Decree 408/2026 — Regulation of the Labor Assistance Fund (LAW No. 27.802, Title II)

I. Executive Summary

Decree 408/2026, published in the Official Gazette on June 1, 2026, approves the regulation of Title II of Labor Modernization Law No. 27.802, which creates the Labor Assistance Funds (FAL, by its Spanish acronym). This is a highly complex regulatory framework that introduces an unprecedented mechanism in Argentine labor law: the establishment of individual employer accounts, administered by collective investment vehicles authorized by the National Securities Commission (CNV), designed to guarantee the payment of employment severance. The entry into force of the regime is deferred to November 1, 2026, pursuant to Article 27 of the decree, granting employers, authorized entities, and public agencies a five-month adaptation period.

II. Legal Framework and Regulatory Context

Law No. 27.802 on Labor Modernization incorporated the FAL as an instrument intended to support compliance with the severance obligations set forth in Employment Contract Law No. 20.744 and applicable professional statutes. The decree acknowledges that implementing the FAL requires legal vehicles that guarantee three essential conditions: asset segregation, specific allocation of resources, and adequate supervision of the regime. Within this framework, it opts for mutual funds and financial trusts, both subject to CNV regulation under Capital Markets Law No. 26.831.

The regulation is articulated with a broad set of existing rules. Law No. 20.744 (consolidated text 1976) provides the coverage reference for employment contract termination. Law No. 24.083 governs the mutual fund regime. Law No. 26.831 regulates the capital markets. Decree No. 380/2001, which regulates the Tax on Credits and Debits in Bank Accounts, is expressly amended by Article 25 of the analyzed decree. Laws No. 19.032, 24.013, 24.241, and 24.714 are the social security subsystems subject to the employer contribution reduction. Law No. 26.377 on Union Co-responsibility Agreements falls under supplementary rules yet to be issued.

III. Structure and Operation of the Fund

The regime applies to private sector employers, excluding the employment relationships mentioned in the last paragraph of Article 58 of Law No. 27.802 and those in the National, provincial, City of Buenos Aires, and municipal Public Sector, as defined by Article 8 of Law No. 24.156. Differential treatment is provided for SMEs, as defined by Resolution No. 220/2019 of the former Secretariat for Entrepreneurs and Small and Medium Enterprises. Non-profit entities meeting those parameters and registered with ARCA are also included.

Two vehicles are permitted to implement the FAL, both subject to CNV oversight. Mutual funds are governed by the first paragraph of Article 1 of Law No. 24.083 and operate through a share unit system with liquidity defined by the management regulations. Financial trusts are established pursuant to the Civil and Commercial Code and have one notable feature: trustees must implement business continuity mechanisms that contemplate, no less than twenty-four months before the expiration of the term, either the renewal of the trust or the orderly migration of assets to another authorized vehicle.

Each employer must establish an Individual Employer Account prior to making its first monthly contribution. This account constitutes a separate, independent, non-transferable, non-attachable, and specifically allocated asset pool, which is collective in nature and not attributable to individual workers. The Authorized Entity assigns each account a unique identifier called an “FAL ID,” which must include at a minimum the employer’s tax identification number (CUIT), the data of the collective investment vehicle account, and the validity period. The employer must report this ID to ARCA, which uses it as a routing instrument for contributions to the FAL within the Unified Social Security Contribution (CUSS) scheme.

If the employer fails to report a valid FAL ID at the due date, ARCA retains the funds without specific allocation. After one month, the CNV assigns a collective investment vehicle ex officio, without prejudice to the employer’s right to exercise portability. The sums corresponding to the FAL contribution enjoy special protection: they may not be subject to offset, encumbrance, or allocation against other tax, social security, customs, or any other obligations, nor to ex officio netting.

The minimum vesting period is six full and consecutive monthly periods, counted from the effective integration of the first contribution recorded by ARCA. Only workers duly registered no less than twelve months prior to termination of the employment relationship are covered by the FAL.

IV. Tax and Financial Aspects

The decree establishes the tax treatment of the regime with precision. Contributions made by employers to the FAL are deductible from Income Tax. Returns, interest, and any other income — including profits assimilated to dividends — earned by the employer on investments made within the FAL framework are exempt from the same tax. However, indemnification substitute amounts paid from the FAL do not generate an additional deduction for the employer, without prejudice to the deductibility of termination payments made directly by the employer. Amounts received by workers under the concepts covered by Article 58 of the law are treated, for Income Tax purposes, in the same manner as the severance payments they replace. When the individual account is closed and funds are transferred to the employer, those amounts become subject to the tax.

The commission cap is one percent, which is global and comprehensive, calculated annually on total assets under management, encompassing all fees charged by Authorized Entities and any other participant. Article 25 amends the regulation of the Tax on Credits and Debits in Bank Accounts to exempt accounts used exclusively by mutual funds and financial trusts implementing the FAL, as well as credits and debits arising from subscriptions and redemptions of fund units and similar transactions involving trust securities.

The employer contribution reduction applies exclusively to employment relationships covered by the FAL that are not subject to the Labor Formalization Incentive Regime (RIFL) while the latter remains applicable. The mechanism operates by deducting the monthly FAL contribution rate from the employer’s applicable rate for determining employer payroll contributions to the subsystems governed by Laws No. 19.032, 24.013, 24.241, and 24.714. This reduction does not apply during periods of suspension or interruption of the contribution obligation, is not cumulative across periods, does not generate credits for refund or offset, and does not affect additional rates under differential or special pension regimes.

