The South Korean company Samsung Electronics maintains a legal dispute over 6,714 million pesos that the SAT claims for VAT not withheld between 2019 and 2023.
While in the case of eight maquiladora companies, they demand the return of the VAT that was already charged for a new interpretation. If the Court agrees with them, the SAT would be obliged to return 46,000 million pesos.
As much as Samsung, the maquiladoras demand the validity of the rules of the IMMEX program, a scheme that allows companies to temporarily import components necessary for their production and transformation processes, without paying VAT, as long as the final product is exported.
However, Pedimento V5 allows products to be “virtually exported”, but remain in the national market for logistical purposes and to reduce procedures and costs.
According to the tax authority, this mechanism of the IMMEX program was used abusively by some exporting companies and generated tax evasion, so in 2019 it modified its interpretation and considered that if the merchandise is in Mexico, the Value Added Tax must be applied, but since it is also being “imported” it must incur VAT.
The South Korean technology company argues that these are documentary operations between IMMEX companies that successively participate in the production chain before final export, so they do not merit payment of VAT and doing so would imply a double payment.
The Court attracted this case, after a contradiction of criteria, since the Federal Court of Administrative Justice (TFJA) and the Administrative Plenary of the North Central Region ruled in favor of the companies, but last December a Collegiate Court based in Yucatán ruled in favor of the SAT and against a maquiladora, which was required to pay a tax credit of 9.2 million pesos.
Coparmex warned that – if the Treasury’s criteria were confirmed – any Mexican industry that participates in the IMMEX program would be at risk of being taxed unjustifiably.
The former president of the Employers’ Confederation of the Mexican Republic (Coparmex) and federal deputy for MC, Gustavo de Hoyos Walther, suggests that the “new” Court acts in an “unusual way” and attracts cases like these, but not because of their legal relevance, but because of the amount of resources they would represent.
“The Judiciary must maintain independence of judgment. Whether or not the treasury requires more resources is not a matter that concerns the Court, that corresponds to tax policy and the Legislative Branch when establishing taxes,” says the also expert in corporate and international law.
Under no circumstances should the collection criteria regulate the Court’s actions.
Gustavo de Hoyos, federal deputy.
Until September 2025, the SAT has won 6,559 lawsuits for 141,547 million pesos and lost 3,774 for an amount of 33,223.6 million pesos, according to the most recent report on the Economic Situation, Public Finances and Public Debt of the Ministry of Finance.
