by "Spanfeller is a twat" (theaspiringengineer)
Published 11/18/2017 at 18:35
by "Spanfeller is a twat" (theaspiringengineer)
Published 11/18/2017 at 18:35
Tags: Vive l'évasion!
; MXDM
; Mexican Domestic Market
; EMBIGGEN THIS
STARS: 14
DISCLOSURE: Due to a change in the law regarding emissions tags, this article is out of date in some respects.
Lately in the news Mexican rich people and politicians are having a horrible time. La estafa maestra and the paradise papers haven’t been exactly good for them. But above all of this for car people, its the subject of the infamous Morelos license plates and registration.
But a little bit of context first.
As far as I know, if you own a car in the valley of Mexico or in other wealthy states in Mexico your car will pay road tax. In Mexico City we pay the most expensive road tax, this one calculated by the government using fixed depreciation rates they decide. It is outrageously expensive, and hated because most of the money has dubious usages afterwards. If your car is worth more than 72 thousand dollars you could find yourself paying 20% of its showroom cost in road tax on the first year. Their factored depreciation rate is about 50% of the car’s value after five years. But it’s stupid because after seven years, no matter if your car is a 3/4 ton suburban or a Honda CRZ it will be subject to the “Hoy no circula” rules, which state that cars older than seven years, regardless of their emissions, cannot obtain the “Cero” or “Doble Cero” tags that allow to drive every day, making 7 year old cars effectively worthless.
So, because of this, Chilangos began registering their cars in ghost addresses (Think P/O boxes) in far away states of Mexico that had no road tax (the more sketchy hired lawyers and registered their cars as company cars with lease plans). All of this wasn’t even done with sketchy lawyers, no... Fucking dealers would do it for you! It was then that the Mexico City government pounced into action and made a special ordinance.
Under the guise of being “worried” about emissions, the goverment of Mexico City prohibited cars from other states from driving in Mexico City, instead they would default into the harshest setting for Hoy No Circula. If you had a car foreign to Mexico City and it wasn’t smog checked you wouldn’t be able to drive it daily unless you filled out a permit that would only let you drive it for a few days or weeks every semester!
This was an issue for the 14 million people living in the metro area of Mexico City, an area that is covered by up to three states! Come in, CAMMe.
United under the guise of the Environmental Commission for the Megalopolis, the government regularized the system. The states that are part of CAMMe have strict biannual smog inspections that adhere to Mexico City’s standard, if your car was registered within those states it could be used in Mexico City daily with its state smog test. If it was registered in a state without smog inspections, or with less thorough inspections it wouldn’t, fucking up many chilango’s scheme.
But, guess which state doesn’t charge significant road taxes and is part of CAMMe?
Fucking Morelos....
So rich Chilangos switched from far regions to a tiny, landlocked state to the south of our city. They get the tags and simply run in Mexico City. To make matters worse, the system is still handled by dealers but now they use the same fucking address in a private community . So now a small house in a remote community is the place of registration of Ferraris, BMWs, Audi RSs and other stupidly expensive cars. I wouldn’t give a flying shit about this if the exploits of the rich were available to everyone and Mexico City was a tax-avoiding utopia filled with interesting cars (which have a tendency to be more expensive)
But it isn’t, and only luxury dealers and rich people with access to bribe money can do it. It’s said that this evasion of taxes costs Mexico City upwards of two billion Pesos yearly, also known as what it cost to build the elevated ring road .
"CB" (jrcb)
11/18/2017 at 18:43, STARS: 0
Interesting article. I hear a lot about that happening in the States with... Montana I think? I don’t really know if something like this happens up in Canada.
Personally, it’s pretty scummy that a person with enough money to buy one of these cars thinks they shouldn’t have to pay the taxes, too. Especially since having that large a deficit of tax money coming in might actually cause the tax rates for everyone to go up due to money lost.
"EL_ULY" (uly)
11/18/2017 at 18:50, STARS: 1
Ratas con cuatro llantaaaaas!
"traitor joe" (traitorjoe)
11/18/2017 at 18:59, STARS: 1
Great write up, also enjoyed what you wrote on bulletproofing a few days ago. Keep up the good work.
