Alejandro Alegría
La Jornada Newspaper
Saturday, December 20, 2025, p. 3
Ricardo Salinas Pliego’s debts to the Tax Administration Service (SAT) are a burden of at least 17 years, since during that time he has failed to comply with the tax authorities.
The debt indicated by the head of the SAT, Antonio Martínez Dagnino, was originally about 36 billion pesos, but grew due to non-payment and the application of surcharges.
The businessman has used various legal resources to avoid liquidating the tax authorities. However, last November the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN) issued a resolution that forces the businessman to pay the debt.
The largest debt of Grupo Salinas comes from losses that the authority declared non-existent for the purchase of shares in 2008, 2010, 2011 and 2012, which culminated in 2013 with a tax credit – as the authority calls the liabilities it claims from taxpayers – from the SAT of 18,455 million pesos, according to reports to the Mexican Stock Exchange.
At the end of 2018, Tv Azteca was litigating 5,443 million pesos for liabilities that the SAT had claimed for years, one of them from 2001, and Elektra was disputing 14,08 million pesos.
It is estimated that Salinas Pliego’s total debt exceeds 74 billion pesos, that is, what it must pay next January does not correspond to the total.
Not only Elektra, but also Nueva Elektra and Tv Azteca are involved in credits from the 2008-2014 fiscal years.
In recent years, the conglomerate and the Salinas Pliego companies have used protections and litigation in the SCJN to avoid payment, delaying the settlement of income tax (ISR) debts, updates and surcharges.
Despite this, the Court ruled in favor of the SAT in seven tax trials; five corresponded to Elektra and the rest to Tv Azteca.