V. Validation and Severance Payment Procedure

Article 17 establishes an electronic sworn declaration procedure through which the employer requests severance payments from the FAL. The employer must provide its CUIT and registered address, the worker’s full name and CUIL, the worker’s bank account details, the date and grounds for termination along with a copy of the termination act or agreement — including any Article 241 LCT mutual termination agreement with its formal requirements — the breakdown of the settlement calculated, the amount to be transferred indicating whether it constitutes full or partial settlement, and the case file or court details where applicable.

Authorized Entities are only required to verify three aspects: the ownership of the worker’s bank account, the worker’s registered employment status, and the formal completeness of the sworn declaration. To do so, they will use information provided by ANSES and ARCA through data-sharing agreements. Responsibility for the accuracy of the calculation and the determination of severance amounts rests exclusively with the employer.

Once those verifications are complete, the Authorized Entity must liquidate the employer’s position in the collective investment vehicle, transfer the funds to the worker’s account within five business days of the complete submission of the sworn declaration, reflect the withdrawal in the Individual Account, and notify the Secretariat of Labor with the corresponding receipt.

VI. Portability, Deficient Registration, and Special Circumstances

The employer may transfer the resources accumulated in its Individual Account to another collective investment vehicle authorized by the CNV, provided the new vehicle meets the requirements of Article 59 of the law, there are no pending payment obligations or sufficient provisions have been established to cover them, the transfer complies with the criteria set by the CNV, and notice is given to ARCA. The CNV will determine how frequently portability may be exercised.

If the employment relationship is deficiently registered, FAL coverage is limited to the amounts corresponding to the data actually on record, without prejudice to the employer’s full liability for any differences under applicable labor legislation and any penalties that may apply.

In cases of business transfers, personnel assignments, and corporate reorganizations, the Individual Account is transferred to the acquiring or successor employer by means of a public or private instrument evidencing the transfer, the exclusive allocation of resources, and the assignment of personnel. In partial assignments or reorganizations, funds are transferred in proportion to the percentage of workers reassigned. Closure of an Individual Account must be requested before the Secretariat of Labor, which verifies the absence of any pending labor contingencies in coordination with ARCA, the Secretariat of Finance, and the Authorized Entity. In cases of business closure, dissolution, liquidation, or bankruptcy, the Authorized Entity acts in accordance with instructions from the judicial authority and the Secretariat of Labor.

VII. Institutional Framework and Sanctions

Oversight of the regime is distributed among three agencies. The Secretariat of Labor, Employment, and Social Security of the Ministry of Human Capital imposes the fine provided in Article 75 of Law No. 27.802 through the procedure established by Law No. 18.695, exercises general labor oversight, and manages the suspension and interruption of contribution obligations. ARCA is responsible for collection, routing of contributions, enforcement and recovery of the fine once final — through the tax enforcement proceedings of Article 11.683 — and management within the CUSS. The CNV supervises collective investment vehicles and Authorized Entities, authorizes public offerings, maintains the register of entities and vehicles, and has the authority to assign FAL IDs ex officio when an employer fails to comply within the prescribed timeframe.

Failure to make FAL contributions entitles ARCA to apply the measures provided for in social security legislation. The proceeds from fines are directed to the social security subsystems in the same proportions as employer contributions are distributed. The three agencies will implement an information-sharing mechanism for detecting irregularities, pursuant to agreements to be concluded.

VIII. Critical Analysis

The system has design strengths worth highlighting. The choice of CNV-supervised collective investment vehicles ensures that FAL resources are not commingled with the employer’s assets or public funds, resolving the employer insolvency problem that has historically affected workers in separation proceedings. Integration of the contribution within the CUSS minimizes the administrative burden and facilitates oversight. The direct payment mechanism to the worker with a maximum five-business-day deadline substantially reduces the risk of delays or non-compliance. The restriction of investments to instruments issued and traded within Argentina promotes the channeling of savings toward the domestic capital market.

However, the decree presents aspects that warrant careful monitoring. The regulation refers on numerous occasions to joint resolutions, CNV rules, and ARCA provisions that have yet to be issued. The forty-five business day deadline set out in Article 26 for their issuance is tight given the operational complexity of the system, particularly with respect to the interoperability agreements between ANSES, ARCA, and the Authorized Entities. Until minimum coverage parameters are established by joint resolution, employers lack a concrete reference for assessing the sufficiency of accumulated funds. Placing exclusive responsibility on the employer for the accuracy of the severance calculation — while Authorized Entities perform only formal validations — may give rise to disputes in cases of deficient or judicially challenged settlements. Employers with workers simultaneously covered by the FAL and the RIFL will need to carefully manage the differential tax bases for computing the contribution reduction.

IX. Conclusions

Decree 408/2026 is a regulatory instrument of remarkable technical ambition that establishes, for the first time in the Argentine labor legal order, a mechanism for pre-funding employment severance through CNV-supervised collective investment vehicles. Its design seeks to balance worker protection for registered employees with operational flexibility for employers and legal certainty for the system as a whole.

The effectiveness of the regime will depend, to a large extent, on the quality and timeliness of the supplementary rules to be issued by the Secretariat of Labor, ARCA, the CNV, and the Secretariat of Finance within the Article 26 deadline. Of particular importance will be the determination of minimum coverage levels, investment limits, portability rules, and interoperability agreements between agencies and authorized entities.

From a business perspective, private sector employers are advised to take a proactive approach in the coming months, evaluating the choice of Authorized Entity and collective investment vehicle best suited to their risk profile and payroll size, as well as the impact on employer contribution calculations from November 1, 2026 onward.