At the head of the SAT, the orchestrator of the policy of large taxpayers

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador appointed Antonio Martínez Dagnino as the new head of the Tax Administration Service (SAT), reported the Ministry of the Interior.

The agency revealed that, on the instructions of López Obrador, it was the Secretary of the Interior, Adán Augusto López Hernández, who gave office to the new head of the SAT. The new Secretary of the Economy, Raquel Buenrostro Sánchez, and Dagnino’s predecessor, was also at the decision.

Until yesterday, Antonio Martínez Dagnino served as general administrator of large taxpayers (AGGC), a position he held since 2018, that is, he worked both in the management of Raquel Buenrostro Sánchez and in that of Margarita Ríos Farjat.

The appointment of the new head of the federal treasury is one step away from being effective since the SAT Law, in its article 13, establishes that the head of the decentralized body will be appointed by the President and will be subject to the ratification of the Senate or, in your case, of the Permanent Commission of the Congress of the Union.

Apart from the ratification in the Upper House, in the four years of government, the President has appointed three heads of the Tax Administration Service.

He will follow the path of Buenrostro

Tax experts consulted by El Economista mentioned that the appointment of Martínez Dagnino is logical because he brings with him the “school” of Raquel Buenrostro Sánchez.

“He was one of the architects of charging the big taxpayers. He was in the group to find out how to charge them without lawsuits. Under this scheme he knows the SAT very well,” said Jesús Ambriz Rodríguez, president of the Mexican Association of Public Accountants (AMCP).

Virginia Ríos Hernández, a member of the technical tax investigation commission of the Association of Public Accountants of Mexico, explained that Martínez Dagnino will surely continue along the same path of supervising large taxpayers.

“He has been in charge of the AGGC since 2018, so he will surely continue down that path (…) he will continue with the same activities, but now as head of the SAT,” said Ríos.

Juvenal Lobato Díaz, former president of the national fiscal commission of Coparmex, mentioned that with the change in the head of the SAT, it is necessary to continue with the strengthening of the control since Buenrostro emphasized the anti-avoidance clause; the registration of 18-year-olds in the Federal Taxpayer Registry; the implementation of the entry and transfer invoice with the Carta Porte complement, among others.

The AGGC collected 719,832 million pesos in audits

The SAT reported that in the three years and nine months of the Dagnino administration, the AGGC collected 719.832 million pesos in audits, this is more than everything collected in the six years of the previous administration (672.055 million pesos).

Since 2020, the SAT implemented “The Master Plan for Large Taxpayers” with which it has sought to increase collection through the control of said sector of the register in the last two years.

In the first year of the pandemic, the SAT obtained 496,217 million pesos in additional income from collection efficiency and collection without the need for judicialization, of which 216,000 million pesos (43%) were from large taxpayers.

In 2021, the SAT redirected the collection effort to obtain 524.426 million pesos through efficiency, control and collection actions, of which 208.901 million pesos (40%) went to large taxpayers.

Antonio Martínez Dagnino commented last May – during a press conference – that the SAT expects to audit between 900 and 1,000 large taxpayers in 2022 and thus collect some 200,000 million pesos via secondary collection, that is, through additional efforts.

Also under the command of Martínez Dagnino, the AGGC published five effective Income Tax lists so that large taxpayers know the payment parameters of said tax and pay what is fair.

Challenges to meet

Analysts pointed out that the main challenge for the new head of the SAT is to resolve the shortage of appointments, as well as to give good guidance to taxpayers and simplify taxpayer procedures.

“That the resolution of the problem of the lack of appointments is allowing several of the procedures that are done in person to be carried out online. In addition, the treasury should focus on the new version of invoices 4.0 to see how convenient it is -for the public and private sectors- that taxpayers be forced to comply with all the requirements that come in the law”, suggested Ríos.

Who is the new head of the SAT?

Antonio Martínez Dagnino, has a degree in Accounting and a master’s degree in Finance from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). Until Monday, he served as head of the General Administration of Large Taxpayers of the SAT, a position he held since 2018.

He has experience in the Mexican Financial System, specifically in the analysis of derivative financial instruments, as well as in matters of supervision, regulation and auditing.

In addition to working in the private sector and in the banking sector, he was deputy director of the General Directorate of Financial Groups and Intermediaries of the National Banking and Securities Commission (CNBV), where he specialized in regulation of the financial system and created procedures for the supervision of the capital and liquidity of the institutions.

santiago.renteria@eleconomista.mx