One of the most dynamic economic activities in Ciudad Juárez is, without a doubt, the import and export of merchandise[1]. Not for nothing did our city become a hub for the maquiladora industry. Therefore, knowing the details of Mexican customs law and the regulation of foreign trade is vital. Matters where Administrative Law and Tax Law converge. Hence its importance and difficulty.
To elucidate how customs law works in our country, I will allow myself to address the most essential and general issues of the matter so that, in subsequent entries, I will address specific issues of both customs law and foreign trade that merit a thorough study or an analysis of its judicial precedents. The above is because the contributions arising from this matter and the respect for its constitutional principles (see the entries on both topics, Contributions Contemplated in Mexico and Constitutional Principles of Taxes in Mexico) impact access to goods.
In this sense, in this first stage, I will address the general customs regulations in Mexico, customs clearance and recognition of merchandise, the fiscal deposit regime, and the electronic customs system. I will also list the different customs regimes so that in later posts, I will discuss the verification powers of the customs authorities, deal with matters related to the border area, and elaborate on the customs regimes. Having said this and without further ado, I begin with a summary of the legal institutions of customs law.
List of Contents
- Original Language and Source of this Entry
- 1) Regulation
- 2) Purpose
- 3) Who is Obligated by Law?
- 4) Customs Regimes
- 5) Omitted Contributions and their Updating
- 6) Customs Electronic System
- A) Electronic Notifications
- B) Notification by Lists
- C) Authorized Persons
- D) Computation of Deadlines
- E) Business Days for Electronic Notifications
- 7) Obligation to Declare Cash
- 8) Customs Control
- A) Routes of Introduction and Extraction of Goods
- B) Tax Precincts
- C) Business Days for Verification Powers
- 9) Customs Deposit
- A) Temporary Deposit
- B) Handling of Goods in the Warehouse
- C) Consequences of the Destruction of Goods in the Warehouse
- D) Responsibility for the Loss of Goods in Storage
- E) Abandonment in Favor of the Federal Treasury
- F) Request for Abandonment of Merchandise
- G) Interruption of Merchandise Abandonment
- 10) Clearance of Goods at Customs
- A) Customs Declaration (pedimento)
- B) Additional Information to the Customs Declaration
- C) Consolidated Customs Declaration
- D) Additional Obligations of the Consolidated Customs Declaration
- E) Representation in the Clearance of Goods
- F) Customs recognition
- G) Taking Samples During Customs Recognition
- H) Consultations
Content Related
- Contributions and Other Payments in Customs and Foreign Trade in Mexico
- General Import and Export Taxes in Mexico
Original Language and Source of this Entry
This entry is just a translation of the original one I wrote and published on belegalabogados.mx under the title Panorama general de la aduana en México. Therefore, you may check the original source for more information if you have doubts about my translation. Keep in mind that English is not my native language, so from now on, I apologize to the reader for any errors or confusion that may arise from this translation.
1) Regulation
Customs law and foreign trade are two subjects linked to each other, and to understand their full scope, a series of basic regulations must be studied. Among the most important, I highlight the following: Mexican Customs Law and its Regulations of the Customs Law, the Foreign Trade Law, the Federal Tax Code, the Law of General Import and Export Taxes, and the General Rules of Foreign Trade by 2024.
As you can see from such regulations, there are a huge number of legal hypotheses that could only be treated in a book, so little by little, I will bring up in future blog posts those matters that, first of all, I mastered as a simple practitioner of the law and, subsequently, that are of interest to the market. Be attentive and wait for them.
2) Purpose
The regulations surrounding customs law regulate the entry and exit of our country of goods, their means of transportation, customs clearance, and the facts or acts that derive from that entry and exit.
3) Who is Obligated by Law?