"Spanfeller is a twat" (theaspiringengineer)
11/18/2017 at 19:06, STARS: 1
Thank you! I really enjoy writing these as well, Journalism was my second carrier choice but then this is happening so, yeah...
BY THE WAY, you can insure your bulletproofing, but unless you bought a factory bulletproof car the additional cost is not factored into the road tax
"Spanfeller is a twat" (theaspiringengineer)
11/18/2017 at 19:09, STARS: 1
Yeah, it’s shitty. But I understand them. Its a vicious cicle really.
Government uses money for bullshit-> people are angry so they don’t vote->assholes get elected and make fiscal laws with huge loopholes->rich people evade taxes-> poorer people have their taxes hiked-> elected idiots use money for bullshit-> people are angry.....
"DipodomysDeserti" (dipodomysdeserti)
11/18/2017 at 19:15, STARS: 1
2 billion pesos = $106k.
Methinks Mexico has some bigger fish to fry.
Good write up.
I met my wife while building a house on a landfill outside of Puerto Peñasco. The oldest son in the family had to hot wire an old K car every day in order to make it work at some gringo resort. Meanwhile his countrymen are avoiding paying a few pesos a year in road tax...
"Spanfeller is a twat" (theaspiringengineer)
11/18/2017 at 19:20, STARS: 2
Its ONE HUNDRED MILLION DOLLARS. Also known as a Mitt Romney every two years.
Mexico does have huge fishes to fry, but we need to start somewhere! Tax evasion leads to inequality and corruption. Surely we need to start where La estafa maestra ended! but we can’t minimize issues like that because then we end up justifying ourselves more of the same shit
"DipodomysDeserti" (dipodomysdeserti)
11/18/2017 at 19:33, STARS: 0
Whoops, forgot to carry the one. Funny story, I worked with a kid in Arizona who grew up near the Mexican Romneys. He said they were really weird and didn’t talk to anyone at the local restaurant in rural Sonora.
"Spanfeller is a twat" (theaspiringengineer)
11/18/2017 at 19:34, STARS: 1
Isn’t, like, every Romney weird?
"DipodomysDeserti" (dipodomysdeserti)
11/18/2017 at 19:43, STARS: 0
Apparently so.
+1 corporations are people
"415s30 W123TSXWaggoIIIIIIo ( •_•))°)" (415s30)
11/18/2017 at 20:45, STARS: 1
So it’s like the Montana plates. My dad is from MT but lives in CO most of the time, but all his vehicles are registered to the ranch address in MT.
"Spanfeller is a twat" (theaspiringengineer)
11/18/2017 at 20:51, STARS: 1
Perhaps its similar, but your dad atleast owns a ranch in Montana, most of these people I bet couldn’t even name Morelo’s capital city!
"415s30 W123TSXWaggoIIIIIIo ( •_•))°)" (415s30)
11/18/2017 at 21:01, STARS: 0
Si si
"Tapas" (tapas)
11/18/2017 at 23:50, STARS: 0
Awesome write up. +1 for the tag
"Spanfeller is a twat" (theaspiringengineer)
11/18/2017 at 23:51, STARS: 0
Thanks, I actually scheduled an explanation about it: http://oppositelock.kinja.com/preview/what-are-mxdm-and-mexican-domestic-market-tags-1820581839
"The Crazy Kanuck; RIP Oppositelock" (jukesjukesjukes)
11/19/2017 at 00:54, STARS: 0
There’s some, kinda. A friend has a cottage in Port Loring, close to North Bay. He has his cars registered up there, lives near Barrie. Why? No E-test is required up north.
"My bird IS the word" (mybirdistheword)
02/16/2018 at 16:04, STARS: 0
So what you are saying is: I should go vintage car shopping in mexico city.
"Pich, with Z32 now featuring Civic [Si] / No" (pichz32)
02/16/2018 at 17:22, STARS: 0
I love Morelos
"Spanfeller is a twat" (theaspiringengineer)
02/16/2018 at 18:39, STARS: 0
depends, there’s a sweetspot between 7 and 25 years old in which their resale value is pretty low...