Uruguay resets its fresh-meat VAT collection-at-source regime, effective 1 September 2026

What changed in detail

Uruguay’s Direccion General Impositiva issued Resolutions No. 1983/2026 and No. 1984/2026, both dated 27 August 2026 and published in the Diario Oficial on 28 August 2026, amending the VAT collection-at-source (percepción) regime for fresh meat set out in DGI Resolution No. 451/1985. Resolution 1983/2026 revises the method slaughterhouses, abattoirs and importers use to calculate the VAT collected on sales of other bovine meat, offal and ovine meat — including for distributors who elected the regime under article 11 bis of Decree No. 220/998 — and revises the VAT-on-purchases computation for buyers who process fresh meat. Resolution 1984/2026 sets new deemed retail prices per kilogram for half-carcass, forequarter and hindquarter beef, fixes the retail-stage value-added percentages at 20% and 12%, and sets new per-kilogram deemed VAT values for meat and offal from own-account slaughter. Both resolutions apply from 1 September 2026.

What it means

The effective date is one day after these resolutions were published in the Diario Oficial, and this record is being written the day before it bites — there is essentially no implementation runway. Any business in the fresh-meat supply chain that relies on the deemed retail prices or the 20%/12% value-added percentages to compute VAT at source needs those figures updated before 1 September 2026, not scheduled for later review. Getting the recalculation wrong at go-live risks both under-collection, which is the collecting party’s exposure, and disputes with buyers over a purchase-side VAT figure computed on the old values.