Helguero, Enrique

English

University of Miami School of Law

University of Miami Law SchoolInstitutional RepositoryUniversity of Miami Law Review10-1-1959TAXATION IN MEXICO. By Henry J. Gumpeland Hugo B. Margain. Boston: World Tax Series,1957.Enrique HelgueroFollow this and additional works at: http://repository.law.miami.edu/umlrPart of the Law CommonsThis Book Review is brought to you for free and open access by Institutional Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in University of Miami LawReview by an authorized administrator of Institutional Repository. For more information, please contact library@law.miami.edu.Recommended CitationEnrique Helguero, TAXATION IN MEXICO. By Henry J. Gumpel and Hugo B. Margain. Boston: World Tax Series, 1957., 14 U. Miami L.Rev. 133 (1959)Available at: http://repository.law.miami.edu/umlr/vol14/iss1/16BOOK REVIEWthe whole, writers have preferred to measure distances from the pointswhere their respective legal systems originated to their present position: thecommon law from the English law proper, and the civil law from theNapoleonic Code and the French doctrine.This collection, well written and documented, was long overdue. Itstill bears overtones of past traditionalism, not only in approach but alsoin the selection of subjects discussed, by concentrating on areas highlyconservative (contracts, torts, property, succession) while, at least for thetime being, more dynamic areas, like, corporations, labor law, commerciallaw, are omitted. Particularly regrettable is the fact that Canadian conflictof laws problems have been left aside.These remarks only prove with how much interest a publication ofthis kind and quality meets outside of Canada. Students of Canadian legaldevelopments, as well as comparativists, are grateful indeed to the menwho produced this valuable account of some of the fundamental problemsof Canadian law.S. A. Bayitch Professor of LawUniversity of Miami School of LawTAXATION IN MExrco. By Henry f. Gumpel and Hugo B. Margain. Boston:World Tax Series, 1957. Pp. 428. $12.50.This book fills an important gap in the legal literature regardingLatin America. With international trade growing at an incredible pace,it has become more and more necessary to gather all the existing informationon investment conditions."Taxation in Mexico" is one of the volumes published in the WorldTax Series, the offspring of the Harvard Law School International Programin Taxation. The other published volumes available deal with Brazil,Great Britain and Australian taxation. This program has been developedas the implementation of the Resolution adopted at the Economic andSocial Council of the United Nations for the gathering of information onnational tax laws and administration. Obviously, the importance of thisseries does not need to be overemphasized; it is one of the steps to betaken for using the mutual knowledge of tax systems to suppress theproblem of double taxation. The whole collection will be also a very usefultool for the practice of international lawyers and for research purposes.The book was written by a number of specialists; Dr. Guinpel is theauthor of the basic draft. A German scholar, who emigrated to the States, heis the typical cabinet research man. Although his text was basically correctin accordance with the existing Mexican legislation, there were certain1959] •UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI LAW REVIEWunclear points or, as we could call them, "legal blind alleys." Mr. Margain,a person in everyday contact with tax problems, being Director Generalof the Income Tax Department of the Mexican Ministry of Finance, becamethe ideal person to furnish the solutions found in practice. In the"Acknowledgments," it can be appreciated that no efforts were spared topresent the most carefully revised text to the reader. However, the namesof two Mexican experts that worked in the revision, considered as top menin the field, are conspicuously absent. In all fairness, Messrs. Flores Zavalaand Lopez Velarde should have been mentioned.In the sizeable legal literature on Mexico available to English readers,this book will occupy a prominent place. Up to now, no overall effort hadbeen made to explain the Mexican fiscal system as a whole in a foreignlanguage. Even articles on the topic have been very scarce. (For themost recent, see the writer's "Mexican Taxation of Foreign Corporations,"Miami Law Quarterly, Inter American Law Issue, Symposium on MexicanLaw, Summer 1957). We may be safe in asserting that with this book,the U.S. Department of Commerce's "Investment in Mexico, Conditionsand Outlook for U. S. Investors," and Bernal Molina's "A Statement ofthe Laws of Mexico Affecting Business" (published by the Pan-AmericanUnion), the would-be investor will have the basic sources to plan hisinvestment with reasonable accuracy.To a great extent, taxation is one of the main concerns for the potentialinvestor in Latin America. But it is not enough to have the text of theLaw available; it is indispensable to envision the frame within which it isapplied and the institutions at work. This is one of the outstanding meritsof this book; the historical, economic and political background is analyzedwith great care. The work is divided into three main parts. In the first,we find a general description of the tax system. Its first chapter is anintroduction to the tax system, remarkable well written. Chapters 2, 3and 4 deal with a summary of taxes on income (its section "Taxation ofnon-residents" is very interesting), taxes on capital and taxes on transactions.The second part contains an analysis of the income tax and is themost valuable. Minute attention is paid to the income tax, the classesof taxpayers, the principles of income determination, the business income,the income from personal services, the income from capital, and finally,the income from special activities and from miscellaneous sources. Chapters11 to 14 deal with "International aspects of income taxation" (veryimportant), computation (of relative interest), the administration andprocedure (of great practical usefulness for the practitioner) and thedistributable profits tax.In part II, the attention is focused on the excess profits tax, thecommercial receipts tax (the most recent and disliked of the Mexicantaxes), special tax on mining (important even to the Mexican lawyer, because[VOL. XIVBOOK REVIEWthere is scant literature on the subject) and, finally, a study on tax exemptionsfor new or essential industries.Simple mention of the contents of this book reveals at a glance itsextraordinary, importance and usefulness. In general, the first part is basicand the person interested in any specific point will direct himself to theadequate section. A very handy "terminology of the report" helps greatlyto understand fully the pecularities of the Mexican tax system. Anotheradditional feature of this book is that a pocket is provided for futurematerial, so as to keep it up to date. In spite of the exhaustive revisions,there are occasional mispellings, but that does not mar an otherwiseexcellent work.Enrique Helguero Professor of LawUniversity of Mexico School of LawUNITED STATES CONSTITUTIONAL LAW 1850-1875. By Clifford C. Alloway.New York: Oceana Publications, 1958. Pp 127. $3.95.Professor Alloway's United States Constitutional Law 1850-1875 waswritten as part of the centennial celebration of Mexico's Constitution.Professor Alloway was one of twenty-six authors from nineteen countriescontributing to a two volume book published by the law faculty of theUniversity of Mexico. The publication in this country has the paralleltranslation both of text and notes.That one of the twenty-six contributing authors is a distinguishedmember of the law faculty at the University of Miami is in the traditionof that law school's great interest in the law and law schools of LatinAmerica and particularly of Mexico.To interpret well any substantial part of the Constitutional Law ofthe United States is a difficult task even if the readers are fellow countrymenand there are no limitations of space. To do it concisely, as ProfessorAlloway has, and to interpret it to law students of Mexico as well as tostudents of the common law is a work of art as well as of learning.It has made more clear to me the constitutional aspects of the greatand almost fatal internal struggles of the United States during the thirdquarter of the nineteenth century. Of especial value to me is the treatmentof the cases dealing with the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments. ProfessorAlloway handles his material strictly from a legal point of view, yet it isdifficult for a reader to avoid speculating on what might have been thepath of events if the post Civil War Supreme Court, instead of thwartingcongressional efforts to nationalize civil rights, had given to the Civil WarAmendments the construction which their drafters intended.

TAXATION IN MEXICO. By Henry J. Gumpel and Hugo B. Margain. Boston: World Tax Series, 1957.

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TAXATION IN MEXICO. By Henry J. Gumpel and Hugo B. Margain. Boston: World Tax Series, 1957.

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