Tax regimes in Mexico (régimen fiscal): meaning and codes

A tax regime in Mexico (régimen fiscal) is the set of rules under which a person or a company pays tax to the SAT, the Mexican tax authority. It decides which taxes apply, how income tax is calculated, which returns must be filed and what kind of invoices can be issued. Every taxpayer is registered in one or more regimes, depending on where the income comes from and on whether the taxpayer is an individual (persona física) or a legal entity (persona moral).

The regimes come from the Mexican Income Tax Law (Ley del ISR), and the SAT gives each one a three-digit code in the c_RegimenFiscal catalog used by the electronic invoice, the CFDI 4.0. The catalog currently has 19 codes, from 601 to 626. This guide explains what the term means, how to find out which regime applies to you or to a supplier, and what each code stands for. It is general guidance, not tax advice.

What "régimen fiscal" (tax regime) means

Mexican income tax does not treat all income the same way. The Income Tax Law (in Spanish) has one title for legal entities (Title II), one for non-profit entities (Title III) and one for individuals (Title IV). Inside the title for individuals there is a separate chapter for each kind of income: salaries, business and professional activities, rent, sale of assets, interest, prizes and dividends. Each of those blocks is a tax regime.

You may also see "régimen tributario". It means the same thing and is the usual expression in other Spanish-speaking countries; Mexican law and the SAT say "régimen fiscal", and that is the label printed on a Mexican invoice.

The regime matters in three practical ways:

• It sets how much income tax (ISR) you pay and on what base: profit, cash collected, or an amount withheld by someone else.
• It sets which returns you file and how often.
• It goes on every invoice. The Federal Tax Code (Código Fiscal de la Federación, article 29-A, section I) requires each CFDI to state the tax regime of the issuer, and CFDI 4.0 also asks for the regime of the customer. See what a CFDI is for the basics of Mexican e-invoicing.

How to find out your tax regime

Your regime is whatever the SAT has on file for your tax ID (RFC, Registro Federal de Contribuyentes), not what you assume it should be. You can check it in three places:

• Your tax status certificate (Constancia de Situación Fiscal). It is downloaded from the SAT Constancia de Situación Fiscal service with your RFC and password or with your e.firma, the Mexican electronic signature. The "Regímenes" section lists every regime you are registered in and its start date.
• Your tax ID card (Cédula de Identificación Fiscal): its QR code opens the online record with your current data.
• An invoice you have issued: the issuer regime is printed on the CFDI with its code, for example 612 or 626.

The code for each regime is in the c_RegimenFiscal catalog, which the SAT publishes with the other CFDI catalogs on its Anexo 20 page (in Spanish), and in the lists below.

If you are buying from a Mexican supplier or selling to a Mexican customer, ask them for the regime exactly as it appears on their certificate. The length of the RFC tells you which kind of taxpayer you are dealing with: 13 characters is an individual and 12 is a legal entity. The guide to the RFC and its homoclave explains how the ID is built.

Seeing two or more regimes on one certificate is normal. An individual can be an employee and run a side business or rent out a property at the same time, and each source of income sits in its own regime.

How many tax regimes are there in Mexico?

The current c_RegimenFiscal catalog has 19 codes: 11 can only be used by individuals, 6 only by legal entities, and 2 by both.

Tax regimes for individuals (personas físicas)

These are the codes the catalog allows for an individual, with the official Spanish description and the income each one covers:

• 605, Sueldos y Salarios e Ingresos Asimilados a Salarios: wages and salaries. The employer withholds the income tax and issues the payroll CFDI; employees do not invoice their salary.
• 606, Arrendamiento: income from renting out real estate, such as a house, commercial premises or land.
• 607, Régimen de Enajenación o Adquisición de Bienes: the sale of an asset, for example a house, or acquisitions of assets that the law taxes.
• 608, Demás ingresos: other income that fits no other chapter, such as a debt forgiven by the creditor.
• 611, Ingresos por Dividendos (socios y accionistas): dividends paid to partners and shareholders.
• 612, Personas Físicas con Actividades Empresariales y Profesionales: self-employed business owners and professionals, with no income cap and with deductible expenses.
• 614, Ingresos por intereses: interest from investments and accounts.
• 615, Régimen de los ingresos por obtención de premios: prizes, for example from raffles or contests.
• 616, Sin obligaciones fiscales: "no tax obligations". It is not a chapter of the law. On an invoice it is the mandatory customer code when a generic RFC is used, which is the case for sales to the general public and to foreign customers.
• 621, Incorporación Fiscal: the former small-business regime known as RIF, closed to new taxpayers.
• 625, Régimen de las Actividades Empresariales con ingresos a través de Plataformas Tecnológicas: sales or services through apps and online platforms, where the platform withholds the income tax (article 113-A).

