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Graco Sáenz Andapia

Graco Sáenz Andapia

Partner
Baker & McKenzie Abogados, S.C.

Biography

Graco Sáenz is a partner and member of Baker McKenzie's Tax Practice Group in Mexico City. Graco has 20 years of experience and has served on practice in the private sector. He has actively collaborated with large law 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 Universidad Humanitas for the LLM Tax Program, and as a professor assistant at the Universidad Iberoamericana for Financial Law. He has authored numerous publications on subjects related to his field. He has authored two academic thesis i) "Green Taxes in Mexico" and ii) "The Unconstitutionality of the Mexican Flat Tax," both theses prized.

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

Representative Legal Matters

  • Advising and defending a major oil & gas company during an audit performed by tax authorities, regarding 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 obtaining a favorable 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 complex and 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 Honors

  • Honorary Doctorate "Doctorates Honoris Causa" from Instituto Mexicano de Lideres de Excelencia (Mexican Institute of Leaders of Excellence) for his great and notorious contributions in the Legal Fields in Mexico
  • International Tax Review - Award of Mexico Tax Disputes Firm of the Year

Professional Associations and Memberships

  • American Chamber Mexico - Member
  • ANADE (Mexican Corporate Attorney Chamber) - Member
  • International Bar Association - Member
  • The International Legal Honor Society of PHI DELTA PHI - Member

Corporate Responsibility

  • Speaker to pro bono activities for the contribution to a Mexican Foundation for Children with the support of the Rotary Club

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, "Compensación en las Auditorías" (Offsetting in tax audits), Abogado Corporativo magazine

Author, "Delincuencia organizada para la compraventa de facturas, defraudación fiscal equiparable" (Organized crime for the purchase and sale of invoices, comparable tax fraud), Puntos Finos / Thomson Reuters

Author, "Conclusion Agreements: The Mexican Alternative for the Resolution of Tax Disputes," North America Tax News and Developments

Author, "Impuestos Digitales," (New Taxation in the Digital Era), Forbes

Author, "La reforma fiscal después de un año y medio" (Tax reform after a year and a half), Forbes

"Reformar o Morir" (Reform or Die) article on the necessity of tax reform, SINTAGMA

Author, "Interview to Cesar Nava" article related to the interview with the private secretary of Mexican President Felipe Calderón, SINTAGMA

Baker & McKenzie Abogados, S.C. is a member of Baker & McKenzie International, a Swiss Verein.