Welcome to the tax reality show where you are the forced sponsor
Hold your wallets, friends, because México Evalúa, that organization that gives us the bad news that we already suspected, has just confirmed our worst financial spoiler: in 2026 the government is going to charge us more taxes and it is not to improve the potholes that destroy your tires or so that hospitals have medicines, oh no. This extra money, in a plot twist that no one asked for, is to continue keeping Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex) on an artificial respirator. Yes, the company that sounds like the problematic family member who always borrows and never pays back.
In a press conference that could have been titled “How to empty citizens’ pockets with style”, the coordinator of Public Spending, Jorge Cano, dropped the bomb: the Economic Package 2026 basically means that each of us, taxpayers with dreams and debts, will pay on average more than two thousand additional pesos compared to what we paid in 2025. To give you an idea, That’s like giving up about ten specialty coffees, three streaming subscriptions, or half of a premium concert. Priorities, right?
The magic equation: you pay, Pemex spends
And here comes the best (or the worst, depending on your level of cynicism): of that money that will be deducted from you, almost 1,960 pesos per person will be allocated as tax aid for Pemex. He said this during the presentation of the Treasury 2026 analysis. In other words, it’s like they do a forced collection at the office, but instead of buying a birthday gift for the nice colleague, they give it to the one who always arrives late and eats your lunch.
Cano himself described it with a technical elegance that in millennial language translates as: “It is an undesirable scenario: more burden for citizens, but less relief for public finances.” In other words, we pay more and the country doesn’t look prettier. The reason for this nonsense? The fiscal miscellany proposed for next year includes a tightening of inspection (read: the SAT will review every cent of your spending on Uber Eats), the updating of taxes and the application of tariffs. Basically, they are going to take every last peso you managed to hide from you.
With this master strategy, they expect next year’s collection to reach a historical maximum of 15.1% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). It sounds impressive, until you realize that it’s like boasting about having collected a lot of water in buckets, only to pour it into a bottomless barrel.
The expert put his finger on the sore spot: while tax revenues grow (thanks to our sweat), Pemex will do something never seen before: it will stop contributing to the treasury. It is the first time that the relationship is reversed and it will be the government that will allocate more money to support the oil company. We went from a relationship of mutual benefit to a toxic relationship of total dependence.
From petty cash to bottomless pit: the transformation of Pemex
Let’s put it in numbers that hurt: in 2026, Pemex will contribute to each citizen the modest amount of 1,731 pesos, which represents 57% less than what it contributed in 2016. On the other hand, we Mexicans are going to return to the company the not so modest amount of 1,960 pesos to pay your debts. This means 85% more than in 2025. The math is simple and cruel: instead of receiving resources from Pemex, we citizens will have to pay 230 pesos of our taxes to the oil company to keep it operating. It’s the equivalent of paying your boss for the privilege of having a job.
Thus, with a lucidity that hurts, the analysis considers that Pemex goes from being a strategic source of public income to becoming a structural burden for the country’s finances. In other words, it went from being the goose that laid the golden eggs to being the geriatric pet that requires constant and very expensive visits to the veterinarian.
And here is the detail that will make us all’s blood boil: taxpayers pay more taxes not to finance health, education or security, but to support a company that cannot generate profits or reduce its debt. It’s as if in your house, instead of paying for electricity or water, everyone contributed to maintain a yacht that they never use and that is always in the workshop.
The above, stated the specialist, limits the fiscal margin of the government and compromises the sustainability of public finances, by allocating increasing resources to an oil company whose profitability remains in question. In other words, we are betting our future on a horse that has been lame for decades.
For her part, the director of México Evalúa, Mariana Campos, said something that we all sense: public finances need more space to take advantage of opportunities. An institutional Public Investment Law is required to be able to channel funds to human capital, especially in the absence of a medium and long-term infrastructure plan. Basically, it asks us to have a financial GPS instead of driving blindly down a bumpy road.
With a law like this, cuts to public spending could be avoided on a temporary basis, resolve social deficits in economic development and would help to have a more prosperous economy. It sounds like a distant dream, like those of having your own apartment in the city.
To round off the panorama, the coordinator of the poverty area at Ibero, Víctor Pérez, stated that in 40 years the transfers of resources to fight inequality failed because propitious environments for growth were not created. He said, with the crudeness of someone who no longer has anything to lose, that support has not served to reduce poverty. In other words, decades of attempts and we are still in the same situation, or worse.
And as if something were missing, the specialist Rodolfo de la Torre pointed out that the 2026 budget goes in the opposite direction to what is established by some Nobel laureates, who propose that it is key to have democratic institutions for sustainable economic growth. His accusation was direct: the rule of law is not strengthened. In Christian: we are building the house from the roof and we are surprised when it falls.
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