Property tax in Mexico: the predial, from abroad

What is the predial, and who charges it?

The predial is the annual tax on owning or holding a piece of real estate, and it is charged by the municipality where the property stands, not by the federal tax authority. The Constitution assigns these contributions to the municipal treasury, and the state congress writes the law each municipality collects under.

Read one of those laws and the object of the tax is stated plainly. In Los Cabos it is the ownership of urban and rural plots, and the permanent constructions on them, together with certain forms of possession. The tax follows the property. It does not follow the owner's nationality, residence or tax status in any other country.

That is why the predial is not paid to the federal tax authority, and why it sits apart from the obligations on rental income set out under compliance. It is a local account with a local number, like water or power, and it runs whether the house is lived in, let or closed.

Why does the amount change from one municipality to another?

Because each municipality applies its own rates to its own cadastral values, and both are set locally: the town council proposes the rates and the tables of unit values of land and construction that serve as the base for the tax, and the state congress approves them. Two identical houses in two towns are taxed under two different laws.

The base is the cadastral value of the property, not its market price, and inside a single municipality the rate can also change with the use of the house. How that works in Los Cabos, where the law sets one band for a house its owner lives in and another for a house that is let, is set out in the guide to buying a house in Mexico as an American.

The practical consequence for an owner is that no figure read online for another town says anything about this one. The only reliable number is the one on the municipality's own statement for the property, and the only reliable calendar is the one in that municipality's law. Revaluations also arrive without a request: in Los Cabos, changes to cadastral values take effect from the day after their publication in the state's official bulletin.

Is property tax in Mexico different for foreigners?

No: property tax in Mexico for foreigners is the same tax, at the same rate, paid to the same treasury, because the Constitution forbids state laws from creating exemptions or subsidies in favour of any person or institution on these contributions. What differs for a foreign owner is not the tax but the paperwork around it.

When a house is held through a bank trust, the law reaches the trust as well. The Los Cabos law lists among those liable for the predial the settlors while they are in possession of the property, and the fiduciaries of trust property. The bank holds title; the law still names the party who has the house.

The difference that matters most is distance. The same law obliges the taxpayer to declare a domicile to the collection office within 30 days of becoming one, and if that is not done, the place where the property is located is taken as the domicile for all legal purposes. For an owner who lives abroad, that means the notices are delivered to the house — the one address where nobody is reading them.

How do you pay Mexican property taxes online, from outside Mexico?

Through the municipality's own portal, where one exists, using the property's cadastral key and a bank card. In Cancún the municipality of Benito Juárez publishes cancun-digital.mx, where the account statement can be consulted and paid with bank cards; in Mexico City the Finance Secretariat takes payment through its portal, its app and bank portals.

The piece of information these channels ask for is the cadastral key, and it is printed on the previous year's receipt: Benito Juárez says that at its payment machines the tax can be paid simply by entering the cadastral key shown on last year's official receipt or on an up-to-date account statement, and that the receipt it issues carries a QR code to verify it. Anyone working out how to pay property taxes in Mexico from abroad should start by finding that receipt.

Not every municipality offers the same channels. The Los Cabos law still describes payment at the corresponding collection offices, and the tools change from one administration to the next. For an owner abroad the reliable method is not a particular website but a person on the ground who has the cadastral key, the calendar and the receipt — which is the standing work described under utilities and HOA payments.

Is there a discount for paying early in the year?

In the three municipalities below, yes, and it shrinks as the year advances: in 2026 Mexico City gave 8 and 5 per cent for annual payment in advance during January and February. Each municipality sets its own percentages and its own deadlines, so each discount below holds only for the town that publishes it.

Three municipalities, three calendars, each taken from the official document named in the row:

The Mexico City figures come from the Finance Secretariat's bulletin of 1 January 2026 and its bulletin of 12 February 2026; the Cancún phases from the municipality's bulletin of 16 January 2026; the Los Cabos terms from article 30 of the municipal finance law, which also states that paying in advance does not prevent the treasury from collecting differences later.

The discount is the reason the predial belongs in an annual calendar rather than in a pile of bills. It is earned in the first weeks of the year or not at all, which is why it is planned in the autumn as part of an annual plan.

What happens if the predial goes unpaid?

Surcharges accrue first: in Los Cabos the law states that late payment will generate surcharges at the rate set by the relevant law. The larger cost is that an unpaid predial stops other paperwork, because several procedures require proof that it is current.

A sale is the clearest case. In Los Cabos notaries may not authorise any contract that transfers or encumbers a property until they are shown the certificate that the predial is current. A letting is the second: in Mexico City, registering a home on the host register requires certificates of no debt on predial and water for each registered property.

Undeclared changes carry their own cost. If new construction or a change of owner is not reported, the Los Cabos law allows the tax to be recovered for the five years before the date the omission was discovered. A terrace added years ago and never declared is a liability that surfaces at the worst moment, usually the day the house is sold.

Where does the predial show up on an owner's paperwork?

In three places beyond the receipt itself: on the invoices for any rent the house earns, in the deductions against that rent, and in the file a notary asks for on sale. Federal law requires every CFDI issued for rental income to carry the cadastral account number of the property, which is the number on the predial receipt.

On the deduction side, the income tax law allows the predial paid for the calendar year as a deduction against rental income, and it is deductible in addition even for owners who opt for the flat 35% deduction. That makes the receipt one of the few documents worth keeping whichever way the return is prepared, and the way it is filed for an owner abroad is part of rental tax compliance.

For an owner abroad, the simplest test is whether the predial appears every year as a dated line with its receipt. That is how it travels in the monthly owner statement, alongside the other standing accounts of the house, and how the books that sit behind it are kept is set out in property management accounting.