Tax regimes for companies (personas morales)

These codes are reserved for companies and associations:

• 601, General de Ley Personas Morales: the default regime for a company, such as an S.A. de C.V. or an S. de R.L. Income tax is 30% of the taxable result (Title II, article 9).
• 603, Personas Morales con Fines no Lucrativos: unions, chambers of commerce, professional associations and the other entities that article 79 does not treat as income tax payers.
• 620, Sociedades Cooperativas de Producción que optan por diferir sus ingresos: production cooperatives whose members are all individuals (article 194).
• 622, Actividades Agrícolas, Ganaderas, Silvícolas y Pesqueras: legal entities engaged exclusively in farming, livestock, forestry or fishing (article 74).
• 623, Opcional para Grupos de Sociedades: corporate groups with an integrating company and its integrated companies, subject to SAT authorization (article 59).
• 624, Coordinados: entities that manage assets used for road freight or passenger transport (article 72).

Regimes open to both: 610 and 626

• 610, Residentes en el Extranjero sin Establecimiento Permanente en México: foreign residents, individuals or companies, with Mexican-source income and no permanent establishment in Mexico (Title V).
• 626, Régimen Simplificado de Confianza: the simplified trust regime, known as RESICO. It is open to individuals with business, professional or rental income of up to 3.5 million pesos a year (article 113-E), and to legal entities owned only by individuals with total income of up to 35 million pesos (article 206).

Under RESICO an individual pays income tax every month on the cash actually collected, with no deductions, at a rate between 1% and 2.5% taken from the table in article 113-E. For example, 40,000 pesos collected in a month, before VAT, falls in the 1.10% bracket, so the payment is 440 pesos. The SAT describes the regime on its Régimen Simplificado de Confianza page (in Spanish).

What happened to the RIF (code 621)?

The RIF (Régimen de Incorporación Fiscal) was the regime for small businesses until 2021. The reform published in the Official Gazette on November 12, 2021 repealed that section of the Income Tax Law and created RESICO in its place.

Code 621 is still in the catalog because a transitional provision let taxpayers who were already in the RIF on August 31, 2021 stay for the rest of their permitted term, provided they notified the SAT by January 31, 2022. Nobody can register in the RIF today.

Which regime goes on a Mexican invoice?

Every CFDI 4.0 carries two regimes: the one of the issuer and the one of the customer. The customer code must be compatible with the type of taxpayer. If an RFC with 13 characters is paired with code 601, the certification provider (PAC, Proveedor Autorizado de Certificación) rejects the invoice.

When the customer has no Mexican RFC, the invoice uses the generic RFC for foreigners, XEXX010101000, and the customer regime must be 616. The same code is used with the generic RFC for the general public, XAXX010101000.

The regime also limits the purpose code of the invoice (uso de CFDI), because each purpose is only valid for certain regimes. The guide to CFDI use codes covers those combinations.

There is no special regime for invoicing. A taxpayer needs to be registered in the regime that matches the income being billed: 612 or 626 for a self-employed individual, 606 for rent, 625 for platform sales, 601 or 626 for a company. Code 605 only covers the payroll receipt an employee gets; it does not cover the sales of a business.

How much income tax is paid in each regime

The rate depends on the regime, so there is no single answer:

• Companies in the general regime (601): 30% of the taxable result (article 9).
• Individuals in regimes such as 605, 606 or 612: the progressive scale in article 152, which rises with income.
• Individuals in RESICO (626): 1% to 2.5% of cash collected, with no deductions (article 113-E).

Choosing and changing a regime

A regime is not picked freely: it follows from the source of the income. The real choice usually arises for a self-employed individual, between 612 and 626. A company does not choose: article 206 makes 626 mandatory for legal entities that meet its requirements, and the rest fall under 601 or a special regime. Because RESICO for individuals allows no deductions, a business with high deductible costs can end up paying less under 612 even though its scale is higher. Run the numbers for your own case and check with a Mexican accountant if in doubt.

Regime and economic activity are different things. The activity is what you do; the regime is the rule that taxes it. They still have to agree with what you invoice: under article 29-A, section V, of the Federal Tax Code, the SAT will update a taxpayer's registered activities and regime when the goods or services described on their invoices do not match the registered activity.

When the activity or the income level changes, the regime is updated by filing a notice with the SAT. Our step-by-step guide to changing regime is available in Spanish: cambio de régimen fiscal.

Cretia is not a PAC: it prepares your invoices and sends them to a SAT-authorized PAC for certification. In the invoicing module you store the tax regime of each customer next to their RFC and postal code, and when you invoice you only see the CFDI use codes that are valid for that regime.