The pedimento is the tax declaration of your import: the document where duties you paid and the legal basis of your goods in Mexico are determined. Knowing how to read it is not the customs broker’s job alone; it is self-defense: customs value, addables, FX, and duty fields are exactly what you reconcile against the broker expense account, and errors in pedimento code, tariff classification, or identifiers are what trigger fines and deductibility rejects years later.
- blocks to review
- 7
- key reconciliations
- 3
- minimum retention
- 5 yrs
- pre-pay target
- 100%
For finance and accounts payable, the pedimento is not a PDF to file away: it is the piece that ties duties, international freight, and the inland leg into one auditable story.
Cluster: expense account · invoice audit · Carta Porte
Pedimento blocks
Header, values, addables, duties, lines, identifiers, and transport: skip one and you leave a leak or a tax risk without an owner.
Pedimento blocks you actually review
Each block has a different reconciliation question.
| Block | What it holds | What to check |
|---|---|---|
| Header | Code, customs, patent, tax ID | Right code (A1, IN…) and your exact RFC |
| Values | Customs value, commercial, FX | Pedimento FX = expense account |
| Addables | Freight, insurance, packing | Matches what you actually paid |
| Duties | IGI, DTA, VAT, IEPS | Math vs HS and vs broker bill |
| Lines | HS, description, origin | HS and origin vs reality |
| Identifiers | IMMEX, PROSEC, treatments | Benefits actually applied |
| Transport | Mode and waybills | Matches inland Carta Porte |
The HS (Harmonized System) code drives duty and regulations; origin must match your USMCA certification (United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement) when you claim preference.
Three reconciliations that pay
You do not need to audit every Annex 22 field in month one. Start with three crosses that recover pesos and cut risk.
Three reconciliations that pay for themselves
Select a step to see detail
Step detail · 01
Pedimento
vs expense acct
Pedimento duties are the only amounts the broker paid the treasury on your behalf; everything else on the account is fees and third-party costs with their own evidence rules.
Why this is freight audit
On imports, the shipment file is incomplete without the pedimento: it ties the port clock, the expense account, international freight, and the inland leg. End-to-end foreign-trade reconciliation is the natural use case for the Audit Agent for IMMEX and high-volume importers.
The manual method is in how to audit a freight invoice: same evidence rules, with the pedimento’s tax layer on top.
Errors that explode years later
SAT asks for pedimentos a decade later; indexed filing is not a luxury.
Code
Wrong pedimento type
A1 vs IMMEX IN: wrong regime carries fines.
Base
Value and addables
Undervaluation or inflation: both hurt in review.
Time
Rectify early
Catch it in-month is cheap; letting authority catch it is not.
Retention and rectification
Five years is the general tax floor; specific programs and reviews can demand more. Catching the error in the month’s reconciliation is cheap; letting the authority catch it in a review is not.
Elige un paso para ver el detalle
Detalle del paso · 01
Pedimento (PDF + XML when applicable)
What OCL runs
OCL Cargo is an autonomous TMS with agents and computer use (operating screens and portals like an analyst). The Audit Agent crosses pedimento, expense account, freight, and addables before payment without a day-one stack migration. OCL can stamp invoices and Carta Porte. Humans handle exceptions. On the Mexico–US corridor, the value is closing the tax and logistics file together.
Pre-pay
Pedimento under control
Read
Blocks
Match
Expense acct
Validate
Addables
Decide
Pay / hold
6–8 week pilot (pedimento)
Take your last 50–100 pedimentos: baseline of mismatches vs expense account, code/HS errors, and pesos in misapplied duties. Metric: % of shipments with to-the-cent pre-pay reconciliation.
Elige un paso para ver el detalle
Detalle del paso · 01
Pedimento VAT = expense-account VAT
Key takeaways5 points
- The pedimento is the tax declaration of your import.
- Reconcile value, addables, FX, and duties.
- Pedimento vs expense account: VAT must match to the cent.
- Wrong code, HS, or origin explode years later.
- OCL ties pedimento + freight + inland leg pre-pay.
When was the last time someone on your team read a full pedimento?
Related reading
Frequently asked questions
Five years as a general tax rule, and longer under specific programs. Pedimentos are among the documents SAT (Mexico’s tax authority) still asks for a decade later; shipment-indexed digital filing is not a luxury.
Yes, via rectification, with rules on which fields and when. Catching the error in the month’s reconciliation is cheap; letting the authority catch it in a review is not.
The broker has defined legal duties, but the importer answers for the truth of the information provided and, in practice, suffers the operational consequences. Trusting without reconciling is not delegation; it is abdication.
Costs added to customs value (freight, insurance, packing, among others). They must match what you actually paid: inflated ones raise duties; understated ones are undervaluation risk.
It should not. If VAT (value-added tax) or duties do not match to the cent, someone rounded in their favor or used another reference.
The Audit Agent reconciles pedimento, expense account, freight, and addables before payment. OCL can stamp invoice and Carta Porte. 6–8 week pilot without day-one TMS migration.