Generally, Mexican taxpayers are required to issue a CFDI for
their acts, duties, income, or tax retentions. The so called CFDI
is an acronym for Comprobante Fiscal Digital por Internet , and
some refer to it as the electronic invoice. It is issued to
taxpayers through the Mexican Revenue and Tax Authority
(SAT-Servicio de Administracion Tributaria) website. However, the
CFDI is not an ordinary invoice; instead it is an invoice with
legal and tax effects that allows the government to control,
investigate, and supervise acts, duties, income, or tax retentions
at the same time it is issued. The CFDI is a complex document which
involves high level expertise to complete. It includes safety
technical standards that guarantee its authenticity and help
identify certain data, such as the type of transaction, the
taxpayer that issued it, the recipient of the CFDI, place and date
of issuance, type of goods/merchandise or services covered,
quantity, unit of measure, and the sequence number and digital
seal, among other data elements.
On December 29, 2020, the Mexican government amended the Mexican
regulations to require taxpayers transporting merchandise within
the Mexican territory to incorporate the CFDI “Complemento
Carta Porte” (waybill complement). This waybill complement
includes information related to the merchandise, involved parties,
point of pick up and destination, and means of transportation
(land, railroad, sea, air), among others.
The requirements to complete and prepare a waybill complement
may vary depending on the type of goods, especially if they are
from the hydrocarbon, petroleum, or petrochemical industry, and if
the taxpayer is the owner, intermediate party, transportation
agency, freight forwarder, etc.
There are over 185 blocks to select and fill out when completing
the waybill complement. The blocks include information regarding
the type of transportation, total distances, point of pick up,
point of destination, sender/recipient and their contact and tax
information, and a description of the merchandise, including
weight, size, number of pieces, value, classification code,
currency, type of transportation, containers, vehicle plates,
government permits, insurance, etc.
This new requirement was supposed to become effective starting
June 2021. However, some companies and organizations expressed
their concerns and approached SAT to discuss the need for more
transparent, clear regulations, and additional time to train their
personnel and change their database systems for compliance. In
addition, some were not sure how to correctly produce the waybill
because they found SAT’s instructions to be vague or they fail
to address the specific situation or condition of their operations.
Others consider this to be a burdensome requirement given all the
other documents needed for each shipment, (i.e., the invoice and
the pedimento (Mexican entry summary form)) such that the
instructions and information applicable to the waybill are lengthy
and require duplicated efforts.
As a result of these lobbying efforts, SAT agreed to postpone
the waybill obligation and stated that there would be a time frame
for voluntary compliance starting December 1, 2021, but companies
must be in full compliance no later than January 1, 2022.
Moreover, on November 12, 2021, the Mexican government amended
the Mexican Fiscal Code to state that that anyone transporting
merchandise or goods without the waybill would be sanctioned and
investigated for contraband.
On November 30, 2021, the Camara de Diputado Federales (Federal
House of Representatives) urged SAT to postpone the application of
this requirement for at least 60 days, and to provide clarification
on the waybill requirements so that companies could have more time
to ensure compliance.
All this has, of course, resulted in legal and administrative
uncertainty for companies doing business in Mexico. Consequently,
businesses are being affected adversely since the instructions are
vague at best. The only thing for sure is that this situation will
continue during the following days, if not months, so we are in a
“wait and see” mode. Hopefully, it will not substantially
affect how you do business in Mexico.
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The content of this article is intended to provide a general
guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought
about your specific circumstances.
