My wife bought a car this week and went to Hacienda to transfer ownership. She was told that she would have to pay 2013 tenencia on the vehicle, unless she had her IFE. I didn't quite catch it, but it seemed to have something to do with the car being registered in Playa Del Carmen. Does anyone have any experience with something similar? I'm going to go back and seek clarification, but I thought I'd try to get some input first. She has her citizenship, so it's not a problem, but I'm curious about it. I thought the tenencia was completely gone for those are paid up.
I can't comment on her exact situation without more detail but here's what the people at tenecia Cancun have told me. A car which was current on its tenecia through 2011 is exempt for 2012, 2013 as the exemption applies to the car. My car was bought new in Mar 2012, and I've had to pay tenecia each year because I did not have an IFE (nor am I eligible for one, as I'm not a citizen): if I'd been a citizen, and had an IFE, they would have exempted me for both years. In this later case, the exemption is applied to the person, not the car. Your wife, being a citizen, will be able to apply for an IFE, though I'm told it takes several months to get. I made perhaps three extra trips to tenencia to ask for clarifications, a couple in 2012 and one in 2013, in addition to my visits to pay the tax, and was consistently given this information: it also fits newspaper reports of the situation that were published at the time, so at least for 2012 and 2013 I'm satisfied, if not happy! The few other posters on this subject in the last two years at Cancuncare have not reported experiences at variance with this, as I understood their posts. Good luck!
I guess she got good info, then. However, what seems really strange to me is that I am not a citizen, yet I don't have to pay tenencia on my vehicle because I paid it all up to date in 2011 and got plates. Now, I only pay derechos, which is $250 a year. I guess, because I already owned the car in 2011, and paid everything due, I am now exempt, for this car. These are some strange laws.
The strange thing about my wife's case is that the car was owned by a Mexican and was exempt for 2012, yet they were gong to reboot the tenencia because she doesn't have an IFE. So, it looks like the exemption does not go with the car in this case, but it doesn in mine. I guess because mine has not had a change of owner. Very strange.
The exemption is indeed strange, the way they set it up. When I first learned I was not going to get the exemption I was annoyed that I was being given worse treatment because I was not a citizen of Mexico; but, it's their country, after all. It seems to me the owner of the car is obligated to pay the tenencia for the year in which it is sold, but that no longer seems to be in the cards: as for your wife, as the new owner, could she wait to pay the tenencia until she has the IFE in hand, or is that also not in the cards?
The owner of the car is not obligated to pay the tenencia in this case because he is Mexican, therefore, HE does not owe the tenencia. My wife has already applied for the IFE, and, supposedly, the receipt is enough. It really wasn't an issue for us, just a curiosity. The whole tenencia thing is annoying because it was implemented in 1968 as a temporary measure. Of course, the government got used to it. I'm actually amazed they got rid of it, but, I guess a lot of people were elected on that promise.
I'm not sure if a transfer tax also exists but cars sold in Ontario commonly have a transfer tax every time the car is sold, unless it is between family members more or less. The tax seems more like a transfer tax, which is not overly uncommon. The derecho is the ownership registration it seems, while a tenecia is seems like a transfer tax... even residents of ontario need to pay for the transfer tax so it seems like Mexico has a better deal than how it works in Canada. It seems the only way around this is to buy cars from a state without tenecia and drive an other state plated vehicle for a state that doesn't have tenecia, and do all your car stuff in another state, not sure about the residency requirements on that though. I would think if the car were worth enough it might be worth it. So you would have to probably register it in another state to avoid the tax.
Doesn't that also mean he hadn't gone through the process leading to his receiving the exemption for the year of the sale, and paying the minimal fees and taxes that would have been due for that year, in which case you would have escaped paying these in any case, all taxes and fees being current for the year?
I have no idea what that even means. How do you "apply" for an exemption? All I know is that, if you show your IFE, you don't pay tenencia, as long as the previous owner didn't owe any. The previous owner, in this case, did not pay tenencia in 2012, but they didn't try to collect that one, just 2013.
Tristan, you'll notice that I didn't use your word, "apply", for an exemption. The exemption is calculated at the time the tenencia and other fees and taxes are paid, and it reduces the total due at the time. It appears to me that the registration of this vehicle may not have been current at the time you bought it, based on the fact that you're being asked to pay for this registration, and associated taxes- current registration meaning, as I'm using the term, paid through the tax year 2013. If this is the case I suppose you could have required the owner to bring the registration current prior to the sale, in which case tenencia due for 2013, if any, would have already been settled. I'm sure that had I been involved in this transaction I would also have thought that it wasn't of great consequence that this had not been done, prior to the sale.