The main obligors within the matter of customs law are, like all matters of law, those people who fall within the legal hypotheses embodied in the regulations. However, in a general way, I could say that for this matter, they are generally those who introduce and extract merchandise from our country, which can be:
I.- Its owners
II.- Possessors
III.- Tenures
IV.- Consignees
V.- Recipients
VI.- Senders
VII.- Representatives
VIII.- Customs agents
IX.- Customs agencies
4) Customs Regimes
Without yet elaborating on their characteristics, the customs regimes recognized by the Mexican lawmakers are the following:
A. Definitive.
I. Import.
II. From exportation.
B. Temporary.
I. Import.
a) To return abroad in the same state.
b) For production, transformation, or repair in maquila or export programs.
II. From exportation.
a) To return to the country in the same state.
b) For elaboration, transformation, or repair.
C. Fiscal Deposit.
D. Transit of Goods.
I. Internal.
II. International.
E. Preparation, transformation, or repair in a controlled area.
F. Strategic controlled area.
5) Omitted Contributions and their Updating
Infractions made to the provisions of customs law, as in other matters of tax law, engender different types of responsibilities, such as administrative and criminal, without the imposition of the first exempting the second. For now, I will not deal in particular with the countless infractions that can be committed in customs matters. Still, I would like to specify the updating of contributions that are omitted in customs matters.
In this sense, in accordance with the law, the fines that may arise for the violation of customs provisions shall be applied regardless of whether the payment of the omitted contributions and their accessories is required (such as the Import Tax, Tax Added Value, etc.) and, of course, the sanctions that may arise in criminal matters.
Moreover, the amount of omitted contributions shall be charged with its respective update caused by the simple passage of time and due to price changes in the country. For this, customs contributions must be updated based on the following rules:
I.- An update factor shall be applied to the omitted quantities.
II.- This update factor shall be obtained by dividing the National Consumer Price Index of the month before the most recent month of the period by the aforementioned index corresponding to the month before the oldest month of said period.
III.- In cases where the National Consumer Price Index for the month preceding the most recent month of the period has not been published by the National Institute of Statistics and Geography, the update in question shall be carried out by applying the latest monthly index published.
6) Customs Electronic System
With the advent of technology and its incorporation into trade, now most of the information that must be presented to the customs authority in Mexico shall be through an electronic system where it shall be transmitted, presented, or procedures shall be carried out before it through electronic documents or digital using the electronic signature under the conditions established by the Tax Administration Service (SAT)
When an electronic or digital document is received in the electronic customs system, it generates the respective acknowledgment, which proves that the document was transmitted. Unless proven otherwise, it is presumed that it was received in the system on the date and time recorded in the aforementioned acknowledgment of receipt.
The electronic or digital document received in the electronic customs system will have total legal and evidentiary value and must be kept by the obligated parties in the format in which it was generated and in the electronic file, in the places, and for the periods established in the Federal Tax Code as part of the accounting books, and must be made available to the tax authority when required for the purposes of its jurisdiction, including for comparison or verification with the information in related data or documents.
A) Electronic Notifications
The electronic customs system shall send to the email addresses provided by the taxpayer in their registration to said system a notice of availability of notification, indicating that the customs authority has issued an administrative act related to their procedure and that to know it, they must be notified.
The purpose of this notice is for the taxpayer to enter their mailbox within the electronic customs system to find out about the administrative act to be notified, counting for this purpose with a period of 5 business days computed from the date of sending the notice of the availability of notification.
Once the administrative act is opened with the advanced electronic signature or with the digital seal of the interested party, the system shall generate the acknowledgment of the respective notification, which shall include the date and time of the opening. Finally, the notification shall be considered legally carried out and will take effect from the business day after the notification acknowledgment is generated.
B) Notification by Lists
List notifications shall be carried out through the electronic customs system after 5 business days, referred to in article 9-A of this Law, for which the respective administrative act shall be published on the electronic customs system’s page for a period of 15 business days, computed from the business day following that on which it was published.
Notifications by lists can be consulted on the electronic page of the electronic customs system, and the notification date shall be the corresponding sixteenth business day, the date on which they take legal effect.
C) Authorized Persons
The taxpayer may authorize a maximum of 5 people in the electronic customs system so that on their behalf, they receive availability notices and notifications of administrative acts related to the customs procedures they carry out. For this purpose, the taxpayer must provide the full name of the authorized persons, their active federal taxpayer registration, and their email account.
