On April 29 of this year, the Miscellaneous Tax Resolution (MTR) for 2019 was published, and a summary of some of the most important rules is detailed below:

Exhibits to the MTR.

For the purposes of this MTR, the following exhibits are added:

XXXIV. Exhibit 30 “Technical operational and safety specifications of equipment and computer programs to carry out volumetric controls of hydrocarbons and petroleum products.”
XXXV. Exhibit 31 “On verification services regarding the correct operation and functioning of equipment and computer programs to carry out volumetric controls as well as of the issued certificates.”
XXXVI. Exhibit 32 “On the services for the issuance of opinions determining the type of hydrocarbon or petroleum product, and octanes in the case of gasoline, as well as the opinions issued.”

Presumption of undue transfer of tax losses. Procedure to disprove the facts that led the authority to issue a notice.

This is a new rule for the MTR 2019 by which, for the purposes of article 69-B Bis, fourth and sixth paragraphs of the Federal Tax Code, taxpayers shall submit the documentation and information deemed pertinent to disprove the reported facts observing, for said purpose, the provisions in the processing form 276/CFF “Documentation and information to disprove the presumption of undue transfer of tax losses on article 69-B Bis of the Federal Tax Code”, contained on Exhibit 1-A.

Comprehensive information exchange agreement.

When the country or jurisdiction in question has a treaty in force to avoid double taxation with Mexico; and said treaty contains an article that is identical or substantially similar or analogous to article 26 of the “Model of Tax Agreement on Rent and Estate”, it shall be understood that the assumption foreseen in this section is updated for the following countries and jurisdictions:
…

bb) As of January 1, 2019; Jamaica, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Republic of Philippines.

g) As of January 1, 2019: Commonwealth of the Bahamas, Kingdom of Bahrain, Granada, United Arab Emirates, Hong Kong, Kuwait, Macau, Turkey, and the Republic of Vanuatu.

Holidays.

In this rule, Holidays for 2019 are mentioned, which are as follows:

I. General holiday periods for the SAT:
a) The second general vacation period for 2018: December 20, 2018 to January 4, 2019.
b) The first period of 2019:  July 15 to 26, 2019.
II. April 18 and 19, 2019 are holidays for SAT.

Verification of the authenticity of acknowledgement of receipt with digital stamp.

A procedure for verifying the authenticity of acknowledgement of receipt with digital stamp is added, through the technical sheet 109/CFF:

For the purposes of article 17-E of the CFF, taxpayers may verify the authenticity of acknowledgements of receipt with digital stamps obtained from the SAT’s website, on the section “e-signature”, subsection “Verification of acknowledgements of receipt with digital stamps”, following the instructions in the aforementioned section, in accordance with the processing form 109/CFF “Verification of authenticity of acknowledgements of receipt with digital stamps”, contained on Exhibit 1-A.

Option to submit collective consultations on the application of tax provisions, through organizations grouping taxpayers.

This rule is modified to add 3 elements which cannot be subjected to the facility provided in this rule.

XII. Permanent establishment, as well as income and deductions attributable to it.
XIII. Special Economic Zones.
XIV. Tax stimuli of the northern border region.

Application requirements to create or renew the e-signature certificate.

This is a new rule which states that, for the purposes of article 17-D of the CFF and regulation 2.2.2., natural persons who have the portable e-signature service, may renew the digital e-signature certificate through the SAT Portal even if it is active, expired or revoked at the request of the taxpayer, in accordance with processing file 106/CFF "Request for renewal of the e-signature certificate" in Annex 1-A.

VAT Refund to companies with certification on VAT and IEPS matters.

In this rule, regarding VAT refund for companies with VAT and IEPS certification, a new paragraph was added.

When the authority notifies the taxpayer of a requirement, or when exercising their right to verification in accordance with the Federal Tax Code, the terms of 10, 15 and 20 business days pursuant to the following tables shall not be applicable.

Therefore, the resolution of the refund requests for VAT and IEPS will be subject to the terms established in the Tax Code, which are 40 business days.

Automatic refund of VAT balances in favor.

This rule, eliminated in 2019, mentioned the following:

“Natural and legal persons, who submit their VAT return through the tax return service in the corresponding electronic format, using the e-signature or portable e-signature, may obtain the refund of balances in favor within a maximum term of 5 days, provided that the option for refund is selected on the tax return and said amounts do not exceed MXN $1’000,000.00 (One million pesos 00/100).”

Registration in the Taxpayer Identification Registry (RFC) for individuals under 16 of age with CURP (Single Population Code).

