Imports & Customs — Argentina
What travelers need to know about imports & customs in Argentina. What is legal at home can be a serious crime here — each rule links to its official source.
Imports & Customs in Argentina: restricted — there are real limits travelers must follow.
Declare what you are carrying into Argentina: the baggage rules are enforced as customs offences whose penalty is a multiple of what the goods are worth. Under the Customs Code, a traveller who brings in as baggage goods that the regulations do not admit as baggage is fined one to three times their customs value, and the goods are confiscated as well if their import for consumption is prohibited (art. 977). If the goods are of a kind admitted as baggage but you omit a declaration that was required, or declare them falsely, the fine is half to twice their customs value and can never be less than the import duties they attract (art. 978). The same one-to-three-times fine applies to taking non-admitted goods out as baggage (art. 979) and to passing baggage-regime goods on to someone else (art. 981). Hiding goods from customs control, or entering at hours or places not authorised for it, is not a fine matter at all - it is the crime of smuggling, two to eight years in prison (arts. 863 and 864), which drops to a fine-only customs offence of "minor smuggling" below a value threshold (art. 947).
Goods not admitted as baggage: a fine of 1 to 3 times the customs value, plus confiscation of the goods if their import for consumption is prohibited (art. 977). Omitted or false declaration of goods that are admitted as baggage: a fine of half to 2 times the customs value, and never less than the import duties on those goods (art. 978). Smuggling: 2 to 8 years' imprisonment (arts. 863 and 864). "Minor smuggling" - where the in-country value of the goods is under ARS 500,000, or under ARS 160,000 for tobacco and tobacco products - is treated as a customs infringement instead, punished exclusively by a fine of 2 to 10 times the in-country value of the goods plus their confiscation; tobacco goods are seized and destroyed (art. 947, as substituted by art. 250 of Ley 27.430, B.O. 29/12/2017). Where the goods are not seized, confiscation is replaced by a fine equal to their in-country value (art. 948).
§ InfoLEG (Ministerio de Justicia y Derechos Humanos, Argentina) - Codigo Aduanero, Ley 22.415, official consolidated text. Read this run: Seccion XII Titulo II "Infracciones aduaneras", arts. 892-996 (arts. 947, 948, 977, 978, 979 and 981 quoted), at the source_url; and Seccion XII Titulo I "Delitos aduaneros", arts. 860-891 (arts. 863 and 864 quoted), at .../Ley22415_S12_TituloI.htm. Article sequence checked in both files. The consolidation carries its amendments inline - arts. 863 and 864 substituted by Ley 25.986 (B.O. 5/1/2005), art. 947 by art. 250 of Ley 27.430 (B.O. 29/12/2017) - and neither file contains a later substitution of these articles. InfoLEG's own amendment register for this norm (verVinculos modo=2, id 16536) was read in the same run and returned 212 modifying or complementary entries, the most recent being ARCA customs-agency general resolutions; the decoy, Ley 25.891, returned an empty table in the same command, so the register probe discriminates.Verified Oct 7, 2026