Continuing with the series about tax law in Mexico that I started in Pro-Taxpayer Series. Generalities of Federal Tax Matters in Mexico, now it is the turn to talk about the electronic means through which the federal tax authorities communicate with taxpayers. These means are contemplated in the Federal Tax Code, the Regulations of the Federal Tax Code, and the Miscellaneous Tax Resolution for Fiscal Year 2024.

For the purposes of this entry, the topics I will discuss will be the following:

Table of Contents

• 1) Advanced Electronic Signature
• A) Digital Document
• B) Substitution of the Handwritten Signature
• C) Creation of Advanced Electronic Signatures
• D) Validity of Digital Stamp Certificates
• E) Receipt
• F) Certification of Advanced Electronic Signatures
• 2) Validity of Digital Stamp Certificates Issued By the Tax Administration Service
• 3) Cancellation of Digital Stamp Certificates Issued By the Tax Administration Service
• 4) Restriction of Digital Stamp Certificates
• A) Request for Clarification
• B) Authorities’ Request for Additional Information
• C) Extension
• D) Diligence of Correction
• E) Final Cancellation
• 5) Obligations of the Holder of a Digital Seal Certificate
• 6) Tax Mailbox

1) Advanced Electronic Signature

When legal provisions require taxpayers to present documents, these must be digital and contain an advanced electronic signature of the author. For these purposes, a certificate must confirm the link between a signatory and the creation data of an advanced electronic signature issued by the Tax Administration Service (SAT) when dealing with legal entities and the digital seals provided for in article 29 of the Federal Tax Code^[1], and by a certification service provider authorized by the Bank of Mexico when dealing with natural persons.

To understand the context of this provision, it’s important to know the following:

A) Digital Document

A digital document is understood as any data message that contains information or writing generated, sent, received or archived by electronic, optical or any other technology.

B) Substitution of the Handwritten Signature

In digital documents, an advanced electronic signature covered by a current certificate shall replace the signer’s handwritten signature, guarantee the document’s integrity, and produce the same effects that tax laws grant to documents with a handwritten signature, having the same evidentiary value.

C) Creation of Advanced Electronic Signatures

Taxpayers may process the data to create advanced electronic signatures before the Tax Administration Service or any certification service provider authorized by the Bank of Mexico. For these purposes, the Tax Administration Service shall validate the information related to your identity, address, and, where applicable, your tax situation in terms of article 27 of the Federal Tax Code.

In any case, when the data for the creation of advanced electronic signatures are processed before a certification service provider other than the Tax Administration System, the interested party shall be required to previously appear personally before the Tax Administration Service to prove their identity.

This appearance in individuals cannot be carried out through an attorney or legal representative. On the other hand, the power provided in said article shall be required only to process the advanced electronic signature of legal entities in accordance with the provisions of article 19-A of the Federal Tax Code^[2].

D) Validity of Digital Stamp Certificates

For tax purposes, the certificates that confirm the link between the signer and the creation data of an advanced electronic signature shall be valid for 4 years, counted from the date on which they are issued. For this, before the end of its validity period, its owner may request a new one.

E) Receipt

When taxpayers send a digital document to the tax authorities, they shall receive a receipt containing the digital seal. In this sense, the digital seal is the electronic message that certifies that the corresponding authority received a digital document and that it is subject to the same regulations applicable to the use of the advanced electronic signature. In this case, the digital seal shall identify the agency that received the document. Unless proven otherwise, it shall be presumed that the digital document was received at the time and date stated in the aforementioned receipt.

F) Certification of Advanced Electronic Signatures

The Tax Administration service may provide the following advanced electronic signature certification services:

I.- Verify the identity of users and their connection with electronic identification means.

II.- Check the integrity of digital documents issued by the tax authorities.

III.- Keep records of the identification elements and their connection with the electronic identification means of the signatories and, where applicable, of their legal representation and the information with which the compliance with the reliability of the advanced electronic signatures has been verified. Then, issue the certificate.

IV.- Make the devices available to the signatories to generate the creation and verification data of advanced electronic signatures or digital seals.

V.- Inform, before issuing a certificate to the person requesting its services, of the precise conditions for the use of the certificate and its limitations of use.

2) Validity of Digital Stamp Certificates Issued By the Tax Administration Service

Certificates issued by the Tax Administration Service to be considered valid must contain the following data:

I.- The mention that they are issued as such. In the case of digital stamp certificates, the limitations that they have for their use must be specified.

II.- The unique identification code of the certificate.

III.- The mention that it was issued by the Tax Administration Service and an electronic address.

IV.- Name of the certificate holder and their federal taxpayer registry key.

