Mexico’s Supreme Court Orders Canadian Mining Corp to Pay $2.8 Billion Tax Bill

ByMexico Solidarity

This article by Ivan Evair Saldaña originally appeared in the October 30, 2025 edition of La Jornada, Mexico’s premier left wing daily newspaper.

Mexico City. The Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN) on Thursday upheld the sentence against Primero Empresa Minera, a subsidiary of the Canadian company First Majestic Silver Corp., which obliges it to pay a tax credit of 2,868,853,516.57 pesos, derived from income tax and the single-rate business tax, as well as its update, surcharges and fines, corresponding to the fiscal year 2012.

The full bench of the “new” Supreme Court unanimously approved the draft opinion of Justice Lenia Batres Guadarrama, which overturned a February ruling by then-President Norma Piña Hernández. That ruling had admitted the direct appeal for review 276/2025 filed by the mining company. The case was dismissed when the Court resolved the claim 105/2025 filed by the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit (SHCP).

Justice Batres revealed that the mining company had asked the Court to postpone the resolution of the matter, because it was in dialogue with the tax authorities to reach an agreement on its debt.

“Actually, we do not see any alternative solution mechanism in the regulations themselves and, therefore, we are already incorporating into the project that there is no basis for decreeing any postponement and we maintain this draft resolution,” she said.

The company alleged the unconstitutionality of articles of the Income Tax Law and the Federal Tax Code, for violating its rights to legal certainty and access to justice, while the Treasury maintained that the review lacked constitutional or exceptional interest.

The Court sided with the Treasury, noting that although a constitutional issue remains, the matter is not exceptional in constitutional or human rights matters.

“Regarding Article 92, Section II of the Income Tax Law, in effect in 2012, there would be no exceptional ruling because the tax system allows for the dismissal of the complainant’s arguments, as the collegiate court did. Furthermore, with respect to Articles 34A and 42 of the Federal Tax Code, the jurisdictional body noted that the premises alluded to by the complainant were based on facts that did not occur in the specific case; therefore, there is no exceptionality on this issue either, and there are also several legal precedents regarding the powers of tax audits,” she explained.

Batres added that the mining company had already filed other appeals regarding Articles 34-A and 36 of the Federal Tax Code and Article 46, Section III, of the Federal Law of Administrative Litigation Procedure, issues that the Court and its Second Chamber had already resolved. Therefore, he said, the matter did not present a question of exceptional interest, and thus the agreement of February 10, 2025, by which the then-president had admitted the direct appeal for review 726/2025, should be revoked.

On October 23, the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN) imposed a fine of 70 UMA (almost 8,000 pesos) on Primero Empresa Minera for filing an unfounded motion to recuse Justice Yasmín Esquivel Mossa, seeking to delay her trial. The justices emphasized the exemplary nature of the sanction in curbing “procedural tricks” that prolong cases.

“It is clear that they do it in order to prolong the conflict… and then it turns out that we are the ones responsible for prolonging it,” warned Minister María Estela Ríos González.

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