Pay your taxes now to SAT or lose big

I have talked to many clients and they have work papers and are registered to pay taxes but do not understand the new tax system. People who were previously small business owners under the REPECO scheme used to file and pay their taxes bimonthly with the Jalisco State Tax Collector.

Now, with the tax reforms people need to file bimonthly tax returns with SAT and use their web site. Their web site was not working properly to file returns all this year until a few weeks ago. Many people logged on and were frustrated that nothing worked and they were unable to file returns, even though there is no tax to pay the first year due to their status or they had zero revenue. So they simply gave up and forgot about it.

Other people have never logged in and do not even know if their password works.

Please be advised that the deadline to file a return for the period January - February 2014 was in July, you can still log in and do it.

The deadline to file for the periods March - April 2014 and May - June 2014 is the month of August. You need to file to declare for IVA (sales tax) and ISR (Income tax). When filing it shows what you would have to pay if you had no tax incentive so you can plan for future years where the 100% first year then goes to 90%, 80%, etc.

You need to file even if you had no income as if you do not file, SAT can kick you out of the preferential Regimen de Incorporacion Fiscal and place you in a tax scheme that pays lots of taxes (no tax incentives or bonuses) as well as you will have to hire an accountant to do the filings.

SAT has fined people for not filing taxes. I know someone who was personally fined $6,000 pesos for not filing for a 2 month period and she owed 0, yes, zero, nothing, nada, zilch and still was fined for not presenting a return saying she had no activity. Also immigration will want to see the filing receipts for when you renew your immigration document.

If for some reason your password does not work (or you never got one) the local SAT office have waits of a few weeks for an appointment or you can go without an appointment but in order to not be turned away or wait all day you should arrive at 6am to wait in line or even earlier.

For filing you should have your income broken down by month as well as bimonthly period. If you gave nobody a factura then fine. If you gave someone a factura then you will have to separate the net and the IVA so the separate amounts can be listed.

The same with expenses where you have an official factura and then have total amount and net amount and total IVA tax you paid, i.e. $800 pesos plus IVA of 128 for a total including IVA of $928 pesos. You will also need the type of expense for the payment and RFC of the person who gave you the factura.

Oops, deadline for January - February 2014 and also January - February 2014 was in July