Juan Alberto Pazo has resigned as executive director of Argentina’s tax and customs bureau, known by its Spanish acronym ARCA, the government has confirmed.
Decree 890/2025, published in the Official Gazette, accepted Pazo’s resignation with effect from December 18. The measure was signed by Argentina’s President Javier Milei and Economy Minister Luis Caputo.
In the same decree, the government confirmed that Andrés Edgardo Vázquez, the current head of the DGI (Dirección General Impositiva) tax authority, a body within the bureau, will take over as chief of the Agencia de Recaudación y Control Aduanero (ARCA).
The decree thanked both officials for their service to date.
Local media said Pazo’s decision to step down was unexpected, as evidenced by the time of its announcement: 00.18am in the early hours of Tuesday morning.
Vázquez will complete a “statutory term” at the helm of ARCA, which was created last year by President Milei’s government to replace the former tax bureau known as AFIP (Administración Federal de Ingresos Públicos).
ARCA is an autonomous body operating under the Economy Ministry and is responsible for collecting national taxes and overseeing customs operations.
According to local media, the leadership change is intended to ensure institutional continuity in the agency’s core functions, which includes tax collection, enforcement and customs control across the country.
Vázquez has led the DGI since ARCA’s creation in October 2024.
The leadership switch would seem to be poor timing, coming at the close of the fiscal year and just days before the year-end holiday period, a time of heightened activity for tax administration and foreign trade.
Local media reports said Pazo is departing public office to return to the private sector. He previously served as CEO of the textile group Las Blondas, which is owned by his wife, Josefina Helguera, a business partner of entrepreneur Francisco De Narváez. The holding company produces goods for a number of leading brands including Rapsodia, Caro Cuore and Baby Cottons.
“Pazo – who will return to the private sector where he successfully developed his entire professional career – will continue to collaborate unconditionally with Minister Caputo and contribute his perspective to strengthening private-sector activity and the growth of the Argentine economy,” the Economy Ministry said in a statement.
It highlighted the departing official’s role in “major and far-reaching transformations at the agency,” including the simplification of reporting schemes, reform of the value-added tax and the promotion of the “fiscal innocence” whitewashing tax amnesty bill.
Pazo has embarked upon several business partnerships with Caputo, including Invernea SRL, variously described as”‘an investment fund acting as a bridge between the financial world and the real economy through a series of trusts focused mainly on livestock development, but also agriculture and forestry.”
Pazo previously served as international economic relations secretary at the Economy Ministry. He was appointed ARCA chief following the departure of Florencia Mizrahi, the former head who lasted just one year in the role and was fired after she approved modifications to the tax regime for online streamers and influencers.
– TIMES/PERFIL/NA
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