the Province of Buenos Aires it is the DPPJ (Dirección Provincial de Personas Jurídicas, Provincial Directorate of Legal Entities); in Córdoba it is the IPJ (Inspección de Personas Jurídicas, Inspectorate of Legal Entities). Other provinces have bodies with similar names, and in some the registry sits within the courts. Find the company's legal domicile on its contract or in the Boletín Oficial first, then go to that province's registry.

You will meet three main company types. The sociedad anónima (S.A.) is the corporation, with shares and a board. The sociedad de responsabilidad limitada (S.R.L.) is the limited liability company, with quotas held by partners and one or more managers. The sociedad por acciones simplificada (S.A.S.), created by Law 27.349 of 2017, is a simplified stock company designed to be set up quickly. The general rules for companies are in Law 19.550, the Ley General de Sociedades (General Companies Law).

The Boletín Oficial: what companies must announce

The Boletín Oficial de la República Argentina is the national official gazette. Its first section carries laws, decrees and resolutions. The one that matters for company research is the second section, titled Sociedades y Avisos Judiciales (companies and court notices). It is free to read and to search online by text and date.

In the second section you will find:

• Formation notices (constitución) and amendments for S.A., S.R.L. and S.A.S. companies, usually with the company's purpose, capital, domicile and first directors or managers.
• Convocatorias: calls to shareholder meetings.
• Avisos comerciales (commercial notices), such as changes of directors, capital or domicile.
• Transferencias de fondo de comercio: notices that a business is being sold as a going concern, published so creditors can object.
• Edictos judiciales (court notices), including concursos y quiebras: court-supervised reorganizations and bankruptcies.

Provinces publish their own official bulletins, so a company registered in Córdoba or Mendoza may announce its acts there as well as, or instead of, in the national gazette.

Read the notices for the company's objeto social (stated corporate purpose), its formation date, recent changes of directors, name or domicile, and above all any concurso preventivo (court-supervised reorganization with creditors) or quiebra (bankruptcy). One caution: formation notices usually include the partners' full names, ID numbers and home addresses, because the law requires publication. Use them to understand the company. Do not copy those personal details into your own files or anywhere else.

BCRA: debtor status

The BCRA (Banco Central de la República Argentina, the central bank) runs the Central de Deudores (central debtor register). You search it by CUIT, CUIL or CDI and get a consolidated report of financing granted by banks, financial trusts, credit card issuers, other non-bank lenders, sociedades de garantía recíproca (mutual guarantee companies) and peer-to-peer lending platforms. The same query covers cheques rechazados (rejected checks).

Each lender reports a situación for the debtor, numbered 1 to 6. Situation 1 is normal. Higher numbers mean more serious arrears, up to 5 (irrecuperable, irrecoverable) and 6 (irrecuperable por disposición técnica, irrecoverable under a technical rule). Amounts are shown in thousands of pesos. The BCRA notes that the data comes from the lenders and that publishing it does not mean the bank agrees with it, so an obvious error is a question for the lender.

For a company, situation 1 with every lender is ordinary. Situation 3 or worse with several lenders, or a run of rejected checks, describes a supplier that may struggle to deliver what you are paying for in advance.

Court records

National and federal courts publish case information through the consulta de causas (case search) of the Poder Judicial de la Nación (federal judiciary), where you can search by case number or by party name. Criminal and family matters are restricted to the parties. Provincial courts run their own systems, and how much they show varies.

Look for collection suits against the company, labor claims (juicios laborales) and, again, concursos. A handful of labor claims is ordinary for an employer of any size. Dozens of them, or a bankruptcy filing, are not.

Red flags

• The name on the constancia differs from the name on the contract or invoice.
• The CUIT is not registered for the taxes a business of that size would normally pay, or shows no active registrations at all.
• The declared activities have nothing to do with what you are buying.
• The CUIT appears on the apocryphal invoice list, or the CAE on your invoice does not verify.
• A company formed a few weeks ago asks for a large advance payment.
• Boletín Oficial notices show a concurso or quiebra, frequent changes of directors, or a recent sale of the business.
• The Central de Deudores shows situation 3 or worse, or rejected checks.
• You are asked to pay into an account whose holder is not the company. Most Argentine banking apps show the holder's name and CUIT before you confirm a transfer; read it.

Glossary

A note on individuals

The ARCA and BCRA tools accept a person's CUIT or CUIL as readily as a company's. A person's number contains their national ID number, and Argentina's personal data law covers it; our explainer on Law 25.326 sets out what that law protects. Keep these checks for companies, and treat any personal details you come across in notices or invoices as something to protect, not to collect.

The order I would work in

1. Get the CUIT and pull the ARCA constancia. Compare name, activities and tax status.
2. Verify the first invoice's CAE and search the apocryphal invoice list.
3. Find the legal domicile and the right registry: IGJ for the City of Buenos Aires, the provincial body elsewhere.
4. Search the Boletín Oficial for the formation notice and anything since.
5. Check the Central de Deudores for situation and rejected checks.
6. Search the court systems for collection suits, labor claims and concursos.

For Chile, Mexico and Colombia, the companion guide on researching a company in Latin America covers the equivalent registries.