Mexico establishes new penalties for taxpayers that issue tax receipts to justify simulated transactions

Article 69.B of the Mexican Tax Code establishes the power of the tax authorities to classify as inexistent transactions – for tax purposes – those with respect to which it has not been possible to prove their material effectiveness, even when they are justified by tax receipts. Said article in turn establishes the procedure to be followed by the Federal tax authorities to carry out that reclassification, which includes publishing lists of taxpayers which are deemed to sell tax receipts to justify simulated transactions.

The main economic consequences established in article 69.B for these acts fall on taxpayers that have acquired those receipts, given that it establishes the nullity of any tax effects which they might entail (deduction in income tax / VAT)

Moreover, that article states that those inexistent transactions will be deemed as simulated acts for the purposes of any of the crimes established by the Tax Code, both for the issuer and for the acquirer of the invoice.

Now, with the recent amendment of that section III of article 113 of the Mexican Tax Code and the inclusion of the new article 113.bis in this text, a difference is established in prison sentences applicable to the different parties involved in the transactions, establishing a sentence of 3 to 6 years of prison for the issuers of the receipts and reserving the sentence of 3 months to 6 years of prison, initially established in the Code, for those who merely acquire them.