The SAT,  or Servicio de Administración Tributaria,  is making organizational changes related to how it deals with Mexican Customs operations.

Mexico’s Servicio de Administración Tributaria (SAT) recently released new internal regulations that will be effective as of November 21, 2015. They have been recently published in Mexico’s Diario Oficial de la Republica, and will supplant basic regulations that have been in place, and amended several times, since October of 2007. The new SAT regulations will have an effect on Mexican Customs operations.

The central changes to be implemented by the SAT in November affect the Administration General de Aduanas (AGA), or in English, the General Customs Administration. Also to be touched by changes made by the Servicio de Administración Tributaria is the Administracion General de Auditoria e Comercio Exterior (AGACE), or the General Administration of Audit and Foreign Trade.

With respect to the AGA the following changes will be put into effect in the coming months:

  • Centralized functions will be created for the legal support and modernization of Mexican Customs operations, as well as Customs planning and the processing of electronic data;
  • Centralized units dealing with Customs regulations and the Coordination of Strategic Planning for Mexican Customs operations will be eliminated;
  • A name change will be implemented at the Administracion Central de Asuntos Aduaneros internacionales will be enacted. After November 22, 2015, the organization will be known as the Administracion Central de Atencion Aduanera y Asuntos Internacionales.

As regards, AGACE, or the Administracion de Auditoria de Comercio Exterior, the changes that will be made include:

  • The creation of the Administraciones Centrales de Apoyo Jurido de Auditoria de Comercio Exterior, as well as the Coordination Estrategica de Auditoria de Comercio. Respectively, these new entities are The Central Administrations of Foreign Trade Legal Support and the Strategic Coordination of Trade Audits, respectively.
  • The elimination of the Administracion Central of Asuntos Legales of Foreign Trade.

Mexico’s Servicio de Administración Tributaria (SAT), or Secretariat of Tax Administration, is a decentralized arm of the country’s Secretaría de Hacienda y Crédito Público, which is the equivalent to the Internal Revenue Service in the United States. It’s mission includes the collection of tariffs and duties in accord with Mexican law, as well as making sure that applicable tax and Customs laws are voluntarily complied with.

The Administracion General de Aduanas (AGA) is the entity within the Secretariat of Tax Administration that has been given the authority to enforce legislation governing customs clearance , systems, methods and procedures. Principle among the functions of the Administracion de Auditoria de Comercio Exterior planning, organizing and executing strategies that combat the occurrence of irregularities in the conduct of foreign trade.