Óscar Miranda Abogado
Áreas de práctica
Ver todasDefensa estratégica · juicios orales · amparo penal
Divorcios · pensión · custodia · sucesiones
Despido, finiquito y liquidación · lo que te corresponde de verdad
Contratos · arrendamiento · daños · litigio
Cobro de deudas · pagaré · juicios ejecutivos
Constitución · compliance · gobierno corporativo
Defensa SAT · TFJA · predial · amparo fiscal
Clausuras · multas · INVEA · juicio de nulidad
Residencias · naturalización · INM
Compraventa · escrituración · vicios ocultos
Negativa de pensión · semanas cotizadas · Modalidad 40
Asesoría inicial desde $2,000 MXN · Lunes a viernes 9:00 – 21:00
Agendar por WhatsAppÓscar Miranda Abogado
FOR EXPATS & FOREIGN BUSINESSES · MEXICO CITY
If SAT — Mexico’s tax authority — has your name, your property or your income on its radar, you need a tax lawyer in Mexico City who can explain Mexican tax law in plain English before you sign, pay or ignore anything. Óscar Miranda is a licensed Mexican attorney (cédula profesional 13195234) who handles tax residency questions, SAT audits and letters, frozen refunds and property taxation for foreign clients. You get a written diagnosis and a closed-fee quote — never open-ended hourly billing.
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Almost every expat forum repeats the same rule of thumb: “stay under 183 days and you’re not a Mexican tax resident.” That is not how Mexican domestic law works. Article 9 of the Federal Tax Code (CFF) does not count days at all. It asks two questions:
If your only home is in Mexico, you are a Mexican tax resident. Owning or renting a place you actually live in — not a hotel stay — is what matters, regardless of how many days you were physically present in a given year.
Mexico treats your center of vital interests as being here when more than 50% of your income in the calendar year comes from Mexican sources, or when Mexico is the main base of your professional activities. Either one is enough to make you a resident even if you also keep a home abroad.
Day counts like the famous 183 days do exist — but in the tie-breaker and employment rules of Mexico’s tax treaties, which decide which country wins when both claim you. Getting this analysis wrong cuts both ways: some expats pay Mexican tax they never owed, others discover years later that SAT considers them residents taxable on worldwide income.
Residency analysis is the first step of every consultation, because every other answer on this page — rental tax, capital gains, audit exposure — depends on which side of that line you are on.
The RFC (Registro Federal de Contribuyentes) is Mexico’s federal taxpayer ID, issued by SAT. Foreigners run into it constantly, because Mexican institutions use it as the key that connects you to the tax system:
Two things expats often get wrong: an RFC does not by itself make you a tax resident, and not having one does not make your Mexican-source income invisible to SAT. We help clients register with the correct status — resident or non-resident — so the RFC works for them instead of against them.
Forget abstract tax theory — these are the situations that bring foreign clients through our door, and how Mexican law treats each one:
| Situation | How Mexico taxes it |
|---|---|
| Rental income from Mexican property, non-resident owner | 25% withholding on gross rent, no deductions (Art. 158 LISR) |
| Selling Mexican property as a non-resident | 25% of gross price, or 35% of net gain if you qualify (Art. 161 LISR) |
| Selling your primary home as a Mexican tax resident | Exemption up to 700,000 UDIS, once every 3 years, before a notary (Art. 93-XIX LISR) |
| Mexican tax resident with foreign income | Taxed on worldwide income, with treaty relief and foreign tax credits |
| Non-resident digital nomad, foreign clients and employer | Generally no Mexican income tax on foreign-source income — until residency shifts |
Selling property is where the numbers get big: the notary withholds the tax at closing, and choosing between the gross and net methods — or qualifying for the resident exemption — can change the bill by hundreds of thousands of pesos. Run your own numbers first with our capital gains calculator for selling a home in Mexico (in Spanish, but the math speaks every language).
Digital nomads working remotely from Mexico for foreign clients or employers are generally outside Mexican income tax while they remain non-residents with no Mexican-source income — but the moment your home and center of vital interests shift here, so does your tax status. That transition deserves planning, not improvisation.
