La Jornada: FIFA takes the tax benefits

The federal government managed to limit to this year only a fiscal guarantee that Enrique Peña’s administration had granted to the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) so that it, its affiliates, suppliers and partners involved in holding the World Cup would have fiscal privileges until 2028 in order to approve the nomination of the country’s World Cup venue.

Projections of the fiscal impact of this concession have not yet been made public, and even tax firms are unaware of its scope: “Mexico has enacted broad federal exemptions for FIFA and designated entities in relation to World Cup revenues, although doubts remain about national implementation and coordination with host country regulations,” a KPMG report states.

From the beginning, the fiscal standard was very different from that negotiated by the United States and Canada: while Mexico gave transexennial, complete and federal guarantees, its partners went for particular benefits. In the US case it was for FIFA to negotiate directly with the headquarters and with limited benefits in customs and tax matters.

The federal government still needs to publish the fiscal impact that an event will have that, according to the Executive Branch itself, will leave a spill of 3 billion dollars, an amount equivalent to 0.5 percent of the public budget planned for this year and a little less than the collection of the special tax on production and services (IEPS) for April of this year alone.

Coca-Cola, VISA, Hyundai, KIA, Aramco and Qatar Airways are described by FIFA as “partners”. The Tax Administration Service (SAT) was asked if these companies, which are a marketing arm for said federation, will also benefit from the tax exemptions, but as of press time there was no response.

The rules of the fiscal miscellany detail that a contractor is one who has entered into “any type of contractual relationship with FIFA, the CMF 2026 Society or FIFA subsidiaries, in relation to the competition (World Cup 2026) or any event related to it.” In this same package, in which the tax benefits are framed, are the stations that acquired the rights to transmit, broadcast or commercially exploit the event’s content.

Roberto Colín, member of the fiscal technical commission of the College of Public Accountants of Mexico, explained that there are three types of subjects who can access fiscal incentives. The first are the companies or associations directly linked to FIFA, which, through a national association, will identify and justify which companies will be subject to the tax reduction.

Others are the companies or individuals providing services, linked to the organizers of the World Cup, to which VAT and IEPS will be reduced. And another is the footballers of each team, who should pay 25 percent income tax on the total income obtained from each game in the country.

The Federation Income Law (LIF) 2026 states that the tax benefit of the World Cup only applies to situations that “arise exclusively from the performance of the acts or activities or from the obtaining of income from participation in the aforementioned competition, its tests, matches and events related to it, as of the last quarter of the fiscal year 2025.”

In December, when detailing the tax benefits registered in the LIF, the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit reported that a reduction was achieved in the validity of the tax benefits extended by the government of Enrique Peña Nieto through a government guarantee, which included “broad and general tax benefits”, and reiterated that the reductions “only apply to the subjects directly involved in the organization and celebration of the 2026 FIFA World Cup.”