Politics: Civil society organizations under fire from AMLO

MEXICO - Report 01 Nov 2021 by Guillermo Valdes and Francisco González

Next year’s miscellaneous tax bill contains provisions that would deliver a serious blow to civil society organizations (SCOs) involved in charitable endeavors. Currently individuals can deduct up to 7% of their income for charitable donations, plus an additional 15% for other expenses such as health care and transportation. The new regulations will now incorporate the 7% deduction for donations in the 15% cap. This will surely result in a large drop in such donations.

The government’s regulations go hand in hand with previous measures such as slashing subsidies for day-care centers based largely on the argument of the need to eliminate intermediaries that in the past were regarded as a means for encouraging political favoritism and a source of financial mismanagement and corruption. The result has been a decrease in the number of existing SCOs, while other have been reduced to inactivity. Hardest hit have been the SCOs with less formal institutional structures.

The SCOs, along with PRI and PAN legislators, did not take the move lying down. They argued that in a country marked by severe poverty and inequality, such organizations and philanthropic institutions play a key role.

The new tax bill provisions are underpinned by two of President López Obrador’s core political positions. The first is his view that the business community’s role is to provide goods, services and tax payments and not be engaged in philanthropic activities, with such social welfare endeavors being the responsibility of the state. The second is the President’s general and open distrust of the causes motivating many SCOs and NGOs, as indicated in his October 29 press conference. He views the more “political” SCOs, such as Mexicans Against Corruption and Impunity and NGOs working on feminist, human rights, environmental or LGBT issues, as having a hidden agenda aimed at deflecting attention away from corruption and class-based oppression and from the neo-liberal policies that he blames for the country’s problems.

Now read on...

Register to sample a report

Register
Sign-in
Forgot your password?
Copyright 2025 GlobalSource Partners. All rights reserved. This report is prepared for GlobalSource Partners’ clients and may not be redistributed, reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, retransmitted or disclosed, in whole or in part, or in any form or manner, without the express written consent of GlobalSource Partners. This report is distributed simultaneously to our website and other portals used by GlobalSource Partners. The information herein was obtained from various sources and is believed to be reliable but GlobalSource Partners does not warrant its completeness or accuracy. Neither GlobalSource Partners nor any Country Analyst, officer or employee accepts any liability whatsoever for any direct, indirect or consequential damages or losses rising from any use of this report or its contents.