V.- The certificate’s period of validity, specifying the date of its beginning and the date of its termination.

VI.- The mention of the technology used to create the advanced electronic signature contained in the certificate.

VII.- The public key of the certificate holder.

Additionally, according to rule 2.2.3 of the Miscellaneous Tax Resolution 2024, the certificates in question must contain the following requirements:

I.- The certificate’s unique identification code must contain the issuer’s data and serial number.

II.- Period of validity of the certificate.

3) Cancellation of Digital Stamp Certificates Issued By the Tax Administration Service

The certificates issued by the Tax Administration Service shall be void when:

I.- The signatory requests it.

II.- A judicial or administrative resolution orders it.

III.- The person holding the certificate dies. In this case, the revocation must be requested by a legally authorized third party, who must accompany the corresponding death certificate.

IV.- Companies, associations, and other legal entities are dissolved, liquidated, or extinguished. In this case, the liquidators shall present the corresponding request.

V.- The splitting or merged company disappears due to the split or merger respectively. In the first case, the cancellation may be requested by any of the split companies; in the second, by the surviving company.

VI.- The validity period of the certificate expires.

VII.- The electronic medium in which the certificates are contained is lost or rendered useless due to damage.

Electronic means shall be understood as any electronic, optical, or other technological storage device in which said decentralized body keeps the certificates and their relationship with the private keys of the same.

VIII.- It is proven that at the time of its issuance, the certificate did not comply with the legal requirements, a situation that shall not affect the rights of third parties in good faith.

IX.- When the confidentiality of the data for the creation of the advanced electronic signature of the Tax Administration Service is put at risk.

X.- The procedure provided for in article 17-H Bis of the Federal Tax Code (see section IV of this entry) is exhausted, and the irregularities detected have not been corrected, or the causes that motivated the temporary restriction of the certificate have not been disproved.

XI.- It is detected that the taxpayer issuing tax receipts did not disprove the presumption of the nonexistence of the operations covered by such receipts and, therefore, is definitely in said situation, in terms of article 69-B, fourth paragraph, of the Federal Tax Code^[3].

XII.- It is detected that these taxpayers did not disprove the presumption of improperly transferring tax losses and are on the list referred to in the ninth paragraph of article 69-B Bis of the Federal Tax Code.

4) Restriction of Digital Stamp Certificates

It may also be the case that before canceling the digital seal certificates, the tax authorities temporarily restrict them in the following cases:

I.- They detect that taxpayers, in a fiscal year and being obliged to do so, fail to submit the annual declaration one month after the date on which they were obliged to do so in terms of the tax provisions or 2 or more consecutive or non-consecutive provisional or definitive declarations.

For individuals who pay taxes under the Simplified Trust Regime, the temporary restriction shall be made when it is detected that they omitted 3 or more monthly payments in a calendar year, consecutive or not, or the annual declaration.

II.- The taxpayer is not located or disappears during the administrative enforcement procedure.

III.- In the exercise of their powers, the authorities detect that the taxpayer cannot be located at his tax domicile, disappears during the procedure, vacates his tax domicile without presenting the corresponding change notice in the federal registry of taxpayers, his domicile is unknown, or, within said exercise of powers, it is learned that the tax receipts issued were used to cover non-existent, simulated or illegal operations.

IV.- It’s detected that these are taxpayers who are located in the situation referred to in the eighth paragraph of article 69-B of the Federal Tax Code (already cited), who have not exercised the right provided in their favor within the period established in said paragraph, or having exercised it, have not accredited the effective acquisition of the goods or receipt of the services covered by the receipts issued by the taxpayer included in the list referred to in the fourth paragraph of said article, nor corrected their tax situation.

V.- As a result of the verification provided for in article 27 of the Federal Tax Code, it is detected that the tax domicile indicated by the taxpayer does not comply with the legal hypotheses contemplated in article 10.

VI.- They detect that the declared income, the value of the taxed acts or activities declared, as well as the tax withheld by the taxpayer, stated in the provisional or definitive payment declarations, withholdings or for the fiscal year, or the informative ones, do not match the income or value of acts or activities indicated in the digital tax receipts on the internet, their payment complements or bank account statements, files, documents or databases that the tax authorities keep, have in their possession or to which they have access.

VII.- They detect that, for reasons attributable to the taxpayers, the means of contact established by the Tax Administration Service through general rules registered for the use of the tax mailbox are not correct or authentic.

VIII.- They detect the commission of one or more of the infringing conducts provided for in articles 79, 81, and 83 of the Federal Tax Code, and the conduct is carried out by the taxpayer holding the digital seal certificate.