The following paragraph is added:

Minors, as of 16 years old, may be registered in the Taxpayer Identification Registry in the terms of this rule, provided they render an exclusive subordinate service (salaries) from their registration and until they turn 18, not being able to change the tax regime until they are of legal age.

Option for legal persons to file a notice of suspension of activities.

This rule is amended in its last paragraph, establishing that once the requested suspension term ends, the taxpayer shall file the notice for resumption of activities or the corresponding cancellation before the RFC.

The SAT will inform this through the tax mailbox or through the email registered before the RFC, for the taxpayer to make the resumption or cancellation. If this is ignored, the authority will reassign the tax characteristics consistent with the regime, obligations, and economic activities that the taxpayer had at the time of requesting the suspension of activities.

Issuance of the CFDI on withholdings and payment information.

The following paragraph is added:

Individuals managing personal retirement plans, engaged individually or collectively and other institutions with a similar purpose, referred to in articles 151 section V and 185 of the LISR (Income Tax Law) shall add the CFDI Complement for “Retirement Plans” that the SAT publishes on their website for this purpose.

Confirmation of criteria for taxpayers subject to verification powers.

This rule is added so that taxpayers subject to the exercise of verification powers have the option to consider that the criterion confirmations referred to in article 34 of the Federal Tax Code, which are contrary to non-binding and normative criteria, are binding for the authority until the issuance of the latter, provided that the following requirements are met:

a) The confirmation of the criterion referred to in Article 34 of the CFF has been issued prior to the exercise of verification powers.
b) The non-binding or normative criterion has been issued after the confirmation of the criteria mentioned in the previous paragraph.
c) A new query is submitted in terms of the processing form 186/CFF "Online consultations and authorizations", contained in Annex 1-A, raising the situation mentioned in the first paragraph of this rule.

Income Tax and VAT Withholdings applicable to providers of land transportation to passengers or food delivery services.

This rule is added to establish that companies providing technological platforms (Uber, Cabify, Sin Delantal, etc.) to natural persons in order for the latter to render land transportation to passengers or food delivery services, may carry out a monthly or weekly withholding of Income Tax and VAT on the income obtained, be it in cash, credit, electronic means or any other, by said natural persons.

Withholding shall be pursuant to the following table:

To determine the amount of weekly income, the amount of the monthly income on aforesaid table shall be divided between 30.4 and the result multiplied times seven. The withholdings from the above table shall be applied to the total income for said weekly period.

Some of the obligations of the legal entities responsible for carrying out the withholding are:

Providing each natural person, to whom the retention was made, a CFDI for the withholding and monthly or weekly payment information containing the data of the travels income, no later than the 5th day of the month immediately following the month in question or in its case, before the end of the week following the one in which the CDFI is issued.

Filing the Income Tax and VAT withholdings no later than the 17th day of the month immediately after the one in which the withholding was carried out.

Sending the user of the passenger transportation service or food delivery service, the electronic CFDI file supporting the payment amount.

Authorization request to alienate shares at a tax cost.

This rule is added, indicating authorities shall authorize the alienation of shares at tax cost in compliance with the requirements of the law and submitting the authorization request through procedure file 78/ISR.

Deadline to submit information on related parties residing abroad by taxpayers choosing or having the obligation to have their financial statements audited for tax purposes.

This rule refers to taxpayers under the assumptions of article 32-A of the Federal Tax Code, choosing to have their financial statements audited for tax purposes, which can be filed along with the opinion, no later than July 15, Exhibit 9 corresponding to the annual return on transactions with related parties.

Deadline to submit information on related parties residing abroad by taxpayers whose financial statements are not audited for tax purposes.

This rule establishes that taxpayers who choose not to have their financial statements audited for tax purposes may file Exhibit 9 (transactions with related parties) no later than June 30, provided this information is consistent with the information submitted in the local information return for related parties, pursuant to article 76-A section II of the Income Tax Law.

Value of the consideration in the transfer of assets and liabilities resulting from an order from the federal authority.

When a legal person receives shares as consideration from the sale of assets in accordance with rule 3.1.20., the tax value referred to said rule shall be considered as the value of the consideration.

Transfer of assets and liabilities by a Permanent Establishment abroad.

This repealed rule established that the transfer of assets and liabilities of a permanent establishment abroad belonging to a legal person residing in Mexico, to another legal person residing in the same country, part of the same group of companies, was allowed. Said rule considered that for this operation there was no alienation of the assets and liabilities.

To us, it is very important to keep you informed of the current tax obligations of taxpaying companies in Mexico, in order to provide the necessary support for compliance therewith in a proper and timely manner, and hence avoid any sanctions from the authorities.

Please contact us if you have any question or comment in this regard.