Monotribute for psychologists: high, categories and invoicing

You received to care for patients, not to interpret tax regimes. But proper invoicing is part of exercising: without an active tax registration you cannot issue invoices, and without invoices you cannot work with health insurance, rent a clinical practice in your name or justify your income to a bank.

For the vast majority of psychologists who start in Argentina, the answer is the monotribut. It is the simplified regime that unifies taxes, retirement and health insurance in a single monthly payment, with procedures that you can solve from your home. In this guide we explain to you what is the monotribut for psychologists, how to register, how the categories work and recategorization, and what obligations you have once in.

A clarification before you start: in Brauni we are not accountants. This is a general guide for you to understand how the regime works, but each situation has its particularities and it is advisable to review it with a reliable counter, especially before discharge and every recategorization.

What is the monotribute and why is the natural regime of the psychologist who starts

The monotribut is the Simplified Small Contributors Scheme administered by ARCA (ex AFIP). Its logic is simple: instead of liquidating IVA and separate earnings, filing affidavits and keeping formal accounts, you pay a fixed monthly fee that already includes everything. The amount of that fee depends on the category you are in, which in turn depends mainly on how much you invoice per year.

For a psychologist who begins to attend in clinical practice or online, the monotribute is usually the starting point for three reasons:

• Simplicity: There are no IVA monthly affidavits or balance sheets. You will make, pay the fee and you will reschedule twice a year if applicable.
• Predictability: You know in advance how much you will pay each month, which makes it easy to calculate your net fees.
• Cover included: the quota includes the pension contribution and health insurance you choose, something especially valuable if you come from working without contributions.

The regime is intended for human beings who provide services below certain annual invoicing caps. As long as your practice stays within those limits, it is usually the most convenient option compared to the general regime.

Requirements and high step by step

Discharge is a digital procedure that does not require going to any dependency. You need to solve four things, in this order.

1. I got your CUIT

The CUIT (Single Tax Identification Key) is your tax identity. If you have never processed it, it is managed digitally from the ARCA site with your DNI and a photo or scan of it. If you have ever worked in a dependency relationship, you probably already have it assigned and only need to activate it.

2 Generate your tax key

The tax key is the password with which you operate all ARCA services. For monotribute and electronic invoicing you need tax key with security level 3, which is obtained by validating your identity from the app "My ARCA" (historical "My AFIP") with facial recognition. The procedure takes a few minutes.

3. Sign up for the regimen

With CUIT and tax key, you enter the ARCA Monotribute portal and complete the discharge: you declare your activity, you estimate your annual income, you indicate if you use a local (your clinical practice, if you rent one) and the system proposes a category. You also choose how you want to cover the health and welfare part, which we see below.

4. Declare the correct activity

When you are discharged, you have to select an activity code of the official gazetteer. For psychologists, the corresponding activity is within the group of services related to human health, in the specific branch of psychology services. Choosing the code well matters: define which tax treatment corresponds to you and avoid inconsistencies if you then work with health insurance or private health plans that verify your fiscal situation.

With the confirmed discharge, ARCA assigns your initial category and you can issue invoices. The next practical step is to configure electronic invoicing: in our electronic invoicing guide for psychologists we explain step by step how to generate the digital certificate and issue your first C invoice from Brauni.

Monotribute for psychologists: how categories work

The categories of the monotribute are identified with letters, from A onwards, and form a progressive scale: higher annual turnover, higher category and higher monthly quota. The parameters that define your category are:

• gross income of the last 12 months (the main income for a psychologist).
• Surface affected to the activity, if you have your own or rented clinical practice.
• Electric energy consumed in that space.
• Accumulated rents in the year, if you rent the clinical practice.

For most psychologists who attend to shared clinical practices, rented by hour or online, the parameter that really defines the category is invoicing. The others are rarely limiting in an individual practice.

The amounts of each category are not fixed: the scales are updated periodically by law. That is why in this guide you will not find figures: any number we publish today is going to be old. The income caps and current quota values are always published in the Monotribute section of the official ARCA site, and that has to be your source.

Semester recategorization

Twice a year, in January and July, you have to review your situation and recategorize yourself if appropriate. The mechanism is like this:

1. Add your invoicing for the last 12 months (not the semester, from 12 months back).
2. Compare that total with the current scale published by ARCA.
3. If the total places you in a category other than the current one (higher or lower), you make the recategorization from the portal of Monotributo.
4. If you're still in the same category, you don't have to do anything.

The new category applies from the following month. It is a process of minutes, but to forget it has cost: if ARCA detects by its crossings of information that you invoiced above your category, it can recategorize you ex officio, with retroactives and penalties.

What includes the monthly payment

The quota of the monotribute has three components:

• Tax component: replaces the IVA and the Income Tax for your activity. It is the "tax" part itself.
• Retirement component: your contribution to the pension system. These paid months count as years of contribution for your future retirement.
• Health insurance: a contribution that gives you access to health insurance that you choose from among those who receive monotributists. You can add your family group to paying an additional fee for each member.

A relevant detail: in several provinces there are own pension funds for professionals, and according to your jurisdiction and your registration you may be obliged to contribute to that box, which modifies how to frame the retirement component of the monotribut. It is one of the points where consultation with an accountant who knows your province is best.

If you work in relation to dependency in addition to attending in clinical practice, your situation also changes: your contributions and health insurance are already covered by your employment, and the monotribute is limited to the tax component. We see it in the frequently asked questions.

Type C invoice: what is and when to issue it

As a monotributist, the proof you issue is invoice C. It is a non-discriminatory invoice of IVA (the monotribut does not require it) and today is mandatory electronic: each voucher requires an CAE awarded by ARCA to have tax validity.

