During the first quarter of the year, the Tax Administration Service (SAT) recovered 160.8 pesos for each peso that it invested in auditing acts towards taxpayers, as reported by the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit (SHCP) in its Report on the Economic Situation , Public Finance and Public Debt.
This year’s amount is greater than the 124.8 pesos recovered for each peso invested in the first quarter of 2022.
The profitability of the audit is what it costs the SAT to audit, against what it recovers in the course of the audits it performs on taxpayers.
From January to March of this year, 5,436 inspection acts were carried out, which was less than the 5,443 audits carried out in the first three months of 2022.
“In order to reduce unnecessary inconvenience to taxpayers as much as possible and achieve a better use of public resources, in this exercise the policy for inspection acts has been to prioritize quality over quantity,” the SHCP explained. in your report.
The Ministry of Finance also reported that for every 100 pesos that the SAT collected, 23 cents were spent. This was below the 27 cents forecast by the authority.
Pedro Canabal, foreign trade and tax partner at the Baker Tilly consultancy, told El Economista that the increase in the profitability of the Tax Administration Services is a consequence of the intensive use of digital platforms for examination, which lowers costs.
Notifying you of an audit through the Tax Mailbox is not the same as having an auditor physically present at the tax domicile to notify an inspection act. There is a significant cost reduction and if it rises at the national level, the sums are important”, said Canabal.
Jesús Rodríguez Ambriz, member of the honor and justice commission of the Mexican Association of Public Accountants (AMCP), told this space that the Tax Mailbox notifies taxpayers by email or text message.
“Many taxpayers were not used to electronic notifications, now they are seeing invitation letters or deep revisions arrive. Now they prefer to contribute to avoid acts of annoyance by the SAT”, said Ambriz.
The member of the AMCP argued that it is an obligation of taxpayers to pay their taxes and therefore calls for advice because it is not about “paying to pay.”
Effectiveness would reach 100%
The information from the Treasury also shows that the effectiveness of the inspection was 98.2% in the first three months of 2023. The effectiveness of this year is higher than the 97.9% that was registered in the same period of 2022.
Baker Tilly’s partner mentioned that the effectiveness will surely reach 100% since the machines already determine where the omissions are and therefore human error is disappearing.
Secondary collection increased 19% annually
The amount of collection through collection efficiency and collection without the need for judicial proceedings, also known as secondary collection, registered 178,514 million pesos between January and March, which represented an annual increase of 18.7% in real terms.
Canabal Hermida mentioned that the annual increase in the amount collected is a consequence of the self-correction of taxpayers in paying their taxes.
Self-correction implies that the taxpayer and the authority reach an agreement and with this the individual avoids fines or sanctions, said the specialist.
“The audit is closed earlier and shortens times, lowers costs and generates that there is no incentive for it to end in the defense media, that is, to fight a possible tax debt in court,” explained Canabal.
How is secondary collection made up?
Secondary collection is made up of the examination of large, medium and small taxpayers, as well as the collection efficiency program of the Tax Administration Service.
In turn, the collection efficiency program consists of three subprograms: compliance with obligations, in-depth surveillance, and coercive collection.
These latest data are not provided by the Treasury and will be published in the Tax and Management Report for the first quarter, prepared by the SAT.
In 2022, there was record
Secondary collection stood at 616,281 million pesos between January and December 2022, which represented an annual increase of 8.9% in real terms, according to information from the Treasury.
During the first four years of the current administration, 1 billion 976.446 million pesos have been collected through what are also known as additional collection efforts.
