The collection for each of the employees of the Tax Administration Service (SAT) was 44.9 million pesos in the first quarter of 2023, which exceeded the 43.5 million pesos recorded in the same period of 2022, according to information from the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit (SHCP).
In the Report on the Economic Situation, Public Finances and the Public Debt of the SHCP, it was also observed that the SAT workers did not meet the goal of 46 million pesos of average collection per person that was expected at the end of the first quarter.
In this way, the Treasury had an advance of 97.6% compared to what was programmed for the first three months of the year, according to the “Indicators of Productivity of Public Servants and SAT Personnel Development” and that is part of the Plan Annual Continuous Improvement of the collecting body.
According to the information, the collection per employee in the federal treasury has increased by almost 20 million pesos so far in the current government, since during the first three months of 2019 the amount obtained was 26.2 million pesos.
Rolando Silva Briceño, member of the social security technical commission of the College of Public Accountants of Mexico, mentioned to this space that the increase in the amount is a consequence of the invitation letters that the SAT sends to taxpayers.
Invitation letters, generate pressure
The member of the College of Accountants maintained that with the invitation letters pressure is being generated for tax payments, as well as for self-correction, if applicable, of omissions.
However, he said, it does not mean that the invitation letter is an aggressive control action, as is a requirement or an embargo, it is only an exhortation for the taxpayer to approach the authority.
Silva Briceño also mentioned that the increase can be explained through coordinated work between the SAT with the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare, the Mexican Institute of Social Security and the Institute of the National Housing Fund for Workers.
“Now it is more difficult for an employer who carried out aggressive tax planning schemes to carry them out. From the subcontracting reform (outsourcing) there was an obligation to create collaboration agreements, they had existed in some way, but with the reform they are carrying out systematic processes”, said the interviewee.
In all of 2022, each federal tax worker collected 147.2 million pesos between January and December 2022, which meant a record figure.
Workforce decreases
In the first quarter of the year, the SAT staff registered 25,210 jobs, which meant the creation of 67 jobs within the federal treasury.
At the end of the third month of the year, the payroll of the Tax Administration Service had an expense of 2.22 million pesos, which represented an annual contraction of 12% in real terms.
From the first three months of 2019, the first year of the government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador, to the same period of 2023, the workforce has decreased by 22.8 percent.
In the first quarter of 2019, 32,652 people worked in the Tax Administration Service.
The budget to pay the SAT payroll decreased by 25.5% in real terms between the first quarter of 2019 and the first quarter of 2023, according to official data.
help technology
Jesús Rodríguez Ambriz, a member of the honor and justice commission of the Mexican Association of Public Accountants (AMCP), commented to this space that the layoffs in the SAT staff were a consequence of the implementation of technology.
The technology that the SAT has, he explained, has improved the automation of processes and therefore also the dependence on people is less. In addition to the fact that the current administration is capitalizing the investment in technology for the previous six-year terms.
Silva Briceño mentioned that with the cut in jobs in the SAT there were controversies at the beginning of this six-year term about whether workers were being liquidated in accordance with what the law dictates.
In Guanajuato, the SAT workers reported, at the time, that the dismissal was without liquidation and they only received the savings fund.
The greatest destruction of squares, in 2022
In all of 2022, the SAT had a workforce of 24,831 workers, which represented a decrease of 7,004 jobs, or 22% less, compared to the same period of the previous year.
The foregoing represented the most pronounced destruction of jobs since records were recorded.
Experts have pointed out that the cuts in the SAT staff increase the amount of per capita collection because the fewer workers, the greater the amount between each one.