When do you have to issue it? For each session charged, without exception:

• To particular patients, even if they pay in cash or by transfer.
• Health insurance and private health plans, which also require it to liquidate you.
• By online sessions, they are services like any other.
• For paid absences, if your frame includes charging for the unannounced session: if there was a charge, a voucher corresponds.

Many psychologists see invoicing as a separate process that they accumulate by the end of the month. The problem is that invoicing late or less generates exactly the inconsistencies that ARCA detects with its bank data crossovers. The simplest way to sustain the habit is that invoicing is part of the same flow in which you register the charge: Brauni issues C invoices with CAE in real time, integrated with ARCA web services, without leaving the platform where you will already manage your sessions and payments. The complete step-by-step is in the electronic invoicing guide.

If you are still defining how much to charge per session, we have a specific guide on Honoraries for Psychologists in Argentina that can serve as a reference before projecting your annual invoicing.

Gross income: the tax that goes separately

A common mistake is to believe that the monotribut covers everything. The monotribut is a national regime: it unifies national taxes and contributions, but it does not include the tax on gross income, which is provincial.

Each jurisdiction administers it with its own agency: AGIP in the City of Buenos Aires, ARBA in the province of Buenos Aires, and its equivalents in the rest of the country. The treatment varies according to where you exercise: some jurisdictions have simplified regimes unified with the national monotribute, others provide exemptions for university professionals who exercise themselves, and others require registration and payment from the first invoiced weight.

There is no unique answer here: check your situation in the agency of your province or with your accountant at the time of discharge, not after the first intimation.

When to leave the monotribute?

The monotribute has a roof, and at some point a growing practice can overcome it. The most common scenarios:

• Exclusion by scale: if your invoicing of the last 12 months exceeds the last category, you are excluded from the regime and you pass the general regime (responsible inscribed), with IVA and Gains. The exclusion can be declared by you or detected ex officio by ARCA, and in the second case it usually arrives with retroactive.
• Pass to responsible registered for convenience: in some specific cases (for example, if your main clients are companies or institutions that need to compute IVA) can agree to the general regime even if you are not required. It is a planning decision that deserves specific numbers with your accountant.
• Arrange a structure with colleagues: the monotribut is only for human persons. If with other professionals they arm a society to manage a shared center or clinical practice, that society is taxed by the general regime, although each professional may continue to be monotributist for their individual fees.

The signal to start planning is not to exceed the limit: it is to get closer. If your annual turnover is growing and approaching the limit of the last category, anticipate the transition instead of finding you an ex officio exclusion.

Frequent errors of monotributist psychologists

These are the ones that we see most repeating, and all are avoidable:

• Do not recategorize. It is the classic. Invoicing grew, the category became old and the difference appears later, with interest. Two reminders per year resolve it.
• Invoice less than "not to rank." Collecting sessions without invoicing is not only an infringement: it is increasingly detectable, because ARCA crosses bank accreditations, virtual wallets and consumptions with your invoicing declared. The gap between what you enter your account and what you invoices is exactly what you look at.
• Do not invoices for absences charged. If your frame includes charging for the unannounced session, that charge is also invoiced, like any other income from your activity.
• Mix personal and professional accounts. Using the same account for fees, supermarket and family transfers makes it impossible to rebuild your actual invoicing. An exclusive account or wallet for the activity simplifies your accounting and recategorization.
• Forgot gross revenue. As we saw, it is a separate tax. Registering at ARCA and not at the provincial agency is a very common boot error.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I attend health insurance and private health plans by being a monotributist?

Yes, and it's the usual thing. Private health insurance and health plans require a invoices to pay your benefits, and the single-payer's invoices C is valid for that. Keep in mind that what you invoices for health insurance also adds to your annual invoicing for the purposes of the category. If you work or plan to work with funders, our guide on private health insurance and health plans for psychologists will help you.

What if I'm out of class?

If your invoicing for the last 12 months exceeds the limit of your current category, it is up to you to recategorize to what reflects your real income in the next six-month recategorization. If you exceed the limit of the last category of the regime, the consequence is the exclusion of the monotribut and the move to the general regime. Moving from the category itself is corrected by recategorizing; moving from the regime requires planning with an accountant.

Do I have to invoices online sessions?

Yes. A session per video call is a service provision just like a face-to-face, and each charge requires your invoice C. The modality does not change the obligation.

What if I don't charge anything for a month?

The flat rate is paid the same: it is fixed by category, not proportional to the invoiced in the month. A loose month does not reduce it, as well as an exceptional month does not increase it. What matters for your category is the accumulated 12 months you review in each recategorization.

Can I be in relation to dependence and be a monotributist at the same time?

Yes, they are compatible. If you have a registered job (e.g. in a hospital) and also attend patients in a particular way, you can be a monotributist for your independent activity. Since your contributions and health insurance are already covered by your employment, your fee consists only of the tax portion.

Summary

• The monotribute is the simplified regime of ARCA (ex AFIP) and the natural starting point of the starting psychologist: a fixed monthly fee that unifies taxes, retirement and health insurance.
• The discharge is 100% digital: CUIT, tax key level 3, high on the portal of Monotribute and declaration of the activity of psychology services within human health.
• The categories are by letter and are mainly defined by your invoicing of the last 12 months. The amounts of the scales are updated: always check them on the official ARCA site.
• The recategorization is semi-annual, in January and July. Not to do so when it is appropriate to enable recategorizations ex officio with retroactive.
• As a monotributist, you issue electronic C-invoice for each session charged: private individuals, health insurance, online sessions and absences included.
• Gross income is a separate provincial tax: register and verify your treatment at the agency of your jurisdiction (AGIP, ARBA or equivalent).
• Signs to rethink the regime: approach the top of the last category, customers who need IVA or build a partnership with colleagues.
• This guide is general: validate your framing, your category and your provincial situation with an accountant.