The Waybill Obligation
As of the Miscellaneous Tax Resolution for 2021, those who transport merchandise or goods through a land, air, sea, or rail route in Mexico, are required to prove and justify the possession or ownership of the goods or merchandise that are being transported.
The lawful stay and/or possession of the goods or merchandise, as well as their provenance, origin, and destination may only be evidenced through the issuance of a CFDI (Comprobante Fiscal Digital por Internet for its acronym in Spanish) to which the supplementary waybill must be incorporated (hereinafter, “Waybill”), which is a tax document of a declarative nature intended to prove the legality of the goods or merchandise that are being transported, as well as the legitimacy of the parties involved in their transportation. The issuance of the CFDI and the Waybill may be validated through the digital file or its printed representation.
There are two types of CFDI to be issued in these cases: (a) entry-type, or (b) transfer-type. The issuance of each one will depend on the individual or legal entity carrying out the transportation of the goods or merchandise .The transfer-type CFDI with Waybill, must be issued by those who own, possess or hold goods or merchandise that form part of their assets, when such goods are transported by their own means. On the other hand, the entry-type CFDI with Waybill, must be issued by those taxpayers, intermediaries, or transportation agents, as well as courier and/or parcel service providers engaged in general and specialized cargo transportation services.
This obligation came into force as of June 1, 2021, and although during the 120 calendar days following that day, taxpayers had the option to issue the CFDI without incorporating the Waybill, it is now mandatory to incorporate said Waybill.
In this sense, it is very relevant that companies that transfer their merchandise directly, or those that provide merchandise transportation services to third parties, incorporate the Waybill with the corresponding CFDI, since, otherwise, the taxpayer obliged to present said documentation could (i) be subject to a fine, and/or (ii) be sanctioned for the commission of the offense of smuggling, as provided under the Federal Tax Code, and in case of relapse, they will face the preventive closure of their establishment for a period of three to fifteen days.
Consequently, in the event of hiring a transportation service, and if the service hired failed to comply with the obligation to present an entry-type CFDI with a supplementary Waybill, the company that hired the service will not be able to justify the deductions made by the transportation services, causing a breach in other tax obligation, therefore, it is important to ensure that the service provider complies with this obligation.
February 2026.
This article was originally written in 2021 updated in February 2026. Please send any questions or comments to info@jata.mx. The original author was a Partner at JATA – J.A. Treviño Abogados, and the co-author who was in charge of updating this article is a Senior Associate at JATA and may be contacted at ecardona@jata.mx. JATA is a Mexican law firm with offices in Monterrey, N.L., Mexico, and Houston, Texas.
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