It was the six-year term in which the invoicing companies were persecuted, although there are still many in operation and shell companies now associated with characters from the outgoing administration, but that is another issue. What is certain is that in 2019 the Congress of the Union approved a reform of ‘great significance’ in fiscal criminal matters, particularly to deal with organized criminal groups that seek to ‘launder’ these resources in the financial system, and also ‘white-collar’ ‘businessmen’ who seek to avoid paying taxes.
For those who thought that the monitoring of the billing companies was going to weaken in the next six-year term, the ratification of Antonio Martínez Dagnino as head of the Tax Administration Service (SAT) shows that this will not be the case, and it will continue under the leadership of the Federal Tax Prosecutor’s Office (PFF), headed by Grisel Galeano, who by the way was the first woman in this position, taking cases to litigate to seek to get more tax resources that were evaded to the treasury.
Antonio Martinez Dagnino. (Special)
For now, in the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN) and where there are two former heads of the SAT as ministers, their specialization precisely in fiscal matters helps to understand and, above all, interpret claims and injunctions against the treasury.
An example is the direct amparo in review 706/2024 brought by Minister Margarita Ríos Farjat, in the case of the merger of two companies that reached the Court, because the cancellation of the RFC of the company that was going to be absorbed was requested and the surviving company was dissatisfied with the fact that certain requirements were required for that cancellation.
In this particular case, the tax authority stopped the cancellation process because it found that the merged companies had relations with two others that were listed in lists of companies that invoice for simulated operations and, in addition, inconsistencies were detected between the declared income and the invoices issued by the merged company.
Therefore, in its resolution, the First Chamber of the Court indicated that such requirements provide legal security, since their purpose is to prevent the cancellation of the RFC from evading the controls created from the lists where the SAT has located the invoicing companies, so the company will have to comply with all the requirements and, where appropriate, pay the corresponding taxes that are determined.
It should be noted that the PFF participates as legal advisor to the SHCP in the investigation of crimes of tax fraud, smuggling and their respective equivalents and defends the interests of the tax authority before the courts. In the last year, and as of the end of August 2024, 438 complaints were filed for crimes of tax fraud; 46 petitions for crimes determined in the laws of the Mexican financial system, and six complaints for various crimes, in which the SHCP is interested.
As a result, 67 investigation files were brought before the Federal Judicial Branch, of which 61 were for tax fraud and its equivalent crimes, one for a financial crime and five for various crimes.
In the case of the so-called billing companies alone, from September 2022 to September 2023, 16 complaints were filed against them, the amount of which in fiscal damages exceeds 34.5 billion pesos; the amount recovered has been lower, but everything indicates that in the next six-year term, the guard will not be lowered either.
Final race at SICT
Jorge Nuño. (Special)
There are only a few days left before Jorge Nuño hands over the reins of the Ministry of Infrastructure, Communications and Transport (SICT) to Jesús Antonio Esteva and the transition process has been smooth, but above all, it will be days of constant delivery of works.
For example, after the highway closures, the Mexico-Cuernavaca and La Pera-Cuautla interchange will be inaugurated on September 26, to make it a faster and safer interchange, after 15 years of trying to build it.
Others will be delivered in the following weeks or in December, such as the Mitla-Tehuantepec highway, since it had to be modified due to a slope and there it was decided to build a 220-meter tunnel, which will be inaugurated by the next administration.
There was a lot of information that he gave in Dialogues with Engineers that is organized every Monday by the College of Civil Engineers of Mexico (CICM), chaired by Mauricio Jessurun, who on behalf of the union, recognized the work of the official and thanked him for his permanent approach to civil engineers.
Stock market will grow more
Optimism is palpable in the stock market after the revision of secondary regulations to implement the law that seeks to encourage more companies to enter the market.
Marcos Martinez. (Special)
At the Mexican Stock Exchange (BMV), chaired by Marcos Martínez and with Jorge Alegría as director, they have been surprised by the positive impact of the reform, since, for example, in a webinar to explain the topic of simplified emissions, almost a thousand people from the sector connected to learn more.
On this subject, the Stock Exchange has released the details of the process of the simplified issuer, a change proposed in the recent reform to the Securities Market Law (LMV) and the Investment Funds Law (LFI); this regulatory framework is designed to facilitate the access of companies to the stock market by simplifying the requirements. We will see if in practice it manages to ‘pull’.
Will there be any changes at the Treasury?
Rogelio Ramirez. (Special)
Although it has already been emphasized in the top-level positions that there will be no more changes, and the first team of the Secretary of the Treasury, Rogelio Ramírez, remains, in the different lower-level departments, rumors of changes continue to be the order of the day; it is mentioned, for example, that the current vice president of the National Banking and Securities Commission (CNBV), Lucía Buenrostro, sister of the next secretary of the Civil Service, could arrive at Condusef as head instead of Oscar Rosado; while in the CNBV there would be changes once the procedures for new licenses are processed, but that they would be done in the next six-year term; changes in the PFF and the possible departure to another position of Grisel Galeano and the return of the former attorney general to that position are also mentioned.
For now, the coin is up in the air.