Tax Obligations. Private Documents Supporting or Providing Backup to Certain Transactions Carried out by Taxpayers Shall Have Authenticated Date

TAX OBLIGATIONS. PRIVATE DOCUMENTS SUPPORTING OR PROVIDING BACKUP TO CERTAIN TRANSACTIONS CARRIED OUT BY TAXPAYERS SHALL HAVE AUTHENTICATED DATE

Last Friday, December 6, 2019, the jurisprudential thesis number 2a./J. 161/2019 (10ª.) issued by the Second Chamber of the Nation´s Supreme Court of Justice (Suprema Corte de Justicia de la Nación) under the heading: “PRIVATE DOCUMENTS. THEY SHALL COMPLY WITH THE REQUIREMENT OF “AUTHENTICATED DATE” WHEN IT COMES TO EXERCISE OF THE VERIFICATION AUTHORIY TO VERIFY THE COMPLIANCE OF THE TAXPAYER´S TAX OBLIGATIONS” was published. Said jurisprudence is mandatory from Monday, December 9, 2019.

Derived from the thesis contradiction 203/2019, the Second Chamber of the Nation´s Supreme Court of Justice determined that the documents that the taxpayers shall keep to evidence the acquisition date of an asset or the date of entering into an agreement or executing a transaction affecting their tax obligations shall have authenticated date, so that the tax authority can verify the existence of the legal acts entered into by the taxpayers, and that they correspond precisely to the evaluated tax years.

The Chamber mentioned above set forth that private documents shall have the support of an authenticated date, since only through this support it can be certain that the date has not been manipulated by the executing parties. Otherwise, it would grant full validity to a private document, involving only the parties who entered it. The aforementioned without prejudice of the fact that tax laws do not expressly set forth said authenticated date requirement.

To grant effect to the legal certainty and security principles in the materiality of the act included in a private document, the Second Chamber set forth that documents will have authenticated date:

• From the day they are incorporated or registered in a Public Registry of Property and Commerce;
• From the date on which they are presented to a person that has been vested with “public faith” (fé pública) by reason of his or her office; and
• From the moment in which any of the executing parties dies.

As a result of the aforementioned, we suggest analyzing and confirming the authenticated date of the different transactions and private documents supporting them presented to the tax authority as consequence of the exercise of its verification authority to avoid it from denying their validity and/or existence, by claiming that the supporting documents do not have the required authenticated date, with all the tax consequences that this could have.

For more information, please do not hesitate to contact us

Cannizzo, Ortiz y Asociados, S.C.