Do I have to file at home while living in Mexico?
It depends on residence, not on address — except for US citizens and green-card holders, for whom the answer is yes regardless of where they live. We settle the residence question first, because every other answer follows from it.
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?
Rent from immovable property is almost always taxable where the property is situated, frequently by withholding on the gross amount, with your home country taxing the same income and giving credit. A net-basis election, where one exists, is usually the difference between tax on profit and tax on turnover.
When do I become resident again after moving back from Mexico?
On the facts, not on the flight date, and generally when you re-establish the ties your home system looks at — a home available to you, your family with you, and the ordinary apparatus of living there again. Buying or leasing somewhere, moving children into school and returning to local work usually settle it between them. The date matters because income before it and income after it are treated differently, and because assets you hold are often brought into the home system as at that date. We fix the date from documents and file the year on it.
Do I have to report my Mexican bank trust once I am back?
Yes, if you keep the property, and the obligation usually starts with the year residence resumes rather than when you eventually sell. Which reporting applies depends on how your home system reads the bank trust arrangement foreign buyers commonly use in Mexico: an interest in a trust and directly held real estate carry different regimes, with different forms behind them. People returning frequently discover this in the first filing season after they are back. We read the deed, take the characterisation, and put the first year's reporting in place rather than leaving it to be found later.
What happens to the Mexican house if I keep it after returning?
It becomes foreign property held by a resident, which usually means annual reporting at home, any rental income on your home return with credit for Mexican tax, and a gain computed under home rules when you eventually sell. The value at the date you resume residence often matters as well, because several home systems bring assets in at that point rather than at original cost. That value is far easier to record now than to establish years later from memory. We document it at the time and set up the annual reporting in the same engagement.
Is my Mexican pension or savings taxed after I move home?
Once you are resident again, your home system generally taxes worldwide income, so payments from Mexican plans and accounts come into the return whatever their source. The treaty in force for your year decides which country has the first claim on each category, and pensions are usually dealt with separately from employment income and separately again from government service pensions. Withholding may continue at source in Mexico, and that is corrected through the returns rather than ignored. We categorise each plan before the first filing season after the return.
Do my assets get a fresh cost base when I move back?
Several residence-based systems treat a returning resident as acquiring their property at market value on the date residence resumes, which sets the cost base for any later sale. Not every asset class is included, and citizenship-based systems do not work this way at all, so the answer depends on which home system you are returning to and what you own. What is consistent is that the evidence has to come from the date itself — valuations, statements and deeds contemporaneous with the return. We collect them as part of the re-entry year rather than afterwards.
I moved back part way through the year — how do I file?
Generally as a part-year filer, with the year divided at the date residence resumes: income before that date is dealt with on one basis and income after it on another. The two halves are not simply added together, and the deductions and credits available often differ between them. If your spouse returned on a different date, each of you has your own split. Getting the date wrong moves income across the line, and that is one of the more common reasons a re-entry year is later reassessed. We set the date from evidence first.
Do green card holders living abroad have to file US taxes?
Yes. A lawful permanent resident is a US tax resident, taxed on worldwide income, and that status does not end simply because you moved away — it ends when it is formally abandoned or administratively terminated. Two traps follow. Filing as a non-resident on a treaty claim can put the immigration status itself at risk. And ending the status after holding it long-term can bring you inside the expatriation regime. See giving up a green card.
What is RNOR status?
Resident but not ordinarily resident — a transitional category in India between non-residence and full residence, reached on the day counts after returning from a period abroad. While it lasts, certain foreign income stays outside the Indian tax base, which makes the timing of a return to India worth planning rather than leaving to chance. It is temporary, and the window is set by the day-count rules. See RNOR status.
