Criminal complaints against 43 invoicing companies allegedly involved in tax fraud are being prepared, the head of the federal tax agency SAT said on Tuesday.

Speaking at the presidential press conference, Raquel Buenrostro said that 8,212 companies and individuals evaded the payment of their taxes by participating in fraudulent schemes set up by the 43 companies.

Invoicing companies provide payroll and tax services to companies and individuals but in some cases allegedly failed to forward income tax and sales tax payments to the SAT. President López Obrador said Monday that the majority of companies and individuals got involved in the fraudulent schemes “innocently.”

Buenrostro, nicknamed the “Iron Lady” for her hardline approach to recovering unpaid taxes, said that the 43 invoicing companies failed to pay 55.1 billion pesos (US $2.5 billion at today’s exchange rate) in taxes owed to the SAT.

She said it would be difficult for the SAT to recover the full amount but added that it will seek to recoup at least 19 billion pesos.

Buenrostro said fraudulent invoicing companies began to proliferate in 2010 and that the 43 companies against which charges will be brought have links to each other. She said that some of them have the same owners, legal representatives and clients.

The SAT chief said that the companies and individual taxpayers caught up in the fraud will have the opportunity to settle their tax debts with the SAT, explaining that many of them were deceived by the invoicing firms and may have unwittingly paid for invoices related to organized crime.

If they fail to settle their debts, their cases will be referred to tax prosecutors, Buenrostro said.

Source: El Financiero (sp)