Selling & Exit
Capital gains tax when foreigners sell in Mexico
The tax on a sale is set by the law — not by what you were told at closing.
For most foreign owners, selling is the biggest tax event they’ll have in Mexico — and the one most people get wrong. Not because the rules are exotic, but because they get handled at the closing table, on assumptions: that your residency means what you think it means, that an exemption applies, that the records will take care of themselves.
The tax is built on what you can actually show — and by closing day, that is already fixed. The time to shape the number is well before the signing.
What we do
- Know the number first. Before you list or sign, we tell you what the sale will really cost — in plain terms, so there’s no surprise at closing.
- Build the position early. Whether any relief applies, and what you can deduct, turns on records kept the right way and in the right name — from the start, not the week of closing. The earlier it’s looked at, the more room there is to improve the outcome.
- Documentation that holds. The gain you’re taxed on is the gain you can support. The deductions and the position have to stand if the tax authority looks back — far easier to arrange in advance than to reconstruct at the table.
- The whole picture. We work the Mexican side so it fits with your situation back home — not in isolation from it.
Why us
Here’s what catches sellers off guard: however the tax on a sale gets handled, the law leaves the responsibility with the seller. If the treatment is incomplete, or something is left out — even by someone the seller relied on, even where another interest in the deal pointed the other way — the consequence still lands on the seller, who is often the last to know. That is what independent counsel is for: one set of eyes with no other stake in the sale, on a single question — where your exposure sits, and how to keep it from quietly becoming yours.
Learn more. For the background, read our publication “Capital Gains Tax on Property Sales”.
Thinking of selling?
The time to look at the tax is before you list — not at the closing table. A short conversation now can save a costly surprise later.
Schedule a Consultation