D) Computation of Deadlines
For the calculation of deadlines, the date of the electronic acknowledgment of the respective notification shall be taken into account, which consists of the electronic or digital document that the electronic customs system generates and transmits when the administrative act in question is opened with the advanced electronic signature of the taxpayer or with the digital seal and, where appropriate, with the electronic or digital documents that the aforementioned system generates with respect to the publication in lists of the administrative act in question for the respective period.
E) Business Days for Electronic Notifications
According to the regulations on the matter, business days shall be considered to receive electronic notifications every day of the year, except for Saturdays and Sundays, as well as the following dates:
I.- January 1
II.- The first Monday of February in commemoration of February 5
III.- The third Monday of March in commemoration of March 21
IV.- May 1
V.- May 5
VI.- September 16
VII.- The third Monday in commemoration of November 20
VIII.- December 1 every 6 years corresponds to the transmission of ownership of the Executive Branch
IX.- December 25
7) Obligation to Declare Cash
Any individual who enters or leaves Mexican territory and carries amounts in cash, national or foreign checks, payment orders, or any other document receivable or a combination of all of them greater than its equivalent of 10,000 dollars shall be obliged to declare said amounts before the customs authority, in the official forms approved by the Tax Administration Service.
For this, in application of Foreign Trade Rule 2.1.3, interested parties may fill out form D4 (Declaration of admission or extraction of amounts in cash and/or documents receivable) before the customs authorities or choose to present the declaration electronically by transmitting the required information through the SAT Portal.
In the last case, once the information has been transmitted, the system shall generate a receipt valid for 30 calendar days, counting from the date of transmission of the information. The interested party shall present said receipt either in print or through any electronic device that allows its visualization before the customs authority to enter or extract the amount greater than 10,000 dollars.
8) Customs Control
The entry or exit of merchandise from Mexico, the loading, unloading, transshipment, and storage of the same, the boarding or disembarkation of passengers, and the inspection of their luggage must be carried out at an authorized location on a business day and time.
A) Routes of Introduction and Extraction of Goods
Any merchandise introduced or removed from the national territory may be carried out through maritime, land, rail, air, river traffic, or postal in places duly authorized by the customs authority.
In any case, the Tax Administration Service may authorize the entry or exit of merchandise from Mexico through places other than those authorized when, due to their nature or volume, they cannot be dispatched normally.
B) Tax Precincts
Tax precincts are places where customs authorities indiscriminately carry out the functions of handling, storage, custody, loading and unloading of foreign trade merchandise, inspection, and customs clearance.
The Tax Administration Service may grant concessions to individuals to provide services for the handling, storage, and custody of merchandise in properties located within the tax precincts, which shall be called concessioned audited precincts. The concession may be granted for 20 years, which may be extended for up to an equal period.
At the end of the previous concession and, where applicable, the extension, the works, installations, and adaptations carried out in the concessioned controlled premises, as well as the equipment intended for the provision of the services in question, shall pass in property of the Federal Government without it having to make any payment in consideration.
C) Business Days for Verification Powers
The business days and hours for the customs authorities to exercise their verification powers within the concessioned fiscal or audited areas shall be 24 hours a day, every year. I will expressly discuss these powers later.
9) Customs Deposit
Meanwhile, the goods shall remain in storage with customs in the concessioned fiscal or audited areas until they are subsequently assigned to a customs regime.
Goods with explosive, flammable, corrosive, polluting, or radioactive characteristics may only be unloaded or left in storage at the customs through which they entered the national territory when the following requirements are met:
I.- That the goods have the authorization of the competent authorities
II.- That the facility has appropriate storage places.
A) Temporary Deposit
International passengers in transit who enter national territory by air or land may leave their goods in storage at customs, even if they are not going to be placed under a customs regime.
B) Handling of Goods in the Warehouse
Goods in storage at customs may be subject to acts of conservation, examination, and sampling, provided that their nature or the taxable bases for customs purposes are not altered or modified. The customs authority may authorize the taking of samples, in which case the corresponding contributions and compensatory fees shall be paid.
