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Graco Sáenz Andapia

Graco Sáenz Andapia

Associate
Baker & McKenzie Abogados, S.C.

Biography

Graco Sáenz is a senior associate and member of Baker McKenzie's Tax Practice Group in Mexico City. A George Town graduate, Graco has 16 years of experience and has served on practice in the private sector. He has actively collaborated with large firms in Mexico that represent multimillion-dollar tax restructuring / tax assessments and tax litigations, giving fresh and innovated solutions. In addition to his practice, he taught as a professor at the Univeridad Humanitas for the LLM Tax Law course, and as a professor assistant at the Universidad Iberoamericana for Financial Law course. He has authored numerous publications on subjects related to his field. He has authored two academic thesis: "Green Taxes in Mexico" and "The Unconstitutionality of the Mexican Flat Tax."

Graco's clients include multinational companies in the real estate, gas and oil, energy, manufacturing, media and entertainment, telecommunication, bank, financial services, food industry, insurance and pharmaceutical industries.

Practice Focus

Graco focuses his practice on (1) legal advice for commercial agreements, labor and tax planning, cross-border transactions, corporate reorganization, governance regulatory matters, (2) negotiations with administrative and tax authorities and (3) tax controversy, constitutional litigation, administrative litigation.

Representative Legal Matters

  • Advising and defending a major oil & gas company during an audit performed by tax authorities, with regard to the application of Base Erosion and Profit Shifting criteria in reference to the payment of services.

  • Advising and defending several food companies in connection with the Mexican Value Added Tax, and also obtaining a favourable resolution of the Tax Court confirming the applicability of a rate of 0% of the selling of the goods.

  • Participated in several trials before the Tax Court, Supreme Court of Justice, District Court and the Tax Administration, considered the most important trials in Mexico.

  • Advising and defending a digital economy company during an audit perform by tax authorities, regarding the application of payments abroad of royalties.

  • Advising and defending an entertainment company during an audit perform by tax authorities, regarding the deduction of management fees determined under OECD rules.

  • Advising an IT company on its corporate restructure.

  • Advising an oil & gas company on its tax planning and restructure due to investment in Mexico.

Professional Associations and Memberships

  • American Chamber Mexico - Member
  • International Bar Association - Member
  • The International Legal Honor Society of PHI DELTA PHI - Member

Admissions

  • Mexico (2007)

Education

  • Georgetown University (Advanced Legal Writing in English and Commercial Law) (2012)
  • Universidad Panamericana (LLM Taxation with honors) (2011)

Languages

  • English
  • Spanish

Publications & Presentations

  • Author, "Delincuencia organizada para la compraventa de facturas, defraudación fiscal equiparable," Puntos Finos / Thomson Reuters, 2020
  • Author, "Conclusion Agreements: The Mexican Alternative for the Resolution of Tax Disputes,"North America Tax News and Developments, August 2019
  • Author, "Impuestos Digitales," Forbes 2019
  • Author, "La reforma fiscal después de un año y medio," Forbes, 2017
  • “Reformar o Morir” article on the necessity of tax reform, SINTAGMA, 2012
Baker & McKenzie Abogados, S.C. is a member of Baker & McKenzie International, a Swiss Verein.