TAX AREA: CHARACTERISTICS AND EXAMPLES - ARTE - 2025

The tax area is the name used to name the place in which the customs authorities are in charge of guarding, storing, unloading or loading the goods involved in foreign trade. It is a term that is used mainly in Mexico. Therefore, the tax area corresponds to the dedication of the customs authority and the place where it is located.

An enclosure is defined as the space between certain demarcations. The word comes from the Latin re cinctus, whose meaning is "surrounded" or "surrounded." On the other hand, the term fiscal comes from the Latin word fiscālis, which refers to what is relative or pertaining to the treasury. The word "treasury" refers to the public treasury and the state entities that are dedicated to collecting taxes and duties.

Source: pixabay.com

Proper custody of the tax area is essential to prevent illegal products from being introduced into the country. If the authorities cannot control the goods entering the country properly, smugglers will be able to trade products without paying patents or taxes.

characteristics

Every tax precinct has some hallmarks or important characteristics. Specifically, these are:

- The entry of national, foreign or nationalized merchandise for a limited time to be object of storage, handling, custody, sale, exhibition, elaboration, distribution, repair or transformation.

- These goods will not pay countervailing duties or foreign trade taxes.

- Merchandise arriving at the tax office from abroad may stay in that space for a maximum period of two years.

However, this standard is exempted from being complied with for loads such as laboratory equipment, machinery in general, molds and spare parts, administrative systems, quality control or industrial safety devices, test products and others in the telecommunications sector..

- The waste resulting from the repair, transformation or elaboration processes will not generate compensatory fees or any contribution.

Withdrawal from the tax area

All merchandise introduced under this regime located in the tax area may be withdrawn from it to:

- Be imported permanently, if its origin is from a foreign country.

- Be definitively exported, if their origin is from the same country as the venue.

- Return them to their country of origin if their origin is from abroad or reincorporate them to the local market if their origin is national, in certain circumstances when the beneficiaries give up this regime.

- Be imported temporarily by companies with the IMMEX program.

- Be destined to the tax deposit regime.

Examples

It can be identified that the tax area is the place that is administered by the same customs authority.

For example, warehouses in small airports in the interior of the country, where there are arrivals of goods from abroad.

They can also be enclosures within airports or ports in which the goods have not yet designated a customs regime, since it is in these places where the same is assigned and the goods are cleared.

On the other hand, an example of a controlled precinct, which is the place concessioned to individuals by means of a tender, is any cargo terminal in which unloading and loading maneuvers are carried out for containers that arrive in the nation from abroad.

Monterrey Interport

It is the largest inland port in Mexico, with an area greater than 1,300 hectares. Likewise, it is located in the municipality of Salinas Victoria, 180 kilometers from the Colombia Bridge.

This inland port has a binational customs office. Additionally, it has the due authorization to have a controlled area.

This authorization to be able to have a free zone, or strategic controlled area, provides companies that settle there with different tax incentives, especially if they carry out some type of transformation to later be commercialized. For example, maquiladora plants of the automotive industry.

Differences with fiscal premises

When speaking of foreign trade, both words are frequently heard. If it is not clear when each of them should be applied, the idea is not clear and confusion can be created.

We have already seen that the tax precinct is that place in which the customs authorities carry out the functions of inspection, storage, handling, custody, unloading and loading of foreign trade goods, as well as the customs clearance of these. goods.

When the handling of merchandise is minimal, the same authority is the one who performs these functions.

Inspected area

On the other hand, the controlled area corresponds to a site that is administered by individuals, where a concession is granted by the Tax Administration Service for these individuals to provide custody, storage and handling services of the merchandise.

This is located in facilities within the fiscal area, in which case it will be called a concessioned fiscal area, or it can also be located in contiguous areas.

The concession will be granted through a tender in accordance with the provisions of the respective regulations, and will include the exploitation, enjoyment or use of the property where the services will be provided.

However, the objective of both places is the same: storage, handling, custody, unloading and loading of foreign trade goods.

When the volume of merchandise is greater, the Tax Administration Service carries out the tender so that the federal government itself is not the one that must make the capital investment to carry out the functions mentioned above.

Strategic audited area

Additionally, the fact that there is what is called a strategic fiscal area, which is also regulated by law, cannot be ignored.

Specifically, on this site it is indicated that foreign or national merchandise may be entered in it for a limited time so that they can be subject to transformation, handling, custody, distribution, sale or exhibition.

It can be used as a bridge or springboard for goods that for example come from Asia and go to the United States. They can arrive in Mexico unassembled, and assembled, painted, and labeled in Mexico, and from there shipped to the North American market.

In the same way, the legal norms that currently exist state very clearly that in order to send merchandise to the strategic fiscal area, it is necessary to process a prior request to the corresponding tax administration.

References

1. Definition (2019). Definition of Tax Precinct. Taken from: definicion.de.
2. Export Up (2019). Fiscal Enclosure and Fiscalized Enclosure. Taken from: logisticayaduanas.com.mx.
3. Quiminet (2019). Tax precinct, what is it? Taken from: quiminet.com.
4. StuDocu (2019). Fiscal and audited area. Taken from: studocu.com.
5. Logycom (2019). Precinct inspected at the Monterrey Interport. Taken from: logycom.mx.