THE VAT ACCREDITATION SYSTEM IN 1980: AN APPROACH TO UNDERSTANDING THE ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL PROBLEMS OF TAX ADMINISTRATION IN MEXICO

Abstract

The objective of this article is to analyze the VAT accreditation system and the administrative reforms that made it operational with the intention of showing the close relationship between the tax administration and the economic and political objectives and problems implicit in the tax phenomenon. We maintain that the accreditation system helped to achieve the objectives of the fiscal coordination of commerce and industry in that it placed the taxpayer as a key agent of federal collection and played down the importance of the federal entities in defining the amount of it. We also support the idea that the administrative changes involved responded to two problems related to ISIM. The first of an economic nature, is the low collection that it reported for the federal treasury during its validity; and the second of a political nature, is the weakness of the federal entities to participate in the administration of indirect taxation that was pronounced after the reform of the ISIM rate of 1973.