IX.- They detect that the legal entity has a partner or shareholder who has effective control of it and whose certificate has become ineffective due to one of the legal hypotheses analyzed in section 3) of this entry and has not corrected its tax situation or that said partner or shareholder has effective control of another legal entity with the same problems and has not corrected its tax situation either.

A) Request for Clarification

Taxpayers who have been temporarily restricted from using the digital seal certificate for issuing digital tax receipts online may submit, within no more than 40 business days, the request for clarification through the procedure provided for in rule 2.2.15 of the Miscellaneous Tax Resolution for Fiscal Year 2024 using the procedure form 296/CFF called ‘Clarification to correct irregularities detected in terms of article 17-H Bis of the Federal Tax Code’.

In this case, the tax authority must issue a resolution on said procedure within a maximum period of 10 business days, counted from the day following the day on which the corresponding request is received. In any case, until the corresponding resolution is issued, the tax authority shall allow the digital seal certificate to issue tax receipts online. Finally, the resolution shall be made known to the taxpayer through the tax mailbox.

B) Authorities’ Request for Additional Information

Notwithstanding the request for clarification described in the previous section, the tax authorities may require the taxpayer, by means of an official letter that shall be notified through their tax mailbox within 5 business days following the day on which the taxpayer has submitted their request for clarification, to provide the data, information or additional documentation that they consider necessary, granting them a maximum period of 5 business days for their presentation, counted from the date on which the notification of the request takes effect.

C) Extension

Taxpayers may request, for one occasion only, an extension of 5 additional business days to provide the required data, information, or documentation, provided the request is made within said period. The requested extension shall be deemed to be granted without the need for a ruling by the authority and shall begin to be computed from the day after its expiration.

Once the period for providing the required data, information or documentation and, where applicable, the extension period has elapsed, without the taxpayer responding to the request, the request for clarification shall be deemed not to have been submitted, so the use of the digital seal certificate shall be restricted again and the forty days referred to in this entry shall be computed. The period of ten days to resolve the request for clarification shall begin to be computed from the day after the period on which the period for providing the required data, information, or documentation or, where applicable, the extension period ends.

D) Diligence of Correction

If, from the analysis of the data, information, or documentation submitted by the taxpayer through his request for clarification or in response to the request, it appears necessary for the tax authority to carry out some diligence or discharge some procedure to be able to resolve the respective request for clarification, the tax authority must inform the taxpayer of such circumstance, utilizing an official letter that shall be notified through the tax mailbox, within 5 business days following the day on which the request for clarification was submitted or the request was attended to, in which case the diligence or the procedure in question must be carried out within no more than 5 days, counted from the date on which the notification of the corresponding official letter takes effect. The 10-day period to resolve the request for clarification shall begin to be computed from the date on which the diligence or procedure has been discharged.

E) Final Cancellation

When the 40-day period expires without the taxpayer having submitted the request for clarification or when, as a result of the assessment made by the tax authority regarding the taxpayer’s request for clarification, it’s determined that the taxpayer did not correct the irregularities detected, or did not refute the causes that motivated the provisional restriction of the digital seal certificate, the authority shall issue a resolution to render the digital seal certificate ineffective.

5) Obligations of the Holder of a Digital Seal Certificate

The holder of a certificate issued by the Tax Administration Service shall have the following obligations:

I.- To act diligently and establish reasonable means to prevent unauthorized use of the signature creation data.

II.- When the certificate is used in relation to an advanced electronic signature, act with reasonable diligence to ensure that all statements made about the certificate, its validity, or that have been recorded are accurate.

III.- To request the revocation of the certificate in the event of any circumstance that may jeopardize the privacy of the signature creation data.

6) Tax Mailbox

Individuals and legal entities registered in the federal taxpayer registry shall be assigned a tax mailbox consisting of an electronic communication system located on the Tax Administration Service’s website, through which:

I.- The tax authority shall notify any administrative act or resolution it issues in digital documents, including any that may be appealed, and may send messages of interest.

II. Taxpayers shall submit promotions, requests, notices, or comply with requests from the authority through digital documents and may inquire about their tax situation.

Finally, individuals and legal entities assigned a tax mailbox must consult it within 3 business days following the day they receive an electronic notice sent by the Tax Administration Service. When the taxpayer does not enable the tax mailbox, indicates erroneous or non-existent means of contact, or does not keep them updated, it shall be understood that he opposes the notification, and the authority may notify him pursuant to the provisions of article 134, section III of the Federal Tax Code^[4].