Mexico has income tax treaties in force with the United States and Canada (among many other countries). They assign taxing rights between the two countries, provide tie-breaker rules when both claim you as a resident, and support foreign tax credits so the same income is not taxed twice.
In practice, treaty protection is not automatic — it depends on residency certificates, correct filings and claiming the right credits on each side. When we see actual double taxation, the cause is almost always procedural, and it is usually fixable. We coordinate with your accountant or tax preparer abroad rather than pretending one office can file in two countries.
SAT cross-checks bank deposits, invoices, property records and platform data — and foreigners are not invisible in that system. The contact usually starts small: an invitation letter (carta invitación) pointing out a discrepancy, a request for information, or a withheld refund. It can escalate to a formal electronic review, a desk audit or an on-site visit, and end in an assessed tax debt with fines, surcharges and even frozen accounts or a cancelled digital seal certificate.
The critical fact: once SAT issues a formal act, the windows to fight it are short and fatal — generally 30 business days for a revocation appeal or an annulment trial before the federal tax court, and 15 days for certain constitutional challenges. Waiting converts a defensible act into a final debt.
Our full playbooks for these fights are documented in Spanish: defense against SAT audits and assessments and recovering tax refunds SAT is holding back. The strategy is the same for foreign clients — we simply run it in English with you.
The work is compliance: monthly and annual filings, bookkeeping, payroll, issuing invoices, keeping your RFC status current. This is recurring, systematic work — and if that is all you need, we will tell you so in the first consultation and save you legal fees.
There is a dispute, a deadline or a structural decision: an audit or letter from SAT, an assessed tax debt, a frozen refund or cancelled digital seals, residency and treaty questions that decide where you owe tax, or how to structure a property sale or a business before the problem exists. Litigation privilege, procedural deadlines and legal argument are lawyer territory.
Many matters need both professionals working together — your accountant keeps the numbers clean while we fight the legal battle. See everything our tax law practice covers (in Spanish).
No — that specific number is not the Mexican domestic test. Under Article 9 of the Federal Tax Code (CFF), you are a tax resident if your home (casa habitación) is in Mexico; if you keep homes in two countries, Mexico looks at your center of vital interests — mainly whether more than 50% of your annual income comes from Mexican sources or your main professional activities are based here. Day-counting rules like the 183-day threshold come into play under tax treaties, not as an automatic Mexican trigger.
Very often, yes. The RFC is Mexico's federal taxpayer ID, and in practice banks ask for it to open or maintain accounts, notaries need it to buy or sell property, and it is required to invoice, to claim the seller's tax options on a property sale, and to request tax refunds. Having an RFC does not by itself make you a tax resident — it is an ID, not a residency election.
If you are a non-resident for Mexican tax purposes, rental income from property located in Mexico is taxed at 25% of the gross rent, with no deductions, under Article 158 of the Income Tax Law — normally withheld by the tenant or administrator. If you are a Mexican tax resident, you instead declare the income under a resident regime where deductions are available. Which side of that line you are on is exactly the residency question we resolve first.
Usually not on the same income, if things are handled correctly. Mexico has double-taxation treaties in force with both the United States and Canada, and foreign tax credit mechanisms exist on both sides. Double taxation in practice almost always comes from bad paperwork — missing residency certificates, unclaimed credits, mismatched filings — not from the treaties themselves.
No. An invitation letter is not yet a formal audit, but ignoring it is how small discrepancies become assessed tax debts (créditos fiscales) with fines and surcharges. Once SAT issues a formal act, the deadlines to challenge it are short and fatal — generally 30 business days for a revocation appeal or annulment trial. Have the letter reviewed before responding or paying anything.
Honest answer: for routine compliance — monthly filings, bookkeeping, payroll — you need an accountant, and we will tell you so. You need a tax lawyer when there is a dispute or legal risk: an audit or invitation letter from SAT, a frozen refund, a cancelled digital seal certificate, an assessed tax debt, or cross-border structuring where residency and treaty questions decide what you owe. Many clients need both, working together.
Every cross-border tax case starts with the same three questions — are you a resident, what is Mexican-source, and what deadline is running. All three get answered in the first consultation, in English, for $2,000 MXN (about $100 USD).
Prefer not to use WhatsApp? Reach us through the contact form — or browse all our services for foreign clients in English.