Fiscal discrepancy: Taxpayers in trouble with instant billing?
The Tax Administration Service (SAT for its acronym in Spanish) and the Mexican Banking Association (ABM for its acronym in Spanish), entered into an agreement on November 19 of this year for the purpose of generating automatically a Tax Receipt at the time of making a payment through a bank terminal in any commercial site, as consideration for the purchase of a good or service by any person, whether by natural or legal person.
SAT´s announcement, which was not originally very clear, provoked countless doubts among taxpayers, mainly around the concept “fiscal discrepancy”, since it was been assumed that more than one taxpayer could find itself in a potential situation of incurring higher expenses in respect to revenue reported in a fiscal year (for example, payment of a good or service with savings of previous years), without this necessarily representing a “fiscal discrepancy”.
During previous days, the tax authority has been explaining this situation, stating that the measure shall be only a means to facilitate the issue of tax receipts and has denied the perception that this mechanism consists of an oversight measure in addition to those already in place, and also that the issuance of the tax receipt will be optional, therefore, each business and consumer (taxpayer) will decide whether to issue or request the document, respectively.
It is important to mention that, as of today, banks do provide SAT certain information on their users, such as: name of natural person or name of legal entity, nationality, date and place of birth/incorporation, address, besides banking movements (deposits, withdrawals, loans, etc.), among other data. The foregoing regardless of whether there is a CFDI (Digital Tax Receipt Online) involved. That is to say any user of the banking system is, in essence, a current SAT taxpayer (or potential SAT taxpayer) and SAT has the information for demanding accountability in respect to potential omissions in the payment of federal taxes.
Since several years, Mexico has undergone a technification process in the tax sphere, since the inception of the electronic invoice through its different versions, the electronic accounting monthly report, the issuance of CFDI accessories and, up to now, the instant billing, with the issue of the automatic billing starting from 2020.
On the other hand, tax specialists have been warning, for a long time, on the issue of “fiscal discrepancy” and it is, up to now, with this initiative, that people in general begins to pay attention to this issue. The foregoing is not, in itself, something necessarily negative since today taxpayers, mainly natural persons, have this issue deep within them, seeking to carry out their operations in a much orderly and controlling fashion than before.
In any event, the “fiscal discrepancy” is not something that must be set aside, thus, if any of the readers have doubts or concerns, we recommend contacting Mazars experts to obtain advice, as necessary.
Article written by Carlos Cortes, AOS Manager - Guadalajara.
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