The Illegality in the Presumptive Determinations

In general terms, contributions in our country are ruled by the self-determination principle, which implies that the taxpayers themselves state their income and therefore enter the amounts that must be paid, according to their tax capacity, however, the tax authority has powers, to verify whether taxpayers comply with their obligations legally before the federal treasury, likewise has powers to presumptively determine tax credits if it notices failure to comply with tax obligations, to individuals and corporations.

Nowadays, it is common for legal entities and individuals with business activity to be affected by the presumptive determinations exercised by the tax authorities, which usually are for very high amounts. However, the powers of the authority to presumptively determine the tax credits owed, are fully regulated in the Federal Tax Code, in articles 55, 56, 58 and 59, section III, which state that they can not be enforced arbitrarily by the tax authority.

In the statutes previously mentioned, two general presumptive determination procedures are regulated, the first of uncertain basis, where the taxpayer’s income is unknown, and the second of a certain base, where the taxpayer’s incomes made through bank deposits are presumed to be certain.

It is important to mention that on multiple times the tax authority applies both presumptive determination mechanisms indistinctly, ending as a logical consequence, that the amount determined as a tax credit is extremely burdensome.

Due to the foregoing, it is evident that, if the legal entities or individuals with business activity get wrong legal advice in tax matters, the taxpayers will be compelled to cover the exorbitant payments of the amounts determined in an illegal manner.

Otherwise, if the individual or legal entity has an adequate fiscal defense, they will avoid being victims of an arbitrariness by the fiscal authority, diminishing the amounts of the determined tax credit, and even more, if the presumptive determination turns out to be illegal; the taxpayer will be able to get the nullity of the tax credit.