Mexico's Tax Administration Service (SAT) has officially clarified that the Constancia de Situación Fiscal (certificate of tax status) is not a requirement for issuing electronic tax invoices (CFDI) or for reporting data on payrolls.
This was stated by the head of SAT, Omar Flores, calling on sellers and service providers not to make the issuance of tax receipts conditional on the provision of this document. According to him, the requirement of the Constancia de Situación Fiscal when issuing an invoice contradicts the current tax legislation.
The federal official clarified that individuals and entities that are required to file CFDI may not require a certificate of tax status from clients or employees because the required information can be obtained and verified through the Federal Tax Register (RFC) qualifying steps.
The SAT warns that persons who continue to require the Constancia de Situación Fiscal as a standard for issuing an invoice are committing a tax offence. This practice carries a fine ranging from P21,420 to P122,440.
When requesting a tax invoice, the taxpayer is required to provide only the following data:
- RFC tax number,
- name of an individual or company name,
- postal code of the tax address (the address itself — is not necessary),
- the tax regime in which it is registered,
- use of CFDI (Uso de CFDI).
If the taxpayer does not have some of this information, it may be obtained through the Tax Information Card without the need to provide a full tax status certificate.
Access to the specified data is possible through the official SAT portal, the SAT Móvil mobile application and the SAT ID platform, where the information is provided on the basis of RFC or CURP.
Requiring evidence of tax status when issuing invoices is an unlawful practice and cannot be justified by the internal accounting criteria or commercial policies of a particular business.