By Omar Gómez

Mexican Tax, Constitutional, and Tax Attorney

Partner

Contact me at [email protected]

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^[1] Article 29.- When tax laws establish the obligation to issue tax receipts for the acts or activities carried out, for the income received or for the withholding of contributions made, taxpayers must issue them through digital documents through the page Internet of the Tax Administration Service. Persons who acquire goods, enjoy their use or temporary enjoyment, receive services, make partial or deferred payments that settle balances of digital tax receipts online, or those from whom contributions have been withheld must request the respective digital tax receipt online. Taxpayers who export goods that are not subject to disposal or whose disposal is free of charge, must issue the digital tax receipt online that covers the operation.

The taxpayers referred to in the previous paragraph must comply with the following obligations:

I. Have a current advanced electronic signature certificate, have tax obligations in the Federal Taxpayer Registry and comply with the requirements determined by the Tax Administration Service through general rules.

II. Process the certificate for the use of digital stamps before the Tax Administration Service.

Taxpayers may choose to use one or more digital stamp certificates that shall be used exclusively for the issuance of tax receipts through digital documents. The digital seal shall allow accreditation of the authorship of the digital tax receipts over the internet issued by individuals and legal entities, which is subject to the regulations applicable to the use of the advanced electronic signature.

Taxpayers may process obtaining a digital seal certificate to be used by all their establishments or premises, or process obtaining a digital seal certificate for each of their establishments. The Tax Administration Service shall establish through general rules the control and identification requirements to which the use of the taxpayers’ digital seal shall be subject.

The processing of a digital seal certificate can only be carried out through an electronic format that has the advanced electronic signature of the applicant.

III. Comply with the requirements established in article 29-A of this Code, and those that the Tax Administration Service establishes for this purpose through general rules, including the complements of the digital tax receipt over the Internet, which shall be published on the Internet Portal of the Tax Administration Service.

IV. Send to the Tax Administration Service, before its issuance, the respective digital tax receipt via Internet through the digital mechanisms determined for this purpose by said decentralized body through general rules, so that it proceeds to:

a) Validate compliance with the requirements established in article 29-A of this Code and the contents of the supplements to the digital tax receipts over the Internet, which the Tax Administration Service establishes through general rules.

b) Assign the digital tax receipt folio.

c) Incorporate the digital seal of the Tax Administration Service.

V. Once the digital seal of the Tax Administration Service is incorporated into the digital tax receipt online, they must deliver or make available to their clients, through the electronic means provided by the aforementioned deconcentrated body through general rules, the electronic file of the digital Internet tax receipt in question and, when requested by the client, its printed representation, which only presumes the existence of said tax receipt.

VI. Comply with the computer specifications determined by the Tax Administration Service through general rules.

Taxpayers shall be able to check the authenticity of the online digital tax receipts that they receive by checking the Internet page of the Tax Administration Service if the folio number that covers the digital tax receipt was authorized to the issuer and if at the time of issuance of the receipt digital fiscal, the certificate that covers the digital seal was valid and registered in said decentralized body.

In the case of the refunds, discounts or bonuses referred to in article 25 of the Income Tax Law, digital tax receipts must be issued online. In the event that receipts are issued that cover expenses without having the justification and documentary support that proves the refunds, discounts or bonuses before the tax authorities, these cannot be reduced from the tax receipts of the taxpayer’s income, which can be verified by them in the exercise of the powers established in this Code.

The Tax Administration Service, through general rules, may establish administrative facilities for taxpayers to issue their digital tax receipts by their own means, through service providers or with the electronic means determined in said rules. Likewise, through the aforementioned rules you shall be able to establish the characteristics of the receipts that shall serve to protect the transportation and the legal possession and stay of the merchandise during it, as well as the receipts that cover operations carried out with the general public.

In the case of acts or activities that have tax effects in which there is no obligation to issue a digital tax receipt over the Internet, the Tax Administration Service may, through general rules, establish the characteristics of the digital documents that cover such operations.

^[2] Article 19-A.- Legal entities may choose to use their advanced electronic signature to present digital documents or do so with the advanced electronic signature of their legal representative. In the first case, the holder of the certificate shall be the legal entity. The processing of the advanced electronic signature creation data of a legal entity may only be carried out by a representative of said person, to whom a general power of attorney for acts of ownership or administration has been granted before a notary public; In this case, the representative must previously have a current advanced electronic signature certificate. Said procedure must be carried out in accordance with the provisions of article 17-D of this Code.

Legal entities that choose to present digital documents with their own advanced electronic signature must use the creation data of their advanced electronic signature in all their procedures before the Tax Administration Service. In the case of consultations or the exercise of defense means, the use of the advanced electronic signature referred to in the previous paragraph shall be optional; When this is not used, the corresponding promotion must contain the advanced electronic signature of the representative of the legal entity.

