Airlines have kept the payment of the traveler’s tax, which is destined for the expenses of the INM and the construction of the Mayan Train.
Miami Air International, Interjet, Aeromar, Tui Airlines Belgium, Neos, Eurowings, Allegiant Air, LOT Polish Airlines, Alaska Airlines, Thomas Cook Airlines, XL Airways, Aeroméxico, and Avianca were left with millions of pesos of taxes paid by foreign tourists, which had to be delivered to the National Institute of Migration (INM).
At least 41 tax credits (or debts) of the Visitor’s Right without permission to carry out remunerated activities (DNR) to foreigners of the airlines were remitted through official letters to the Tax Administration Service (SAT) between December 2019 until October 19, 2021, reveals the INM.
The international passenger air transport companies, who face tax credits before the SAT, collected and collected this right – which is a tax that foreigners pay to enter Mexico in the first instance, for tourism – but they did not deliver the resources to the INM as established in the Migration Law, according to information held by Forbes Mexico.
Each foreigner pays a fee of 549 pesos to transit or stay in the national territory for a period of 180 days, without permission to carry out paid activities.
Of the payment of the right of foreign tourists without permission to work, known as the tourist tax, 20% is allocated to the National Migration Institute for the improvement of its services, and the remaining 80% is sent for studies, projects, and infrastructure investment like the Mayan Train, although before they were destined to other organizations of the tourist sector.
Miguel Torruco, Secretary of Tourism, maintained that they could not grant 1.2 billion pesos requested by the National Tourism Business Council (CNET) in 2019 for the financing of a new body in charge of promoting tourism in Mexico.
“It will be difficult to grant that amount because the President of the Republic ordered that the DNR resources go directly to the Mayan Train,” declared the head of the Sectur, after inaugurating the Tourism Outlook for Mexico 2019 forum.
Mexican and foreign airlines with traveler tax debts had the opportunity to clarify and settle the payment of the fees charged, but they were omission when declaring or clarifying the inconsistencies detected in the fulfillment of their obligations, recalls the INM.
“It is the SAT who has the powers to require the collection of the debt that was generated by the omission of the international passenger air transport company in complying with the obligations as jointly and severally liable at the time of collecting and reporting the contributions for the provision of migratory services to the passengers who transport inside and outside the national territory ”, indicates the organism to the control of Francisco Garduño Yáñez.
During 2020, the collection of the right of visitors without permission to carry out remunerated activities to foreigners decreased by more than 50% as a result of the suspension of international flights to Mexico and the bankruptcy of Mexican and other foreign airlines, according to the income of the INM.
The pandemic caused by Covid-19 is the greatest impact that aviation has had since World War II, says the Mexican Institute of Transportation (IMT).
The impact of this crisis on the region’s airlines has been overwhelming and overwhelming: “Passenger traffic has stopped and revenue flows have greatly decreased,” says the agency dependent on the Ministry of Infrastructure, Communications and Transportation. (SCT).
These are the tax credits for the tax on foreign tourists
Miami Air International INC, a US airline liquidated in the first days of the declaration of Covid-19 as a pandemic, has 4 tax credits (or debts) that are in control and collection of the SAT.
On May 4, 2021, the Decentralized Revenue Administration of Federal District 4 of the SAT received the debts of Miami Air International INC for not delivering the taxes paid by US tourists when they entered Mexico as tourists.
The Florida-based airline filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on March 24, 2020, due to the drop in ticket sales for travel in the United States and other markets such as Mexico.
ABC Aerolineas, known as Interjet, has four tax credits with the Decentralized Revenue Administration of the Federal District 3 of the SAT for not returning the taxes charged to foreign tourists.
The INM notified the tax debts of the Mexican airline on December 20, 2019, on May 7, on September 28, 2020, as well as on February 19, 2021.
Since December 10, 2020, Interjet planes have landed and did not take off or offer services again, and on January 8, 2021, its workers went on strike for failure to pay their wages and other benefits.