Likewise, storage services, laboratory analysis, surveillance, labeling, marking, and placement of commercial information legends may be provided for these merchandise. For these purposes, the customs authorities shall take the necessary measures to safeguard and protect the tax interest and the goods.
C) Consequences of the Destruction of Goods in the Warehouse
If the goods in customs storage are destroyed by accident, the tax obligation shall be extinguished unless the interested parties assign the remains to a customs regime.
D) Responsibility for the Loss of Goods in Storage
The federal treasury shall be responsible for the value of the merchandise that, deposited in the fiscal precincts and under the custody of the customs authorities, is lost, destroyed, or becomes unusable for reasons attributed to the authorities themselves, as well as for the tax credits paid in relation to said goods.
The merchandise is considered to have been lost when, after 5 days from the date on which the examination, delivery, recognition, or any other procedure has been requested, it is not presented by the personnel in charge of its custody. However, it shall be considered lost after 30 days from the date it was lost.
For this, the taxpayer must request payment from the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit within 2 years of the value of the merchandise they had at the time of deposit at customs. For this purpose, it shall prove that at the time of the loss, said merchandise was in the tax area, in the custody of the customs authorities, and the amount of its value.
E) Abandonment in Favor of the Federal Treasury
It causes abandonment in favor of the federal treasury of the merchandise that is in storage at customs, and the following cases occur:
I.- Expressly when the taxpayer states in writing.
II.- Tacitly, when they are not withdrawn within the deadlines indicated below:
a) 3 months in the case of export.
b) 3 days for explosive, flammable, polluting, radioactive, or corrosive goods, perishable or easily decomposed goods, and live animals.
If the fiscal area where the previous merchandise was placed in storage has the facilities for their maintenance and conservation, the previous period shall be up to 45 days, except for oil merchandise, which shall always be 15 days.
c) 2 months in other cases that occur.
In the case of goods that have been attached by the customs authorities due to the processing of an administrative or judicial procedure and are not removed from the tax or audited premises, two months shall be counted from the date on which they become available for taxpayers.
It will be understood that the goods are available to the taxpayer from the day following the day the corresponding resolution is notified.
F) Request for Abandonment of Merchandise
Once the deadlines referred to in the previous chapter have elapsed, the customs authorities shall personally notify the owners or consignees of the merchandise at the address that appears on the transport document, informing them that the deadline for abandoning the merchandise has elapsed and that in any case, they have 15 days to remove the goods, after verification of compliance with obligations regarding non-tariff regulations and restrictions, as well as payment of the tax credits caused. All this is under the warning that if you do not do so, it shall now be understood that the merchandise has become the property of the federal treasury.
However, for explosive, flammable, polluting, or corrosive goods, perishable or easily decomposed goods, and live animals, the period for removing the goods referred to in the previous paragraph shall be 3 days.
If the personal notification that I indicated cannot be carried out, the address has not been indicated, or the address indicated does not correspond to the person, the customs authority shall make the corresponding notification through the customs office’s lists in question.
G) Interruption of Merchandise Abandonment
The deadlines that I mentioned previously for the abandonment of merchandise in favor of the federal treasury shall be interrupted when:
I.- The revocation relief (a legal remedy) contemplated in the Federal Tax Code is filed, or the corresponding Contentious Administrative Trial is filed before the Federal Court of Administrative Justice.
In any case, the revocation relief or lawsuit shall only interrupt the deadlines in question when the final resolution does not confirm the one that was challenged, in whole or in part.
II.- When a consultation has been carried out between authorities if the delivery of goods to the interested parties depends on said consultation.
II.- Due to the loss of merchandise in customs storage.
10) Clearance of Goods at Customs
Customs clearance is understood as the set of acts and formalities related to the entry and exit of goods from the national territory, which, pursuant to the different customs regimes, must be carried out before customs by the consignees, recipients, owners, holders, holders or customs agents.
A) Customs Declaration (pedimento)
Those who introduce or extract merchandise from Mexico that is destined for a customs regime are obliged to transmit to the customs authorities, through the electronic customs system that I already mentioned, a customs declaration[2] with information regarding the merchandise, using the signature advanced electronics, digital seal or other technological means of identification.
