Mexico · Tax regime
Mexican Personal Tax Regime
This is a standing regime. Residents are taxed on worldwide income at 1.92%–35%. There is no wealth tax, no net worth tax, no inheritance or estate tax, and no deemed-disposition exit tax. Tax residency begins once you spend 183 days physically present in a 12-month period, or once your centre of vital interests is in Mexico. Simply holding a residence card does not make you a tax resident.
Mexico is one of very few places a family can hold real residency, real property and a real life with no wealth tax, no inheritance tax and no exit tax. The trade is this: if you actually live there, you are taxed on worldwide income at up to 35%. The structure that works is residency without tax residency. That takes disciplined day counting and a defensible centre of vital interests elsewhere.
The facts
- Total landed cost
- Up to 35% on worldwide income. A flat 10% on gains from shares traded on the Mexican exchange. Plus 16% VAT.
- Route type
- Tax regime, not a visa
- Physical presence
- 183 days within a 12-month period, or a centre of vital interests, meaning your principal source of income or your principal home, located in Mexico
- Family
- Assessed individually. Mexico has no joint filing
- Permanent residency
- Not applicable
- Citizenship
- Not applicable
- Language test
- Not applicable
- Dual citizenship
- Permitted
- Requirements
- Tax residency is triggered at 183 days, or wherever your center of vital interests is located.Residents are taxed on worldwide income at rates from 1.92% to 35%.You must notify the SAT of a change in tax residence at least 15 days before you stop being a resident.
- Immigration residency and tax residency are different things, and promoters routinely conflate them. A residente temporal card does not make you a Mexican tax resident. What does is 183 days in the country or a centre of vital interests there.
- Once you are resident, worldwide income is taxed. That includes foreign dividends, interest and rents.
- Mexican nationality creates a presumption of Mexican tax residency unless you rebut it. The REFIPRE rules also keep a departing Mexican national taxable for the year of departure plus five years, if the destination is a preferential tax regime without an exchange-of-information agreement. That is a reason to think carefully before naturalising.
- The notice of change of tax residence must be filed with the SAT at least 15 days before departure. Miss it, and you are still resident.
- Mexico is a full CRS participant and exchanges account information automatically.
- The April 2026 Senate initiative on inheritances above ~MXN 14M (10–18%) is a proposal, not law, and the President has disavowed it. Still, it is the fourth such attempt in a decade.
- Mexico's restricted zone covers 50 km of coast and 100 km of the border. Inside it, foreigners cannot hold direct freehold title. Instead, you need a fideicomiso, a bank trust, or a Mexican company to hold the property.