Antigua Guatemala brought together more than 300 specialists at the FEL Summit 2026 to analyze the digital transformation of tax systems in Latin America

A speaker delivers a lecture to attendees in front of a screen reading Factura Electrónica Summit 2026. (Román Castro, FEL SUMMIT 2026) On October 15, Antigua Guatemala brought together more than 300 specialists, tax authorities, and technology companies from at least 10 countries at the FEL Summit 2026, a gathering dedicated to the changes that artificial intelligence, automation, and cybersecurity are imposing on Latin America's tax systems. The event featured more than 20 international speakers, representatives of 25 companies, and officials from the region's tax administrations. The meeting was organized by the Guatemalan company INFILE, with technical co-organization from Guatemala's Superintendencia de Administración Tributaria. The discussions covered the digitalization of tax and financial procedures, as well as the relationship between states and companies. The expansion of electronic processes over the past decade accelerated this transformation and raised demands for oversight, data protection, and institutional adaptation. A speaker delivers a lecture to attendees in front of a screen reading Factura Electrónica Summit 2026. (Román Castro, FEL SUMMIT 2026) Artificial intelligence took up a large share of the presentations due to its capacity to automate validations, streamline procedures, and expand the analysis of large volumes of data. Participants also addressed the risks associated with information handling and the management of digital threats. José Eduardo Gutiérrez, a representative of the World Bank, presented the lecture "The Fiscal Future of Latin America: Technology, Trust, and Development in a Digital Economy." He then took part in a discussion alongside Erick Echeverría, Head of Revenue Collection at the SAT, on technology, formalization, and taxation as tools to drive economic development. Echeverría outlined Guatemala's journey from the implementation of electronic invoicing to its current goal of creating an integrated fiscal ecosystem. This model seeks to link digital invoices with other tax administration, control, and compliance processes. Coordination among countries emerged as a condition for extending fiscal modernization across Latin America and the Caribbean. The region's administrations are advancing at different paces: some have had mandatory electronic invoicing for years, while others are only beginning their transition to digital systems. The regional panel brought together the SAT's superintendent, Werner Ovalle, with specialists from Panama, the Dominican Republic, Honduras, Costa Rica, and Peru. The shared experiences included models of automation, digitalization, and the evolution of taxpayers' obligations. View of the Regional Panel of Tax Administrations of Latin America and the Caribbean, under the theme "Latin America and the Caribbean: Toward a Digital Fiscal Ecosystem." On stage, a group of speakers stands in front of a screen displaying the event's image and flags of various countries, while the audience remains seated in an auditorium. Prensa Summit 2026 Cybersecurity occupied another central place on the agenda due to the rise in digital fraud and identity theft risks. The protection of tax information was presented as a condition for sustaining the trust of companies and taxpayers in electronic systems. Guillermo Bran, executive president of INFILE, defined the scope of the gathering: "We bring together tax authorities, business leaders, technology specialists, and players from the financial ecosystem, conversing in a single space about electronic accounting, electronic invoicing, tax compliance, factoring, artificial intelligence, and cybersecurity." "This is not a theoretical conference; it is a space to understand where the region's fiscal transformation is heading," Bran added. The event brought together public and private actors involved in tax, financial, and technological systems. Electronic invoicing was also analyzed as a tool that can go beyond tax compliance. Among the possibilities discussed were its use as a financial asset and its connection with digital factoring, a financing mechanism through which a company assigns its receivable invoices to obtain early liquidity. These models could facilitate access to financing for small and medium-sized enterprises, which often face greater difficulties obtaining credit from traditional banking. The agenda also included regional experiences on the use of artificial intelligence in business-to-business payments and electronic accounting. The organizers set 2030 as the next stage for Latin American tax systems, marked by the convergence of electronic invoicing, digital accounting, electronic factoring, and technological transformation. The challenge posed was to combine innovation, security, and institutional capacity to oversee the new processes.