The customs declaration shall be presented to the customs authority in a technological device or electronic medium, together with the goods, to activate the automated selection mechanism[3]. The device or medium must have technical elements that allow the information to be read.
In the customs declarations in which the advanced electronic signature, digital seal, or other technological means of identification and the acceptance code generated by the electronic customs system appear, it shall be considered that they were transmitted and carried out by the person to whom said signature corresponds advanced electronics, digital seal or other technological means of identification, whether of the importer, exporter, customs agent, customs agency or their authorized representatives.
B) Additional Information to the Customs Declaration
In addition to the data that the customs declaration must contain for the entry and extraction of merchandise, those who introduce and extract the goods to assign them to a customs regime are obliged to transmit in an electronic document as an annex to the customs declaration, the information described below:
| Customs Regime | Information |
| Import | That relating to the value and other data associated with the marketing of the goods. |
| Import | That contained in the bill of lading, packing list, guide, or other transport documents. |
| Import | That which verifies compliance with non-tariff import regulations and restrictions, which have been issued in accordance with the Foreign Trade Law |
| Import | That which determines the provenance and origin of the merchandise for the purposes of applying tariff preferences, compensatory quotas, quotas, marking of country of origin, and other measures that are established for this purpose, in accordance with the applicable provisions. |
| Import | That of the digital document in which the guarantee made in the customs guarantee account is recorded when the declared value is lower than the estimated price established by the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit. |
| Import | The opinion that endorses the weight, volume, or other inherent characteristics of the merchandise. |
| Import | For merchandise that can be individually identified, information related to the serial numbers, part, brand, model, or, failing that, the technical specifications must be attached to identify the merchandise and distinguish it from similar ones. |
| Export | That relating to the value and other data related to the marketing of the goods. |
| Export | That verifies compliance with non-tariff regulations and export restrictions, which have been issued per the Foreign Trade Law. |
C) Consolidated Customs Declaration
The consolidated customs declaration is an electronic document that covers various operations of a single taxpayer, and that may be generated and transmitted by the interested party in the following cases:
I.- In export operations.
II.- In import operations under export programs authorized by the Ministry of Economy.
III.- In other cases established by the Tax Administration Service through general rules.
D) Additional Obligations of the Consolidated Customs Declaration
The taxpayer who makes use of the consolidated request in the above cases must comply with the following:
I.- Transmit to the customs authorities, through the electronic customs system and in an electronic document, the information related to the value and, where applicable, other data related to the marketing of the goods.
II.- Submit the merchandise to the automated selection mechanism and, instead of a request, present the consolidated notice on a technological device.
III.- Activate the automated selection mechanism for each vehicle.
IV.- Transmit the consolidated customs declaration in an electronic document on Tuesday of each week. This document records all the operations carried out during the previous week, including Monday through Sunday.
V.- Attach to the consolidated customs declaration the information that verifies compliance with non-tariff regulations and restrictions.
E) Representation in the Clearance of Goods
The procedures related to the clearance of the merchandise shall be carried out by the importers or exporters or through the customs agents or agencies that act as agents.
On the other hand, legal entities that promote customs clearance without the intervention of a customs agent or customs agency shall have the obligation to carry out customs clearance through their legal representative, who must meet the following requirements:
I.- Be an individual and up-to-date with compliance with their tax obligations.
II.- Be of Mexican nationality.
III.- Prove the existence of an employment relationship with the importer or exporter.
IV.- Prove experience or knowledge in foreign trade.
F) Customs recognition
Having prepared the customs declaration and paid the contributions and, where applicable, the compensatory fees, the merchandise shall be presented to the customs authority, and the automated selection mechanism shall be activated to determine whether customs recognition of the same should be carried out which is the examination of the documents and, where applicable, the merchandise to verify that the applicable legal provisions were complied with.
If the automated selection system indicates so, the customs authority shall carry out the recognition before whoever presents the goods at the tax facility. If the authority does not detect irregularities that give rise to the precautionary attach on the goods, they shall be delivered immediately to the taxpayer or his representative.
