Claudia Sheinbaum assured that "practically" the entire Treasury team will stay at the beginning of her administration, with the exception of the Undersecretary of Expenditures Juan Pablo de Botton, who is leaving for the City government.
Mexican President-elect Claudia Sheinbaum announced Thursday that Antonio Martínez Dagnino will continue as head of the Tax Administration Service (SAT) during her administration, while the Treasury team will remain in place at the beginning of her government, with the exception of Undersecretary of Expenditures Juan Pablo de Botton.
This means that the Undersecretary of the Treasury, Gabriel Yorio, will continue in office, as will the current head of that department, Rogelio Ramírez de la O, who was the first to be "uncovered" by Sheinbaum in April, during the Banking Convention.
Asked about who will be the head of the SAT in her government, the president-elect responded: “Antonio will stay, practically the entire Treasury team will stay, only the Undersecretary of Expenditures, Juan Pablo de Botton, will go to the City government (...) They are all staying, it is a very good team, it is an honest team, that knows public finances, our project, so I am very happy working with them.”
Martínez Dagnino has been head of the SAT since October 2022, a position he took up replacing Raquel Buenrostro, who is currently Secretary of the Economy in the outgoing administration and will be the Secretary of Public Function in Sheinbaum's cabinet.
Martínez was one of three people who served as heads of the SAT during the six-year term of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, along with Buenrostro and Margarita Ríos Farjat, currently a minister of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation.
Since the beginning of the current government, Martínez served as head of the General Administration of Large Taxpayers of the SAT, a position he held until he was appointed head of the tax authority.
With Martínez Dagnino as head, the SAT continued with the strategy of intense oversight of large taxpayers that was implemented since the beginning of the government, which allowed for a historic collection of taxes from this type of taxpayers via audits during this six-year term.
As of June 2024, during the current six-year term, a total of 1.381 billion pesos (US$ 70 billion) had been collected through audits of large taxpayers, a figure that represents a growth of 106.1% in real terms compared to what was obtained during the previous administration of Enrique Peña Nieto.
FISCAL POLICY WILL CONTINUE
Juvenal Lobato Díaz, a tax law professor at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), said that the ratification of Martínez Dagnino as head of the SAT is a sign that there will be continuity in terms of the fiscal and tax policy that the López Obrador government has been implementing.
Continuity, he said, will come about primarily through a strengthening of the management powers that this government has exercised, such as invitation letters, in-depth investigation appointments or emails that the SAT has sent to taxpayers to correct their tax situation in cases where it detects possible irregularities.
The main premise of the outgoing government, which was to increase tax collection without creating new taxes or increasing existing ones, would also be continued, said Juvenal Lobato.
"There will be greater scrutiny of captive taxpayers such as employees or independent service providers because they will run out of large taxpayers to scrutinize, since they are the minority," said Lobato.
In addition, the current head of SAT will be responsible for implementing the tax simplification and digitalization plan that the President-elect has proposed in order to increase government revenues. This, Sheinbaum said, is instead of carrying out a tax reform.
