Mexico’s government withheld hundreds of millions of dollars in tax refunds owed to Procter & Gamble, Unilever, and Colgate combined as it sought to coax them and other multinationals to pay more income tax locally, according to people close to the talks.
After luring foreign companies with corporate tax breaks for years, Mexico moved to boost its tax take as oil output has slumped, encouraged by an Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development crackdown on profit-shifting to low-tax countries.
Mexico’s tax authority SAT held back more than $384 million in value-added tax (VAT) from the three companies while it was probing them and nearly 270 others for possible tax avoidance after President Enrique Pena Nieto took office in late 2012, people familiar with tax negotiations say. While local business chambers have complained about refund delays, Reuters has obtained information about refunds being linked to corporate tax negotiations only in the case of the three consumer goods companies.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/09/01/us-mexico-tax-idUSKCN0R147Y20150901
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