“Tax reform is not needed”: SAT

Mexico City. This administration increased tax collection by more than 6 billion pesos by eliminating tax privileges, said the head of the Tax Administration Service (SAT), Antonio Martínez Dagnino, when reporting on the work that has been done in the agency, especially through the inspection and promotion processes so that taxpayers comply with their obligations.

“Many have mentioned that a tax reform is needed to increase taxes and obtain greater revenue. That is not true, a tax reform is not needed (…) there is still a lot to collect,” the official emphasized, during the morning press conference at the National Palace. At the same time he made “a call to the Judiciary, because we have many disputes, so that the issues are resolved,” and revenues can be increased as well.

He showed that between 2019 and June 2024, 20 trillion 967 thousand 580 million pesos have been collected, 13.1 percent more than in the entire six-year term of Enrique Peña Nieto, when tax revenues reached 14 trillion 365 thousand 027 million. That nominal increase was 6 trillion 602 thousand 553 million pesos with the current tax scheme, he highlighted.

Only from audits and other compliance promotion activities carried out on taxpayers of all sizes, 3 trillion 383 thousand 350 million pesos were collected during the current administration, an increase of more than double, 113 percent in real terms, compared to the 1 trillion 200 thousand 307 million collected in the previous six-year term.

By focusing on audits of large taxpayers, tax collection also took off. According to preliminary data presented by Dagnino, during this administration, 1 trillion 380 thousand 812 million pesos will have been collected from the audit of companies with incomes exceeding 1.5 billion pesos annually; during Enrique Peña Nieto’s administration, 500 thousand 423 million pesos were collected.

In addition, there are currently 17,559 audit acts in process, 2,597 to large taxpayers and 14,962 to taxpayers under other tax schemes, which would imply the recovery of income.

Finally, Dagnino stressed that the SAT is collecting more with less money. According to the operational efficiency indicator, for every 24 cents invested in collecting, 100 pesos are collected. This indicator was at 0.54 cents at the end of the previous administration.