Tenencia 2014, can you believe it's that time again. Seems just like yesterday I was standing in those awful slow moving lines to pay the taxes, get new plates and renew my auto registration for 2014. To learn what it's going to cost you this year go to- http://www.tenencias.gob.mx/ and follow the instructions. You'll see your bill for this year and be able to print the statement you'll need to take with you when you pay. Payment is just the first step, and perhaps the easiest in this annual ritual.... The good news is that the government is continuing its program of exemptions from the taxes, just leaving the renewal of registration charges due, in most cases. Mine were exceptionally low this year, about half of the cost of last year- at 312 pesos. Complete this process by March 31.
Never gets any easier I went to the bank and paid the fee for this year; then, to the oficina de ecaudadora to get the tarjeta de circulacion. That's when I discovered a warp in the system. At this website http://www.tenencias.gob.mx/ you are advised that there are three methods of payment- online, using a credit card; at a bank, or in person with cash. I chose option two and paid at a bank. Bad choice it turns out if you want to get this all done as quickly as possible. After paying I went to the oficina de recaudadora: the line was not particularly long, with perhaps eight people ahead of me. After waiting in the line for about 7-8 minutes a young lady approached those of us in line to impart some "bad news" for those, like me, who'd paid at a bank. She said the payments will be reported to the state and entered in their system and this process must be completed before the computers in the local office will register that the payment has been successfully credited to the correct account. Bottom line, we could do nothing further today and would need to come back in a few days. Avoid all that and simply pay in cash when you go to get the tarjeta de circulacion.
It took a day but the payment made at the bank has now been credited to my renewal process per this website Secretaria de Finanzas y Planeacion I can now go to pick up the tarjeta and be set for another year. Those who've dealt with the legal processes here know it can be confusing and frustrating, to put it mildly. Few things can be accomplished with just one trip, there are always multiple steps involved; but, this is not even what makes it confusing and frustrating, so far as I can see, it's that you learn how to do a thing one year and they change the processes the next, or move offices, or do any number of things that make what you know obsolete....
For those patient enough to wait for the payment to the bank to post to the state's accounts and you to get credit for it there is an advantage to paying this way, rather than paying in cash at the oficina de recaudadero: the line is much shorter. I had completed the last step and been handed the new tarjeta before I'd been there 15 minutes.
One question that occasionally comes up is whether you have to be a citizen of Mexico to get the exemption from the auto taxes each year: from many people's experience, as well as mine, it is clearly not necessary. What is necessary, at a minimum, is that the taxes be paid current for all prior years.