Transportes Aeromar, a company that faces financial problems and has been offered to the federal government to be the AMLOS Bienestar Airline of Mexico, has four tax credits for keeping the taxes collected from foreign tourists and not sending them to the INM.
The Decentralized Revenue Administration of the Federal District 3 of the SAT received four letters from the INM of Aeromar’s debts on March 23, April 7, and September 28, 2021.
José Humberto Gual Ángeles, general secretary of the Aviators’ Trade Union Association (ASPA), asked the President of the Republic, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, to intervene so that investors and officials from SAT, IMSS and Infonavit restructure Aeromar and convert it in the airline del Bienestar.
“We are convinced that the Felipe Ángeles International Airport, which starts on March 21 of next year, its first landing should be an Aeromar plane, the welfare line, and give justice to all those former Mexicana and Interjet workers”, said the union leader.
According to the INM, Tui Airlines Belgium NV has three tax credits, which were notified on May 31, 2021, before the Decentralized Revenue Administration of the Federal District 4 of the SAT.
The Italian airline Neos registers three debts for DNR concepts, which were notified on February 22, May 20, and July 23, 2021, before the Decentralized Revenue Administration of the Federal District 4 of the SAT.
Polskie Linie Lotnicze Lot, an airline known as Lot Poland, has two tax credits, which were notified on February 26 and May 20, 2021, before the Decentralized Revenue Administration of the Federal District 4 of the SAT.
Eurowings GmbH, a low-cost airline dependent on Lufthansa, has two tax credits with the Decentralized Revenue Administration of the Federal District 4 of the SAT.
The INM reported the debts of the German airline with regular flights to destinations in Europe, Africa, America, and Asia on May 4, 2021.
Aerolitoral, a subsidiary airline of Aeroméxico, reports two tax credits with the Decentralized Revenue Administration of the Federal District 2 of the SAT. The notifications of the debts were made on September 3, 2021. Similarly, Aerovías de México has debts for not knowing the taxes paid by foreign travelers.
Tui Airways Limited, the third-largest UK-based airline in terms of total number of passengers carried, has a couple of tax credits with the Federal District 4 Decentralized Revenue Administration of the SAT. Such debts were reported by the INM on May 4 and 31, 2021.
Thomas Cook Airlines, an English company that filed for bankruptcy on September 22, 2019, has a tax credit for failing to report taxes levied on English tourists, who traveled to Cancun each year.
The INM says that it sent a letter on April 30, 2020, to report the debt of Thomas Cook Airlines Limited to the SAT. In 2018, Thomas Cook generated revenue for Mexico of $ 100 million from tourist spending. This amount corresponds to a marginal share of only 0.4% of the total foreign exchange income that the country received from tourism last year.
The French airline XL Airways, which was declared in suspension of payments and placed under judicial control on September 23, 2019, has two tax credits with the Decentralized Revenue Administration of the Federal District 2 of the SAT. The non-payment was communicated by the National Migration Institute on October 8, 2020.
Alaska Airlines, which has direct flights from the San Francisco International Airport to Loreto, Mazatlán, and Ixtapa-Zihuatanejo, has a tax credit, which was notified on June 3, 2020, to the Decentralized Collection Administration of the Federal District 2 of the SAT .
On November 18, 2020, INM notified that a tax credit from Allegiant Air to the Decentralized Revenue Administration of the Federal District 1 of the SAT.
The Decentralized Revenue Administration of the Federal District 2 of the SAT received on September 3, 2021, a letter of a tax credit from Taca International Airlines.
And on September 28, 2021, the INM sent a couple of letters so that the same authority dependent on SAT to collect the debts of Emirates and Aerovías del Americano Continente. He also notified him on October 1, 2021, of another non-payment by Aerovías de Integración Regional and Trans American Airlines.
On October 4, 2021, the Decentralized Revenue Administration of Federal District 4 of the SAT was notified by the INM of a tax credit from Tui Airlines Nederland and another from LLC North Wind.
Source: forbes.com.mx
