Charging double for larger pages or more lines breaches tax proportionality
Municipal fees for copies and certifications. Cases in which the relevant fees violate the principle of tax proportionality.
Official heading (Spanish): DERECHOS MUNICIPALES POR EXPEDICIÓN DE COPIAS Y CERTIFICACIONES. SUPUESTOS EN LOS QUE LAS CUOTAS RELATIVAS VULNERAN EL PRINCIPIO DE PROPORCIONALIDAD TRIBUTARIA.
The ruling
The National Human Rights Commission challenged provisions of the Tlapacoyan, Veracruz, Municipal Tax Code that doubled the fee for certificates or certified copies on larger sheets or with more lines. The SCJN held that fees for copies or certifications based on page size, number of lines, format or text layout breach tax proportionality, because they bear no reasonable relation to the actual cost of the service.
Our take
Certifying a document costs the authority the same whether the sheet is letter or legal size, or has twenty or forty lines. The SCJN says it clearly: the fee must track the cost of the service, not incidental variables. For companies that routinely obtain certified copies for litigation, due diligence or real estate regularization, the ruling supports challenging fees tiered by format. The amounts are small but recurring. Our reading: certification fees in any municipality, not just Tlapacoyan, should be tested against the same logic.
What to do
- Identify municipal fees that vary by page size, number of lines or document format.
- Request certifications in standard formats while assessing a challenge to the fee.
- Factor this ruling into budgets for due diligence or real estate regularization work.
Details
- Court
- SCJN Plenary
- Type
- Binding precedent (jurisprudencia)
- Identifier
- P./J. 108/2026 (12a.)
- Digital registry
- 2032196
- Published
- May 29, 2026
- Area
- Amparo and constitutional
- View official source ↗
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Prepared by Artegia for information only; not legal advice. Headings in English are unofficial translations. The official text is the one published in the Semanario Judicial de la Federación or the TFJA journal.