The purpose of this article is to contribute to reflection on whether or not current policies exempting government-owned real estate from paying property tax are appropriate, from the perspective of Mexican municipal finance laws. This source of public revenue was given to Mexican municipalities in February 1983, so for the past 34 years it has been and remains an unfulfilled promise in terms of tax collection. A number of studies have been published on the economic determinants of property tax in Mexico, but exemptions from this tax have not been studied from a regulatory standpoint; this issue is still unexplored and unaddressed by experts in the field. This paper seeks to answer the following questions: What are the municipal finance laws regarding exemptions of government real estate from property tax? How do property tax exemptions for government real estate limit municipal revenue potential? What other factors have contributed to limiting the revenues generated by this tax?
KeywordsProperty TaxExemptionsGovernment Real EstateLocal Finance
Oates, W.E. (1977) Federalismo Fiscal. Instituto de Estudios de Administración Local. Nuevo Urbanismo.
Lazar, H. (2000) In Search of a New Mission Statement for Canadian Fiscal Federalism. In: Lazar, H., Ed., Toward a New Mission Statement for Canadian Fiscal Federalism, Institute of Intergovernmental Relations, Kingston.
Roy, B. (2009) Los Pilares de la Descentralización Fiscal. Perspectivas. Análisis de Temas Críticos para el Desarrollo Sostenible, Volume 7, Number 1, Corporación Andina de Fomento.
Retchkiman, B. (1995) Aspectos estructurales de la economía pública. Textos Universitarios, UNAM, Mexico.
Prest, A. (1981) Hacienda Pública. Editorial Gredos, Madrid.
Almagro, M. (2013) El gravamen patrimonial de los vehículos e inmuebles por la haciendas locales. Una reforma en términos de sostenibilidad. In: Camacho, B. and Jiménez, O., Eds., Desarrollo regional sostenible en tiempos de crisis, Vol. 2, Chap. 21, University of Granada, Granada.
Geffre, X. (2005) La Décentralisation. éditions La Découverte, Paris.
Bird, R.M. and Slack, E. (2004) International Handbook on Land and Property Taxation. Edward Elgar, Cheltenham. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781845421434
Mullen, J. (1990) Property Tax Exemptions and Local Fiscal Stress. National Tax Journal, 43, 467-479.
Stober, W.J. and Laurence, H. (1967) Property Tax Exemption: An Inefficient Subsidy to Industry. National Tax Journal, 2, 386-394.
Kenyon, D.A., Langley, A.H. and Paquin, B.P. (2012) Property Tax Incentive Pitfalls. National Tax Journal, 65, 1011-1022. https://doi.org/10.17310/ntj.2012.4.14
Bahl, R. and Martinez-Vazquez, J. (2008) The Determinants of Revenue Performance. In: Bahl, R., Youngman, J. and Martinez-Vazquez., J., Eds., Making Property Tax Work, Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, Cambridge, 35-57.
Tello, C. (2013) Reforma Hacendaria Para Bienestar Social. In: Revista Economía UNAM, UNAM, Mexico, 24-51.
López, A. (2014) Subcomité de Vigilancia del Sistema de Participaciones para los Municipios. In: Revista Hacienda Municipal, INDETEC, Mexico, 33-55.
Astudillo, M. (2010) Las Transferencias Intergubernamentales en el Sistema Fiscal Francés. In: Dimensión económica, Vol. 2, Num. 4, IIE-UNAM, Mexico, 14-28.
Gravelle, J. and Wallace, S. (2009) Overview of the Trends in Property Tax Base Erosion. In: Bell, M., et al., Eds., Erosion of the Property Tax Base, Trends, Causes and Consequences, Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, Cambridge.
Ahmad, E., Brosio, G. and Posch, C. (2014) Local Property Taxation and Benefits in Developing Countries-Overcoming Political Resistance? In: Ahmad, E. and Brosio, G., Eds., Handbook of Multilevel Finance, Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, 389-409.
National Institute of Statistics and Geography (2014) Indicadores de Bienestar de las Entidades Federativas. http://www.beta.inegi.org.mx/app/bienestar/
Haughwout, A. and Inman, R. (2002) Should Suburbs Help Their Central City. In: Gale, W.G. and Pack, J.T., Eds., Brookings-Wharton Papers on Urban Affairs 2002, Brookings Institution Press, Washington DC.
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (2016) Taxation.
Official Gazette of the Federation (1983) Decreto por el que se reforma y adiciona el artículo 115 de la Constitución Política de los Estados Unidos Mexicanos. http://www.diputados.gob.mx/LeyesBiblio/ref/dof/CPEUM_ref_103_03feb83.pdf
Official Gazette of the Federation (1999) Decreto por el que se declara reformado y adicionado el artículo 115 de la de los Estados Unidos Mexicanos. http://dof.gob.mx/nota_detalle.php?codigo=4958409&fecha=23/12/1999&print=true
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (2017) Tax on Property. https://data.oecd.org/tax/tax-on-property.htm
Tax Coordination Law (2013). http://www.diputados.gob.mx/LeyesBiblio/ref/lcf/LCF_ref34_09dic13.pdf
Canavire-Bacarreza, G. and Zúniga, N. (2015) Transferencias e impuesto predial en México. In: Economía UNAM, Vol. 12, Num. 35, UNAM, Mexico, 69-99.
State of Morelos Municipal Treasury Law (2014). https://www.hacienda.morelos.gob.mx/images/docu_planeacion/ transparencia_fiscal/marco_regulatorio/Ley_General_de_Hacienda_del_Estado_de_Morelos.pdf
El Universal (2015) Se supera meta de recaudación. 2.
Fiscal Code of the Federal District (2014).
(2014) State of Sinaloa Municipal Treasury Law. Official Gazette of the State of Sinaloa, No. 052 of 30 April 2014.
(2014) State of Sonora Municipal Treasury Law. Official Gazette 47, Section III, 11 December 2014.
(2015) State of Baja California Municipal Treasury Law. H. Congreso del Estado de Baja California. Secretaría de Servicios Parlamentarios Coordinación de Editorial y Registro Parlamentario Ultima Reforma P.O. No. 53, Secc. I, 20 November 2015.