Stay in tax amparo proceedings: what it protects, what security it requires, and what changed in 2025

A tax assessment (crédito fiscal, an amount determined by the authority) or an attachment (embargo, the seizure of assets) can harm a company long before a court decides whether the authority acted lawfully. That is why the stay of the challenged act is often decisive: the order to keep things as they are while the case is decided. In tax matters it has its own rules, and the reform of the Ley de Amparo (Amparo Law) published in the Diario Oficial de la Federación (DOF, Official Gazette of the Federation) on October 16, 2025, changed several of them.

Since October 17, 2025, Article 128 requires the judge, where the nature of the act allows, to weigh expressly the prima facie case (apariencia del buen derecho) and the public interest (interés social), and to verify four requirements: that the act exists, is imminent, or can reasonably be presumed; a showing of injury, at least an indicative one; that the measure does not cause significant harm to the community; and a prima facie case on a preliminary analysis that does not prejudge the merits. Anyone relying on a legitimate interest must also prove the imminent and irreparable harm and the public interest that justifies the measure (Article 131).

In the initial order, the judge grants or denies the provisional stay, schedules a hearing within five days, and asks the authorities for a preliminary report within forty-eight hours (Article 138); at that hearing, the judge rules on the definitive stay (Article 144). Under the decree's Third Transitional Article, the new rules also govern subsequent steps in cases that were already pending.

Against the assessment or collection of taxes, Article 135 allows the stay to be granted at the judge's discretion, taking effect if security for the tax interest has been or is posted with the collecting authority. The Second Chamber of the SCJN (Mexico's Supreme Court) read it together with Article 136: the measure takes effect when granted, but ceases if, within the five days after service of the order takes effect, the security set is not posted and the judge so determines; as long as there has been no enforcement, posting it reinstates the stay.

The stay takes effect immediately, but its effectiveness is conditioned on the tax interest being secured by any of the legally established means indicated by the amparo judge.

• Billete de depósito (deposit certificate) or letter of credit from an authorized institution.
• Pledge or mortgage, with the exclusions set by law.
• Surety bond, with the surety waiving the benefits of order and excussion (it cannot require the creditor to pursue the debtor first).
• Joint and several obligation of a suitable and solvent third party.
• Administrative attachment (embargo en la vía administrativa).

These are the forms set out in Article 141 of the Federal Tax Code, which also provides that the security be posted with the collecting authority; for state or municipal assessments, those of the local tax code apply. The judge may reduce or waive it if a sufficient final attachment already exists, if the assessment exceeds the economic capacity of the complainant (quejoso), or if the complainant is a third party (Article 135). If the amparo is denied or dismissed without a ruling on the merits (sobreseimiento), the authority enforces the security.

The stay is not available if it harms the public interest or public policy (orden público). The 2025 reform added cases to Article 129 that closely affect companies:

Proceedings before the Tribunal Federal de Justicia Administrativa (Federal Court of Administrative Justice, TFJA) have their own stay, also conditioned on securing the tax interest (Article 28 of the Ley Federal de Procedimiento Contencioso Administrativo, Federal Law of Administrative Litigation Procedure, LFPCA). They need not be exhausted before seeking amparo if that law does not allow a stay with the same scope as the Amparo Law, imposes more requirements, or sets a longer period for the provisional stay, among other exceptions (Article 61, Section XX, of the Amparo Law). Whether any of them applies depends on the case.