It shall be presumed, without admitting evidence to the contrary, that the digital documents containing the advanced electronic signature of the legal entities were presented by the sole administrator, the president of the board of directors or the person or persons, whatever the name with which that are designated, that have been granted the general direction, general management or administration of the legal entity in question, at the time the digital documents were presented.

^[3] Article 69-B.- When the tax authority detects that a taxpayer has been issuing receipts without having the assets, personnel, infrastructure or material capacity, directly or indirectly, to provide the services or produce, market or deliver the goods covered by such receipts, or that said taxpayers are not located, it shall be presumed that the operations covered by such receipts do not exist.

In this case, it shall proceed to notify the taxpayers who are in such situation through their tax mailbox, the Tax Administration Service website, as well as through publication in the Official Gazzete of the Federation, so that those taxpayers can state to the tax authority what is convenient to their right and provide the documentation and information that they consider pertinent to refute the facts that led the authority to notify them. To do so, the interested taxpayers shall have a period of fifteen days from the last of the notifications that have been made.

Taxpayers may request, through the tax mailbox, a one-time extension of five days to the period provided for in the previous paragraph, to provide the respective documentation and information, provided that the request for extension is made within said period. The extension requested in these terms shall be deemed to be granted without the need for a ruling by the authority and shall begin to be computed from the day following the expiration of the period provided for in the previous paragraph.

Once the period for providing the documentation and information and, where applicable, the extension period has elapsed, the authority, within a period not to exceed fifty days, shall assess the evidence and defenses that have been asserted and shall notify its decision to the respective taxpayers through the tax mailbox. Within the first twenty days of this period, the authority may request additional documentation and information from the taxpayer, which must be provided within ten days after the notification of the request through the tax mailbox takes effect. In this case, the aforementioned fifty-day period shall be suspended from the date of notification of the request and shall be resumed on the day after the aforementioned ten-day period expires. Likewise, a list shall be published in the Official Gazzete of the Federation and on the website of the Tax Administration Service, of the taxpayers who have not refuted the facts imputed to them and, therefore, are definitively in the situation referred to in the first paragraph of this article. In no case shall this list be published before thirty days after notification of the resolution.

The effects of the publication of this list shall be to consider, with general effects, that the operations contained in the tax receipts issued by the taxpayer in question do not produce or did not produce any tax effect.

The tax authority shall also publish in the Official Gazette of the Federation and on the website of the Tax Administration Service, on a quarterly basis, a list of those taxpayers who manage to disprove the facts imputed to them, as well as those who obtained a final resolution or judgment that has rendered ineffective the resolution referred to in the fourth paragraph of this article, derived from the means of defense presented by the taxpayer.

If the authority does not notify the corresponding resolution, within the period of fifty days, the presumption regarding the observed tax receipts, which gave rise to the procedure, shall be without effect.

Individuals or legal entities that have given any fiscal effect to the tax receipts issued by a taxpayer included in the list referred to in the fourth paragraph of this article, shall have thirty days following the aforementioned publication to prove to the authority itself that they effectively acquired the goods or received the services covered by the aforementioned tax receipts, or they shall proceed within the same period to correct their tax situation, through the corresponding complementary declaration or declarations, which they must present in terms of this Code.

In the event that the tax authority, in the use of its verification powers, detects that an individual or legal entity did not prove the effective provision of the service or acquisition of the goods, or did not correct its tax situation, in the terms provided for in the previous paragraph, it shall determine the corresponding tax credit(s). Likewise, the operations covered by the aforementioned tax receipts shall be considered as simulated acts or contracts for the purposes of the crimes provided for in this Code.

For the purposes of this article, the non-existence of the operations covered by the tax receipts shall also be presumed when the tax authority detects that a taxpayer has been issuing receipts that support operations carried out by another taxpayer during the period in which the latter has had its digital seal certificates rendered ineffective or temporarily restricted in its use in accordance with the provisions of articles 17-H and 17-H Bis of this Code, without having corrected the irregularities detected by the tax authority, or by issuing receipts that support operations carried out with the assets, personnel, infrastructure or material capacity of said person.

^[4] Article 134.- Notifications of administrative acts shall be made: […]

III.- By notice, when the person to be notified cannot be located at the address he has indicated for the purposes of the federal taxpayer registry, his address or that of his representative is unknown, he disappears, opposes the service of notification or is placed in the situation provided for in section V of article 110 of this Code and in other cases indicated by the tax laws and this Code. […].