Digital VAT Book: what ARCA requires and how to generate it

What the Digital VAT Book is

The Digital VAT Book (Libro IVA Digital) is the ARCA (formerly AFIP) regime that replaced paper or spreadsheet VAT books in Argentina. Instead of keeping the book yourself, you load your invoice data into ARCA's application and file the book electronically each tax period.

The regime covers the two classic books: the Purchases VAT Book, with every invoice you received, and the Sales VAT Book, with the ones you issued. That is where the VAT you can claim and the VAT you owe come from.

Purchases and Sales: the two sides of VAT

The Purchases VAT Book records input VAT (crédito fiscal): the tax you paid your suppliers which, if the invoice is valid, you can deduct. The Sales VAT Book records output VAT (débito fiscal): the tax you charged your customers and owe the treasury.

The difference between output and input VAT sets your monthly position. That's why every invoice has to be classified correctly: VAT rate, document type, tax ID and CAE authorization code in order. One bad field carries straight into the return.

How Finwaise generates it

Finwaise processes your purchase and sales invoices as they come in and records them with their full tax detail. On that basis, the reports module builds the Purchases and Sales VAT books for whichever period you choose.

Each book exports in the format you need: PDF and XLSX to review and archive, and the TXT file ready to import into ARCA's Digital VAT Book application. No re-typing invoice by invoice.

• Purchases VAT Book (input VAT) and Sales VAT Book (output VAT).
• Export to PDF, XLSX and the ARCA import TXT.
• Data taken from already-processed invoices, not re-entered.

From invoice to book, without re-entering data

The book stops being a separate task and becomes a by-product of daily operations. Because the invoices already live in the platform (classified, reconciled and with their journal entry), generating the book is a matter of picking the period and downloading.

If a discrepancy appears, you see it right where the invoice lives, not in a spreadsheet disconnected from the accounts.

File with confidence

With the books built from data that already balances, the monthly VAT filing stops being a leap of faith. You know what you declare matches what you recorded and what you actually paid and collected.

Who's required, and how often

The Digital VAT Book isn't optional for most VAT-registered taxpayers. ARCA phased contributors in by category and size, and today electronic filing is the rule, not the exception.

The cadence is monthly: each tax period has its book built and filed. Falling behind doesn't just complicate that month's VAT return; it drags the mess into the following months, because credits and debits pile up unreconciled.

Filing on time is also what lets you claim the period's input VAT. A late or incomplete book can mean overpaying VAT because you never deducted what you were entitled to.

What each record has to report

A well-built book is more than a list of amounts. Each invoice has to report its type (A, B, C or others), the date, the counterpart's tax ID, the taxable net, the VAT rate applied, any perceptions and the total.

When that data is keyed in by hand, every field is a chance to slip. Finwaise takes it from the already-processed invoice (where the AI extracted it and you validated it), so the book inherits data that already passed a check, instead of retyping it.