Starting on tax year 2020, the Mexican tax authorities included a new tax regime applicable to those residents abroad that provide digital services or transfer of goods through the internet, through applications or similar appliances, related to downloading or provide access to images, pictures, information, videos, music, games, as well as any other multimedia content, act as intermediaries in transactions between third parties that offer goods and services and the ones that require such goods or services, among several other assumptions, within the Value Added Tax Law (VATL).
This regime is applicable, among other assumptions, to residents abroad without a permanent establishment in Mexico that provide digital services to receivers located in Mexico, which implies that they are obliged to obtain a taxpayers registry in Mexico (RFC for its acronym in Spanish), among other obligations for value added tax (VAT) purposes by adding and collecting the 16% rate on the price agreed for the services and make the payments directly to the Mexican tax authorities.
It is important to remember that this regime will not be considered to trigger a permanent establishment for the residents abroad, this is just a regime for VAT purposes.
Now, within the amendments made to the Federal Tax Code for tax year 2026 a new obligation for those within the VAT digital services regime was established, which is to grant online access to the Mexican tax authorities, permanently, and on real time to information that let them support the accomplishment of the tax obligations of the users, provided that if this obligation is not accomplished by the digital services providers, this could give rise to a temporary blockage of the digital platform.
As a result, the tax authorities have issued the process to accomplish this obligation by detailing the type of information that the platform must provide, as well as how to grant access to such authorities, in accordance with the assumption in which the resident abroad is subject to the VAT digital services regime.
The digital services providers shall provide the tax authorities with a username and a password that allows online access to the platform's system, interface, or application that hosts the mentioned information, as well as the necessary materials for its access, such as manuals, instructions, or guides.
The information requested by the tax authorities (information for the identification of users, invoices issued, among others) must be stored, no later than the day after the one to which the information corresponds, located in a database detailing each transaction that allows its storage and process the information on an individual and bulk manner which must be permanently available for the access of the tax authorities for a period of five years.
For these purposes, the digital services providers must file a written document with the corresponding information to provide access to the tax authorities no later than April 30th, 2026. In case of digital services providers that start operations after April 30th, 2026, such services providers must file the written document and provide all the access information within the following month in which its platforms begin providing digital services in accordance with the provisions of the VATL.
Likewise, the written document mentioned must be submitted when any modification is made to the information used by the authority to access the taxpayer's system, interface, or application, no later than 10 business days after said modification is made.
As it can be observed, the digital services providers must prepare its digital platforms to fulfill the information requirements from the Mexican tax authorities and carry out the process to let such authorities to access the information requested within the following 3 months of tax year 2026.
Our Firm, through its Tax division, will be pleased to assist you in conducting the analysis required to determine whether a platform falls within the digital services regime, in detailing the specific information the tax authorities may obtain depending on the type of digital service provided, and in preparing the filing and related documentation necessary to grant the tax authorities access to the platform for the purpose of retrieving such information.