Finally, where appropriate, customs recognition does not limit the verification powers of the customs authorities concerning goods that are introduced or removed from the national territory. In that sense, if the authorities fail to object at the time of dispatch to the value of the merchandise or the documents or information that serve as a basis for determining it, it shall not be understood that the declared value has been accepted or that there is a resolution favorable to the individual.
G) Taking Samples During Customs Recognition
When customs recognition requires taking samples of sterile, radioactive, or dangerous goods or when special facilities or equipment are necessary for taking them, importers, exporters, customs agents, or customs agencies, when acting on their behalf from those, they must take samples and then present the goods for customs recognition. In any case, they may take the samples at the time of customs recognition or during the exercise of the authority’s verification powers.
Importers or exporters who are registered in the registry—which I will discuss in a special entry—for the taking of samples of sterile, radioactive, radioactive, dangerous goods, or for which special facilities or equipment are required for taking, do not they shall be required to present the samples referred to in the previous paragraph.
H) Consultations
Importers, exporters, customs agents, customs agencies, confederations, chambers, or associations may, before the foreign trade operation they intend to carry out, make inquiries before the customs authorities about the tariff classification and commercial identification number of the goods subject to the foreign trade operation when they consider that they can be classified into more than one tariff fraction or different commercial identification number.
The said query may be submitted directly by the interested party to the customs authorities as long as they meet the following requirements:
I.- Indicate the taxpayer’s name, company name, and tax domicile, as well as its Federal Taxpayer Registry. This is to establish the territorial jurisdiction of the customs authority.
II.- Indicate the authority to which the promotion is directed and its purpose.
III.- An email address to receive notifications.
IV.- Indicate the tariff fraction and commercial identification number that you consider applicable.
V.- State the reasons that support the assessment of the tariff items or commercial identifications about which there are doubts.
VII.- Attach, where appropriate, the samples, catalogs, and other elements that allow the merchandise to be identified for its correct tariff classification and determination of the commercial identification number.
The resolutions must be issued within a period not exceeding 3 months, counted from the day following the day on which the file is duly integrated. It is understood that the file is duly integrated when the authority has the information and documentation that allows the complete identification of the merchandise and all the procedures have been carried out, such as issuing the corresponding opinions of the competent authority to issue the resolution.
In any case, those who have formulated the query in question may dispatch the goods that are the subject of the query, attaching to the request a copy of the query showing its receipt by the customs authorities. To exercise this option, the contributions shall be paid following the tariff fraction whose rate is the highest among those considered to be classified, and, where appropriate, pay the compensatory fees and comply with the other regulations and non-tariff restrictions applicable to the different tariff items that are the subject of the consultation.
When the resolution issued by the customs authorities results in differences in contributions and compensatory fees payable by the taxpayer, the taxpayer must pay them, updating the contributions and with surcharges from the date on which the payment was made and until the date on which the omitted differences are covered without the application of any sanction derived from said omission. If there are differences in favor of the taxpayer, he may rectify the request to compensate them or request a refund.
The Tax Administration Service shall announce the tariff classification criteria and the commercial identification number, which shall be published in the Official Gazette of the Federation. When the customs authorities modify the tariff classification criteria and the commercial identification number, these modifications shall not include the effects produced prior to the new resolution.
By Omar Gómez
Mexican Tax, Administrative and Constitutional Attorney
Partnert at belegalabogados.mx
Contact me at omar.gomez@belegalabogados.mx
[1] For the purposes of this entry, we must understand products, articles, effects, and any other goods as merchandise, even when the laws consider them inalienable or irreducible to private property.
[2] According to Mexican customs law, a customs declaration is the declaration in an electronic document, generated and transmitted regarding compliance with the regulations that tax and regulate the entry or exit of merchandise from the national territory, which contains information related to the merchandise, the traffic and customs regime to which they are destined, and the other data required to comply with the formalities of their entry or exit from the national territory, as well as that required in accordance with the applicable provisions.
[3] It’s the technological mechanism that shall determine whether the goods shall undergo customs recognition.
