The tax matters has taken an increasing importance in Mexico, where the evasion and avoidance of tax are of alarming dimensions. According to statements of the chief of Service of Tax Administration (SAT), there are studies in which it has been concluded that tax evasion in the country is equivalent to 500,000 million pesos for false invoices each year, which has generated a tax evasion of 354,000 million pesos, equivalent to 1.4% of Gross Domestic Product.
For this reason, the government has taken decisive actions to combat, including the issuance of a regulation increasingly broad and strict. Then, we expose the most representative:
1. Recently, the Congress of the Union approved a tax-reform criminal that typifies as “organized crime” tax evasion and the sale of fake invoices in specific cases (should be made of a permanent or settled, and their main purpose should be to the disappointment of the treasury federal, in addition to overstate the amount of $7804,230.00 per year). In consequence, these illicit warrant remand informal and are subject to the application of the procedure of extinction domain.
A false invoice is the one that covers operations exist, which are those in which the issuer of the invoice is not own “with the assets, personnel, infrastructure, or material capacity, directly or indirectly, to provide the services or to produce, market or deliver the goods that cover such vouchers”.
This reform has been ranked by the business sector as a “terror tax”. Although the authorities have made efforts to indicate that it’s not there, what is certain is that the legal tools exist for this to happen.
2. In addition, the tax reform for 2020, recently approved by the Congress of the Union, establishing the joint and several liability in the field of taxation of shareholders or partners, as well as the people that have conferred the administration of moral people, among other cases, when (i) omit found out contributions withheld or collected; (ii) to issue false invoices, and (iii) the acquisition and use of false invoices for an amount greater than $7804,230.00 in a fiscal year.
3. In addition, various courts in our country have issued a series of theses that require the taxpayer to prove the materiality of the operations performed; that is to say, they must rely on the documentation appropriate to check that they actually took place, not being sufficient to display the tax documents that cover the operations. If the taxpayer does not certify the actual materialization of the activities or transactions recorded in your accounting, the authority to validly declare your absence, and to deny them any tax effect.
4. Finally, one must consider the criminal liability of the legal entities, they can be criminally responsible for the commission of a crime in your name, for your account or in your benefit. These illicit may be committed by their representatives, managers or employees, when it is determined that there was failure due to organizational control. Which is fully applicable in the field of tax crimes.
From the above, there is a clear tendency to regulate more and more aspects of tax in our country (which also occurs to a similar extent in the international arena), which implies obligations are becoming more stringent for taxpayers and increasingly devastating for any breach. A trend that is not expected to change in the near future, especially with the urgent need for the collection current, which will worsen with the economic outlook adverse that we face.
Thus, we estimate that taxpayers must take actions to ensure the compliance in the field of taxation, such as (i) a review of appropriate and constantly to their providers; (ii) adequately document its operations; (iii) periodically review the lists that gives the Service of Tax Administration, and (iv) establish effective mechanisms for the prevention of money-laundering, as more of the hand with the tax aspects.