Before you start

A CURP, from which the RFC is generated
Work-authorised status if you will be on a Mexican payroll
A comprobante de domicilio under three to four months old
Passport and resident card

Step-by-step

1
Register the RFC
Inscribe yourself in the Registro Federal de Contribuyentes on the SAT portal using your CURP, or at a SAT appointment with ID and proof of address. Salaried people register under sueldos y salarios; anyone letting property registers under arrendamiento. If you will sell property later, you will also need to be in the Registro Estatal de Contribuyentes for the state cedular — the notario checks it.
OnlineWho: YouOften under an hour onlineFree
2
Get the e.firma and the Constancia de Situación Fiscal
The e.firma requires one in-person SAT appointment with fingerprints; the Constancia downloads instantly afterwards. Banks, notarios and letting platforms all ask for the Constancia, so keep it refreshed.
In personWho: YouOne appointmentFree
3
If you are independent, check RESICO
The Régimen Simplificado de Confianza taxes an individual's gross receipts at 1% to 2.5% of ISR, on a band scale, up to an annual ceiling of MXN 3.5 million, with monthly filings and no deductions. For a remote freelancer invoicing clients it is dramatically lighter than the general regime — but it has to be elected, and rental activity has its own rules.
OnlineWho: Self-employed individualsElected at registration or at the start of a year
4
If you let property, the tax is federal — the state cedular does not reach rents
Rental income from a Yucatán property is Mexican-source income and is declared to SAT under arrendamiento, with the option of a 35% blind deduction or itemised costs. Unlike Chihuahua, Guanajuato, Guerrero, Nayarit and Oaxaca, Yucatán levies no state cedular on rents, so there is no extra state filing for a straightforward letting. If you are running it as a business rather than a passive let, the 4.5% cedular on actividades empresariales can apply — worth asking a Yucatán accountant which side of the line you sit on.
OnlineWho: Property owners letting in YucatánMonthly or quarterly federal filings
5
Budget the 5% cedular on the sale, because that is where it does bite
Article 20-I of the Ley General de Hacienda del Estado de Yucatán charges 5% on the gain from selling a property in the state, on the same base the federal ISR uses, payable within 30 working days of the transfer and in practice calculated and remitted by the notario at closing. Your own principal residence is exempt up to 700,000 UDIs of sale price. Anyone modelling a Mérida restoration as an investment on federal rules alone is understating the exit cost.
In personWho: Property sellersWithin 30 working days of the sale, via the notario5% of the gain
6
Know what makes you a Mexican tax resident, and pay predial
The day-count rule people repeat is not the Mexican test. Article 9 of the Código Fiscal de la Federación turns on where your casa habitación is; where you keep a home in two countries, Mexico looks at your centre of vital interests, deemed to be here when more than half your income for the year is Mexican-source or when the main centre of your professional activities is in Mexico. Buying and letting a house in Mérida pushes hard in that direction. Separately, municipal predial in Mérida is low by international standards and carries an early-payment discount at the start of the year.
OnlineWho: YouPredial annually, discounted early in the year

Documents you’ll need

CURP
Passport and resident card
Comprobante de domicilio
RFC, Constancia de Situación Fiscal and e.firma
Rental contracts, CFDIs issued, and the escritura if you own property

Things most newcomers don’t know

Almost every list of Mexico's cedular states is wrong about Yucatán, in the direction that costs you money later.

The seven-state lists that circulate — Chihuahua, Guanajuato, Guerrero, Nayarit, Oaxaca, Quintana Roo, Yucatán — are usually presented as a list of states taxing rental income. Only five of them do. Yucatán's Ley General de Hacienda has exactly two cedular chapters, on the sale of property and on business income; arrendamiento appears nowhere in the statute. The practical effect is that people worry about a state tax on their rent that does not exist, and fail to budget the one on their sale that does.

Source: Ley General de Hacienda del Estado de Yucatán, arts. 20-A to 20-L

The cedular shows up at the notario's table on the day you sell, not in a return you file.

Article 20-I charges 5% on the gain from selling a Yucatán property, on the same base as the federal ISR, due within 30 working days of the transfer — and in practice the notario calculates it and remits it out of the proceeds, so it lands in the settlement statement rather than in your annual return. Your own principal residence is exempt up to 700,000 UDIs of consideration. The federal exemption on a principal residence and this state one do not have the same threshold, which is exactly the kind of gap a non-Yucatán accountant will miss.

Source: Ley General de Hacienda del Estado de Yucatán, arts. 20-I and 20-K

RESICO is the regime most of Mérida's remote workers should be in, and it has to be chosen.

The simplified regime taxes an individual's gross receipts at 1% to 2.5%, up to an annual ceiling of MXN 3.5 million, with straightforward monthly filings and no deduction bookkeeping. Mérida attracts exactly the freelancers and consultants it suits. Because it must be elected at registration or at the start of a year, people who register without advice frequently spend twelve months paying the general regime unnecessarily.

Source: SAT

Letting a room does not stop being taxable because the money arrives in a foreign account.

Income from property located in Mexico is Mexican-source income regardless of where the guest pays or which bank receives it, and federal ISR applies. Platform operators have moved towards withholding, which increasingly makes the mismatch visible to SAT. Owners who assumed an offshore payment channel put the arrangement out of scope are the ones with the largest back-tax exposure here.

Source: SAT / Gobierno de Yucatán

Common mistakes to avoid

Believing the online lists that say Yucatán taxes rental income — it does not, and worrying about the wrong tax is how the real one gets missed.
Modelling a Mérida property investment on federal tax alone and missing the 5% state cedular on the gain when you sell.
Registering in the general regime without checking whether RESICO applies.
Assuming rental income paid into a foreign account is outside Mexican tax.
Using an accountant with no Yucatán practice for a Yucatán property.

Some of this may be out of date. Spotted something inaccurate? Help us keep it right for the next newcomer.