At least three companies related to Senator Armando Guadiana Tijerina were benefited by the government from the so-called Fourth Transformation with forgiveness of tax debts when the mining businessman was already a legislator for Morena in the upper house.
Between January and February 2020, the Tax Administration Service (SAT) condoned three fines totaling two million 675 thousand pesos to Compañía Minera Ameca, Compañía Minera Huajicari and the firm Carbón Mexicano, in which Guadiana appears as shareholder or legal representative.
It is not the first time that their companies have obtained tax forgiveness, but it is the first time that these benefits occur when Guadiana was already a businessman and a senator of the Republic, a position that the Coahuila has held since 2018.
These waivers, which are not illegal because taxpayers can ask the treasury to forgive them certain fines, are released just one month after the taxpayers Pandora Papers revealed that Guadiana concealed in his declaration of assets the existence of an offshore trust that he opened in the British Virgin Islands in 2007 and where he said he had a fortune that exceeded 28 million dollars.
The company with the highest amount condoned by the SAT was Compañía Minera Ameca, founded in the eighties by Guadiana and his brothers. In December 2019, the firm based in Saltillo requested the cancellation of a debt of two million 153 thousand pesos, which was authorized two months later, on February 11, 2020, according to the list of forgiveness of fines published by the SAT.
That same day the tax authorities forgave the payment of another fine of 376 thousand pesos to the Huajicari Mining Company, established in Tepic, in which the senator and his brother José Luis Guadiana Tijerina appear as proxies, who also appears on the Pandora list Mexican papers with trusts in tax havens.
Armando and José Luis Guadiana also appear as legal representatives of Carbón Mexicano, which on January 21, 2020 requested and obtained the cancellation of a fine of 145 thousand pesos, according to the data on tax debts contained in the SAT lists and in the National Platform of Transparency.
Neither the senator nor his brother responded to requests for an interview to explain why their companies were fined. SAT spokespersons said that due to tax secrecy they cannot report why they condoned debts to the Guadiana companies, but explained that due to the pandemic, since last year “tax benefits and administrative facilities” were given so that taxpayers could regularize their situation. and take advantage of the fine reductions. The tax waivers in favor of the senator’s companies occurred in January and February 2020, before the Covid-19 pandemic began in Mexico.
Taxpayers in Mexico can request that the fines imposed be forgiven them for various reasons, whether for not paying taxes, making undue deductions, not declaring income, for omissions in filing the return, declaring tax losses improperly or for the breach of other tax obligations.
The law allows these types of fines to be forgiven in exchange for the taxpayer being up to date with their obligations, although the public lists of the SAT do not accurately reveal the type of fine imposed on a taxpayer, or the reason for applying it or forgive her.
The Guadiana companies have already enjoyed debt forgiveness before: in 2016, the company founded by the senator, Materiales Industrializados, obtained a forgiveness of more than 2 million pesos; In 2017, the firm Credix GS where the legislator and his son Marco Antonio appear as proxies, achieved a forgiveness of 356 thousand pesos, and in 2018 the SAT forgave 55 thousand pesos to the Compañía Minera Zapaliname in which the senator and his brother José Luis appear as proxies.
Mining empire, between paradises and condonations
A fan of Texan hats, livestock and fighting bulls, Armando Guadiana has built an industrial emporium linked to mining and coal trading. In the last decade alone, the senator reported that he has reported personal income of more than 200 million pesos, and together with his children and his brother José Luis, he has participated in at least 50 companies, according to the public mercantile registry.
The SAT has granted tax benefits to Guadiana companies, which have had millionaire income in recent years. At least three firms declared revenues of 13,200 million pesos in the last decade, according to revealed the senator in a press conference that he offered after the publication of the Pandora Papers.
Secret documents revealed last month indicate that the senator created his offshore The Hawaii Trust to manage the inheritance he would leave to his children, although he later offered other explanations arguing a failed investment in Colombia. Guadiana said he had omitted the value of his fortune in his wealth declaration because his accountants were wrong. “I was stunned on the Declaranet affair,” he confessed.
His brother José Luis also followed in his footsteps in tax havens. In May 2007, she created the Patagonia Trust, a trust based in the Virgin Islands in which she designated her three daughters as beneficiaries, according to the records of the Panamanian law firm Alemán, Cordero, Galindo & Lee (Alcogal). The Pandora Papers do not reveal the amount of money involved or offer details, and José Luis Guadiana did not respond to a questionnaire sent by reporters.
In the past, the Morena senator had criticized the federal government granting tax privileges such as the forgiveness of millionaire taxes during the six-year terms of Felipe Calderón and Enrique Peña Nieto. “It is a shame that they have made these condonations to many of the large companies in Mexico”, said the legislator in May 2019. SAT documents indicate that the Guadiana companies have benefited only from the forgiveness of fines, and not from the cancellation of taxes.
“It would be important to analyze whether certain types of fines should be waived, perhaps a fine for filing the return in an untimely manner makes sense, but if they waive you for not having filed your return, or having hidden resources abroad or non-corresponding deductions, This type of more serious conduct should not be allowed, ”the coordinator of Fundar’s tax justice program, Iván Benumea Gómez, said in an interview.
The expert regretted that the criteria followed by the SAT to waive the fines are not clear. “It is still a bit discretionary, there are already more rules and procedures but in reality it is not very clear in which cases they decide to waive the fine and in which cases they do not.”
The SAT does not publish the information related to the type of fines forgiven, so Benumea Gómez considers that the documents where the authority supports and justifies the reasons for authorizing the forgiveness should be made transparent. “This information should be public to avoid this type of questioning and to be certain that what is happening is totally legitimate.”
