The Tax Administration Service (SAT) sent a message to the Tax Mailbox explaining that one of the employers had a problem, and that is why they could not return the amount. To solve it, Nelly submitted the refund request directly, attaching her bank account statement, but she has not received a response.
incomplete returns
The deposits of the declarations presented the first week of April flowed in the second week of the month, but there are cases in which the balances in favor are not being returned or deposited, this is because there is probably some clarification before the tax authority, explained Ramiro Ávalos, fiscal vice president of the Mexican Institute of Public Accountants of Mexico (IMCP).
Juan N. filed his statement on April 5. He made deductions for medical expenses, voluntary contributions to the Afore and mortgage credit taxes. He reported balances in his favor, but he did not receive them in full, “a week later I received more or less 70% of the refund that appeared on my statement.”
The return is less than 150,000 pesos, so the reason for this partial payment is unknown, and no clarification has been provided. Until the closing of this edition, Juan had not received any message in the Tax Mailbox and he does not know how to know why his return did not arrive completely.
“Any person who has a return of less than 150,000 pesos is automatic, it does not go through a reviewer, an auditor, we take it for good, but if it happens, it is reviewed. Below, no human participates (in the process), just as the taxpayer declares it, that’s how it happens automatically,” reported Raquel Buenrostro, head of the SAT, at a press conference last week.
The IMCP representative stressed that in the event of an incomplete or non-fulfilled refund, the taxpayer must discuss with the authority or accountants the reasons why incomplete balances are being received, and if deemed necessary, issue a supplementary statement with the authority.
“What is always recommended is to verify that all the income is there, everything in the correct fields, that the deductions and withholdings are there, in different preloaded declarations some medical expenses were not registered, so the taxpayer had to include them manually, normally when there are deductions that are not preloaded, it is because there is some detail with these deductions”, detailed the accountant.
Good luck
There are also other cases in which taxpayers receive their credit balances in five days. Monica filed her statement last Monday, and the following Friday she received the balance in her account, and she will use it to settle the balance on her credit card.
“The procedures for the returns of natural persons have grown 40%, more procedures are done, more money is returned and we see that we do it in fewer days. The law sets a limit of 40 days. This year the average is 16.6 days, in 2020 it was 21 days,” explained the head of the SAT.
The month to file the annual return in Mexico is April, so there are still no comparative figures on returns, but in the first quarter, when legal entities file their return, 193.706 million pesos were paid in tax refunds; 56,014 million pesos more than the first quarter of last year, that is, 31.2% more. Only the amount of ISR returned grew 178% real annually, according to updated figures from the SAT.
Fraud
There are also those who were less lucky and fell prey to fraud.
“On the first day of April, a high-ranking official of this government entered at 10:00 am to make his statement, but when he entered the SAT platform, his statement had already been made and they had already asked for his balance in favor,” he said. Good face at the press conference last week.
In this case, the SAT only provides advice so that the taxpayer files a complaint with the Public Ministry, “it is a fraud between private parties, we cannot do anything. It is a matter between private parties, the SAT does not participate, we are not responsible for dealing with complaints, it is like when a car is stolen, you go to the Public Prosecutor’s Office, you file a complaint, in this case it is theft due to breach of trust, the responsible body is the public ministry, the prosecutor’s office,” Buenrostro commented.
Here what is being seen is that taxpayers lend their USB with the e.signature and password, so that a third party can make their return. But these put a bank account outside the taxpayer so that the balances in favor are deposited there.
“The electronic signature and password is equivalent to a handwritten signature, it is like signing a bunch of blank pages, and it is only the taxpayer’s responsibility. Don’t give it away, don’t share it,” he said.
SAT figures detail that last year 545 people filed complaints for this type of fraud, in total it represented a fraud of 4 million pesos. At the end of April 18, an affectation of 2.3 million pesos was recorded for 334 people who were defrauded.
