Penalty for keeping accounting or corporate books in English
The Mexican Commercial Code provides that companies must keep their commercial records in Spanish, including foreign companies.
This obligation has a minimum term of ten years and includes accounting and corporate books such as:
- Meeting minutes or unanimous shareholder resolutions.
- Capital variations book.
- Transfer of shares book.
- Meetings of the board of directors.
If the regulation is not met, an agency may impose a penalty on the company, which will consist of:
- More than 25,000 Mexican pesos,
- But less than five percent of its capital stock.
In addition, the agency may order the translation of records into Spanish by a translation expert at the expense of the company.
We are not aware of any cases in which this penalty has been applied, do you?
We have a few questions.
Would the Ministry of Economy be the competent authority to impose these penalties?
Would it do so when the companies themselves submit their information to the Ministry to carry out any process? Because the code points out the agency may not initiate ex-officio audits.
How would the Ministry of Economy determine the penalty amount? Would it be based on the company’s capital stock? The fiscal years covered by the records? Or the volume of documentation?