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?
That is verified rather than assumed: we confirm which treaty text governs Mexico and your home country for the year in question, because a protocol can move a rate or an article between years. If there is no treaty, unilateral credit rules are what prevent double taxation.
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.
I work for a Canadian employer from Mexico — who taxes me?
Usually both, in a fixed order. The country where the work is physically done has the first claim on employment income earned there, and your country of residence taxes you on everything and then gives credit for the other. Which country is your residence is a separate question, and your employer cannot answer it for you. The treaty carries an exception for short assignments, but it turns on how long you were present, who actually employs you and who bears the cost of your pay, and living in Mexico rather than visiting it normally takes you outside that exception.
Does my employer have to register in Mexico if I work there?
It may, and that question is answered separately from your own. An employer with a person working in another country can pick up an obligation to withhold and report there, and in some circumstances the employee's activity gives the company a taxable presence of its own. The risk rises with seniority and with authority: an employee who plays the principal role leading to the conclusion of contracts is treated differently from one doing back-office work. Most employers want this settled before the arrangement starts, because unwinding a registration is harder than deciding not to need one.
How long can I work from Mexico before my tax position changes?
There is no single count that settles it, which is why the answer people want does not exist. Three things move independently: whether you become resident in Mexico under its rules, whether you stop being resident at home under yours, and whether the treaty exception for short assignments still covers the work. Presence matters to all three, but so do where your home and family are, who employs you and who bears the cost of your pay. A stay that is plainly temporary and a stay that is plainly permanent are both easy. The middle is decided on evidence.
Can my employer keep deducting Canadian payroll while I live abroad?
It usually carries on doing so, because payroll runs on the status the employer holds and nobody has told it anything different. Whether that is right is another matter. Once you are working in another country, deductions may be owed there instead, or in both places, and social security is decided separately from income tax under its own arrangements. The corrections are administrative rather than dramatic, but they have to be asked for: a reduction at source, a registration abroad, or a certificate of coverage. Left alone, money is deducted in the wrong country and recovered slowly through returns.
Am I an employee or a contractor if I invoice from Mexico?
Invoicing does not decide it. Both countries look at the substance of the arrangement — who controls how the work is done, who supplies the tools, whether you carry any risk of loss, whether you are free to take on other clients — and either can reach a different answer from the other on the same facts. The stakes are not theoretical. The characterisation drives whether payroll withholding is owed, who accounts for social contributions, whether local registration and sales tax apply to your invoices, and whether the company has a presence of its own where you sit.
What happens to my share options if I move part-way through vesting?
Equity earned over a period is generally split between countries by where the work was done while it was being earned, not by where you happened to live on the day it vested or the day you sold. That means keeping a workday record from grant onwards, because the apportionment is built from it and reconstructing it later from calendars and boarding passes is painful. Withholding is the other half: the payroll system usually deducts in one country on the whole amount, so the credit claim and the source split have to be prepared together rather than after the fact.
What happens if I have not filed for several years?
Missed years are handled as one package, not one at a time, because the route chosen for the first year determines the relief available for the rest. Each country has a disclosure or relief programme with its own conditions, and entering the right one — before the authority contacts you — is usually what keeps penalties down. Filing quietly outside a programme forfeits that protection. See catching up on missed returns.
Is the foreign tax credit refundable?
No. It reduces your tax to nil at most; it never pays out beyond that. Where foreign tax exceeds the credit you are allowed, the excess is generally carried back or forward within its own category rather than refunded — so a high-tax year abroad can leave a balance you use in a later year. Tracking those balances matters, because an unused carryforward can expire. Our carryforward tracker keeps the running position.
