Mexico Cracks Down on Exports with “Complemento Comercio Exterior” Requirement

February 8, 2017

Steve Sprague

Author

Sovos

This blog was last updated on February 8, 2017

Despite major initiatives to increase visibility into commercial transactions within its borders, Mexico’s tax authority, the SAT, has been dealing with a gap in information on exports. Current e-invoices and reporting requirements are not enough to identify and link Mexican exporters with foreign customers, but that will soon change. Starting on July 1, 2017, companies exporting from Mexico will not only have to comply with Mexico’s new e-invoicing schema – version 3.3 – but also will have to implement a new foreign trade complemento requirement (version 1.1).

Previously, the CFDI e-invoicing format was not used for foreign commercial exports. Instead, multiple documents were required, including a proforma invoice, proof of value (Comprobante de Valor Electrónico) and a customs form. Ultimately, this led to discrepancies between the documents and the potential for illegal activities and tax evasion. Now, these three submissions will be eliminated in favor of a standard CFDI format. Like other SAT initiatives, the goal of the Complemento Comercio Exterior is to simplify processes and better track exported goods, ultimately eliminating tax fraud.

The new commercial export requirement must be used when a taxpayer is permanently exporting goods to a foreign country, and will require 29 validations, including:

Tax ID of the buyer
Destination country
Brand name, part number, serial number or other key identifier of the goods exported
Value of the merchandise

Compliance with Complemento Comercio Exterior is timed in conjunction with CFDI v3.3, the largest update to the CFDI schema in years. There’s also another new coinciding regulation regarding payments that we’ll discuss more in the coming weeks. Combined, these updates will require several new catalogs and processes, so companies doing business in Mexico need to act fast to ensure they are ready to comply with these new initiatives. Watch our recent webinar on CFDI v.3.3 to learn more about these requirements and compliance best practices.

Steve Sprague

Como director comercial, Steve Sprague dirige la estrategia corporativa, las iniciativas de penetración de mercado y de field enablement para el negocio del impuesto sobre el valor añadido global (GVAT) de la empresa. El estilo de liderazgo de Steve se basa en su convicción de que, para que las organizaciones tengan éxito, deben comprometerse e invertir en los tres pilares estratégicos de la empresa: las personas, las prácticas y los productos.

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