Do I have to file at home while living in Mexico?
For most people the answer turns on whether the ties that made them resident have actually ended. For a US citizen or green-card holder it does not: the return is due in Mexico exactly as it would be at home. Everything else on the file follows from which of those you are.
Is there a treaty between my country and Mexico?
Possibly, and the version in force for your year is the one that matters — protocols and multilateral-instrument positions change what a treaty does without changing its name. We check it against the authority rather than a summary. Where no treaty applies, domestic relief takes over.
I own property in Mexico. Where is the rent taxed?
Where the property is. That is close to universal, and it usually arrives as withholding on the gross rent rather than as a return on the profit — which is why the election onto a net basis, where Mexico offers one, is normally the first thing to check. Your home country taxes the same rent and credits what was paid.
Does my Mexican bank trust mean I own property or a trust?
It depends on the terms of the arrangement and on how your home system reads them, and the two answers can differ. Foreign buyers frequently hold Mexican property through a bank trust, and whether that makes you the owner of real estate or the holder of an interest in a trust decides which reporting applies — different forms, different thresholds, different consequences for getting it wrong. Nobody can answer it from the property address alone. We read the trust deed itself, then set out in writing which characterisation your documents support.
Do I still have to file at home after retiring to Mexico?
Often yes. Residence, not the address on your correspondence, decides whether the home return stays open, and retiring abroad rarely settles it on its own. If you are American, the return follows citizenship and continues regardless. If your home system is residence-based, it looks at where your home, your family and your habitual life actually are, and a property kept at home, a spouse who has not moved, or bank and health registrations left active all pull the answer back. We establish the date residence actually changed and file the years on that footing.
How is my Mexican rental income taxed where I file at home?
If you are still resident at home, rental income from Mexico generally goes into your home return as well, with relief for Mexican tax coming through the treaty and the foreign tax credit rules rather than by leaving the income out. The two systems rarely measure that income the same way: depreciation, deductible expenses and the treatment of the trust arrangement can all differ, so the figure on one return is not simply the other one converted. We prepare both sides from the same underlying records, so the credit claimed matches the tax actually paid.
Do I have to report my Mexican bank trust as a foreign asset?
That is the reporting question the characterisation decides. Where your home system treats the arrangement as an interest in a trust, foreign trust reporting can apply, often annually and with its own penalties for silence. Where it treats you as owning the underlying real estate, a different and usually lighter regime applies — and personal-use property is treated differently again from property held to earn income. Getting this wrong in either direction is common among buyers who were told the trust was a formality. We read the deed, take a position, and record the reasoning.
We have staff in Mexico — does that create a taxable presence?
It can, and payroll is usually where it shows first. A group with people working in Mexico needs to know whether those people create a permanent establishment, whether their remuneration is taxable there, and what the entity at home must withhold and report in the meantime. Charges between the Mexican operation and the parent bring a separate set of transfer pricing obligations on both sides. These questions are answered from contracts, actual duties and where the work is performed, not from job titles. We review the arrangement as it operates and document the position.
Which country taxes my pension once I am living in Mexico?
The treaty in force for your year allocates it, and pensions are one of the categories treaties handle specifically — often differently from employment income and differently again from government service pensions. The starting point is what kind of plan it is and who contributed to it, then which country the treaty gives the taxing right to, then whether the other country taxes it as well and gives credit. Withholding at source is frequently applied first and corrected later on the return. We map each plan separately, because one person's plans often fall into different categories.
Do US citizens living abroad have to pay US taxes?
They have to file, every year, on worldwide income — the United States taxes citizens wherever they live. Whether they end up owing is a different question: the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion, the foreign housing exclusion and the foreign tax credit frequently reduce the bill to nil while leaving the filing obligation fully intact. Foreign account and asset reports run separately and carry their own penalties. See US citizens living in Canada.
Do I still file a US return if I owe nothing?
Yes. The filing obligation depends on income exceeding the threshold, not on tax being payable, and the reliefs that reduce the bill to nil — the exclusions and the foreign tax credit — are claimed *on* the return, so not filing forfeits them. Information reports about foreign accounts and assets are separate again and carry penalties even where no tax was ever owed. See US citizens abroad.
