Guatemala Restricts VAT and Customs Treatment of Regional Exports Under the Maquila Regime

• Guatemala’s tax administration published Institutional Tax Criterion No. 3-2026 concerning definitive exports to the Central American Common Market using the FAUCA, now DUCA-F, customs document. The criterion applies to businesses operating under the Active Improvement Regime and the Maquila and Export Promotion Law. [portal.sat.gob.gt], [turciosyas…ciados.com]
• Goods admitted temporarily with import VAT and customs duties suspended, and products made from such goods, cannot benefit from regional free circulation without first regularising the applicable import VAT and duties. An exception concerns the Total National Value-Added Component regime. [turciosyas…ciados.com], [es.linkedin.com]
• The criterion also restricts the use of DUCA-F to discharge inventory current accounts or customs guarantees for goods under the Active Improvement Regime. The criterion was approved and became applicable on 5 August 2026. [portal.sat.gob.gt], [es.linkedin.com]

Extended article

Guatemala’s Superintendence of Tax Administration has clarified the VAT and customs-duty treatment of goods sent to other Central American countries by businesses benefiting from the country’s export-manufacturing incentives.

Institutional Tax Criterion No. 3-2026 concerns definitive exports made through the Central American Single Customs Form, traditionally known as FAUCA and now as DUCA-F. The criterion specifically addresses goods and production inputs admitted under the Active Improvement Regime with import taxes suspended. [portal.sat.gob.gt], [turciosyas…ciados.com]

According to the tax authority’s interpretation, temporarily admitted goods do not qualify as Guatemalan-origin or nationalised goods for purposes of regional free circulation. Products manufactured using those inputs likewise do not qualify automatically for free trade within the Central American Common Market. [IBFD Tax N…ugust 2026 | Outlook], [turciosyas…ciados.com], [es.linkedin.com]

A manufacturer wishing to supply those products to another Central American country may therefore need to nationalise the temporarily admitted inputs and pay the corresponding import VAT and customs duties. Alternatively, the movement may need to follow a different customs procedure rather than being treated as a free-circulation regional export.

The criterion also states that DUCA-F cannot generally be used to discharge the merchandise current account or customs guarantee for inputs admitted under the Active Improvement Regime. The stated exception applies to the Total National Value-Added Component export regime, under which nationally sourced or previously nationalised inputs are used. [IBFD Tax N…ugust 2026 | Outlook], [turciosyas…ciados.com]

Businesses should review their Central American supply chains, bills of materials and customs-document flows to determine whether finished goods contain temporarily admitted inputs. The financial impact may include import VAT, customs duties, additional working capital and changes to the importer-of-record arrangement.

External sources: Guatemalan SAT institutional tax criteria and analysis of Institutional Tax Criterion No. 3-2026. [portal.sat.gob.gt], [turciosyas…ciados.com]