Tenencia (car tax) Law Change

[Steve]

Jannet mentioned to me earlier that Calderon has declared Tenencia is an 'optional' tax, but the individual state can declare whether it is compulsory or not, and that Quintana Roo has said that is.

Or something like that.

Can anyone explain this in a format I can understand?

[Jim in Cancun]

In a nutshell, you have to pay it this year here in Q.Roo. Some states have already abrogated it and they are considering it here. (It is an election year after all.)

[Life_N_Cancun]

Is there a tax surplus or something all of a sudden? I'd wonder how the president could just "declare" a tax optional..... aren't their laws and procedures in place relating to it? I guess if you're in a State that decided they don't want it (like thats going to happen) it makes a new car purchase more appealing. Perhaps the car dealers in D.F. have something to do with it?

[Jim in Cancun]

No one will ever complain that there will be one less tax. I am not the one to ask about taxes. I think there should be more of them in Mexico. Not sure how long we can live off of an indebted oil company, beach taxes, cruise ship taxes, tourist taxes, departure taxes and populism (this means that everybody pays taxes but the people!). There is barely enough money the way it is now to support all of the corruption, kickbacks and payoffs.

The less taxes and more free lunches (literally) speeches do play well at tax time though!

(Have I been watching too much Glen beck?)

[mrbear]

ha ha thats funny jim, Please tax me more. I say enjor the low taxes while it last

[Steve]

From what various people have told me they never paid tenecia anyway. It seems like there isnt any penalty if you dont, apart fom making selling your car a little more difficult.

Meanwhile I've paid mine diligently for the last 5 years with all the queuing in the sun, form filling and hassle that that entailed, maybe some 30,000 pesos over the years.

Where do I apply for my refund?

[Life_N_Cancun]

My understanding of the tenencia is this;

*Cars older than 10 years don't pay (unless there is an outstanding balance)
*You can't get your plates, circulation card, or title changed (ie:sell) without being up-to-date and paid.
* The police can have your car impounded if they wish for unpaid tax.
* The tax is roughly 10 percent of the car value for the first year, then 9, 8, etc... till 0 at year 11. Dealers often include the first year of tax in the sale price.


That said, many people find it cheaper to just pay the cops off than pay the tax on their new cars. Some register their vehicles elsewhere or have "irregular" papers/plates (ie:fake or stolen). Federal police CAN check everything in their car computers, so if you're running a fake/wrong plate/papers and they check you'll be off to jail, whereas the locals would have a hard time checking such things since it would involve a lot of radio traffic and time waiting that they could better spend "working". Every once in a while you'll read about an "operation" to find those "irregular vehicles" at checkpoints, but its not frequent.

[4NSPY]

So what States don't you pay Tenencia in?

I saw something online to the effect that if you pay before the end of this month there is a 50% discount? Any know know if this is indeed the case from their experience?

[RiverGirl]

Isn't the Tenecia double taxation? Pay taxes when you buy a car and then pay taxes to keep owning it? I hate taxes like that.

But we do pay our Tenecias because it's better to give the cops nothing to hassle us over. We get enough hassles when hubby passes in the right-hand shoulder on Colosio...

I understand that pick up trucks do not have to pay Tenecia, which is not fair.

[Epic]

Tenencia is supposed to be road tax, or that is what i was told, and vehicles with truck beds (Camionetas) that are registered to be work related vehicles only pay 1500 pesos. A lot of business owners use that loophole to pay less tax on their personal vehicles. I am under the impression that even the H2 Hummer with that tiny boot applies for the loophole.

[Jim in Cancun]

Have you seen those Hummers that cost about a million pesos or dollars or whatever that have the little teeny tiny "bed"? Yep--they pay pick up tenencia!

They do go after you after March but mainly just for the mordida.

Cars in the States have to pay something every year too for new plates or inspection or whatever. We just have tenencia--which by the way comes from the verb "tener"=to have so it is just a tax for having it.

When I had a car over 10 years it was about $400 pesos. I also have an old pick that doesn't pay anything then I have a 2007 liberty and it's about $3,300. If papers are in order you can pay online. Anything strange and you have to go down to the office so they can find a way to squeeze out $100 pesos from you to "arreglarlo".

[T.J.]

I wondered if it occurred to the powers that be, at least in QR, that if we don't need this tax, that whatever money would not be collected would therefore not be spent.

So whatever services these taxes are paying, we can presumably do without.

So why not continue the tax, cut out what services we must not need if there is any consideration to cut out the tax AND FIX THE D%$* ROADS AND STREETS.

Now what a novel concept that would be.

[Jim in Cancun]

Money for roads and schools comes from Pemex--sale of oil. Goes to the federal government and then divided up among the States for that type of "social" programs.

Pemex holds the dubious title of #1 company in the world with the largest debt and has no money to develop new oil fields that have been found in the Gulf of Mexico or enough refineries to supply enough gas for the country. So they skim money off to build roads and schools and other social programs. There was an article in this morning's paper--even the oil unions are in favor of a "tax reform" (which means more taxes) since they know they can't keep making such high wages and supporting a high level of corruption and inefficiency without some government help! What a vicious circle.