Federal Tax Code approved; digital platforms will be able to be monitored in real time

MEXICO CITY (apro).- The ruling party deputies approved in general terms the reform of the Federal Tax Code, which includes sanctions for invoicing companies, simulated transactions, and improper use of digital seals. It also establishes that authorities will be able to monitor digital platforms in real time to obtain information from their systems and records.

Lawmakers approved the reform of the Federal Tax Code by 348 votes to 130, seeking to strengthen tax collection efficiency and combat tax evasion and avoidance.

BILLING COMPANIES

The reform harmonizes the rules regarding false tax receipts in relation to offenses for which pretrial detention is constitutionally permitted, as well as the legal consequences of conducting transactions with them. Authorities may file complaints against taxpayers found to be issuing false tax receipts.

Furthermore, the Tax Administration Service (SAT) is empowered to deny registration in the Federal Taxpayer Registry (RFC) to legal entities when it detects that the legal representative, one or more of the partners, shareholders, associates, and others who are part of the legal entity, participate in companies that have carried out operations with false invoicing and have fallen under the assumptions of the Tax Code.

Furthermore, it establishes that if digital tax receipts issued online do not support existing, genuine transactions or actual legal acts, they will be considered false. The authority is empowered to verify that the taxpayer is ensuring the accuracy of tax receipts and to determine the issuance of false tax receipts.

DIGITAL PLATFORMS

The reform seeks to add Article 30-B of the Federal Tax Code to establish the obligation of digital service providers to allow tax authorities, on a permanent basis, online and real-time access to information in their systems or records related to the operations of the digital services they provide.

It also specifies that these services consist of downloading or accessing various content known as streaming, intermediation between third parties, online clubs and dating sites, as well as distance learning or testing or exercises.

The proposal specifies that the authority should have online, real-time access only to the tax information necessary to verify compliance with obligations, protecting taxpayers' privacy rights and personal data.

PLATFORM ARTICLE CRASH

PAN representative Héctor Saúl Téllez stated that this Tax Code is not intended to combat either the invoicing companies or the fuel thefts, but rather is a spy Tax Code, a terrorist Tax Code, a confiscatory Tax Code.

"Nor is it meant to combat the billing companies. There's an embezzlement of more than 54 billion pesos here. This Tax Code only seeks to punish taxpayers for simple errors, criminalizing them, but there's no shared government responsibility. It doesn't professionalize, train, audit, or punish the corrupt within its own government.

“This Tax Code is spyware, because Article 30 D allows direct intrusion by the Tax Administration Service. It requires digital platforms to provide unrestricted access to all personal information of buyers, sellers, and users of digital platforms. What for? To snoop on your personal life, to learn about your commercial transactions, what you buy, what you sell, how much you spend, what your preferences are, which platforms you visit, your geolocation at the time you access each of those platforms, to know when you are using them, and, above all, to know what content you are creating online,” he emphasized.

Morena deputy Alfonso Ramírez Cuellar explained that since last year they have established stricter fiscal controls on trading platforms, so the article on platforms only applies to declaring income and expenses, and he denied any surveillance.

"Today, the only thing we're establishing in Article 30 B is the obligation for everyone to declare their income and expenses, because there's a ruling from the Judiciary that anyone who pays taxes in our country must file a declaration of their income and expenses. And that's the only thing we're establishing in this Federal Tax Code.

"There is no oversight, there is no interference in people's lives. All we want is one basic thing: to comply with the law and pay our taxes according to our profits and income," he stated.