In your name or the company's? The art. 93 & 151 guide to deciding where each asset lives

"Do I put it in my name or the company's?" is probably the most repeated question in Mexican tax-and-wealth planning — and it has a methodical answer, not a gut-feel one: check whether the asset carries a tax benefit exclusive to individuals (arts. 93 and 151 of the LISR, the income tax law). If it does, it usually pays to hold it in your name; if it doesn't, the company almost always wins on deductibility and protection. The premise of the reel is correct; here it is with its numbers and its exceptions.

The individual's star asset: your primary residence

The sale of a primary residence is exempt from ISR up to 700,000 UDIS — around $6 million pesos at the current UDI (estimate; the UDI is updated daily) — provided you can prove it is your primary residence and you have not used the exemption in the three prior years (art. 93, section XIX, subsection a). Your company has nothing of the sort: if the house belongs to the company, every peso of gain pays 30%. The near-universal conclusion: the house where the family lives goes in the individuals' names — the ~$6M-per-event exemption, reusable every three years, is one of the biggest gifts in the system. (Protection bonus: that same house can also be set up as a patrimonio de familia (family patrimony, a homestead-style protection) — a topic for another article on the blog.)

The company's natural asset: productive real estate

The retail unit, the warehouse, the industrial building, the office: they have no sale exemption for the individual, and instead the company depreciates them (5% a year on the construction), deducts their maintenance, property tax and insurance, and credits the IVA (VAT) when the activity allows it. On top of that, holding them in a wealth-holding entity separate from the operating company — one that leases to the operating company at market value — adds the protection layer: the business risk does not reach the bricks. The individual wins only when the leasing regime with the 35% blind deduction beats the corporate structure — a comparison you run with numbers, not slogans.

The quick decision checklist

• Primary residence: individual (sale exemption ~$6M/3 years + family patrimony). Almost no exceptions.
• Personal car: individual (sale exempt up to ~3 UMA of annual gain). The heavy-use work vehicle: the company, with the MXN $175,000 deduction cap of art. 36 and the use analysis.
• Productive real estate: the group's wealth-holding entity, as a rule; individual under a lease only if the blind deduction wins with your numbers.
• Financial investments: it depends on the vehicle and the horizon — the individual has preferential rates on certain interest and stock-market gains (a final 10% for listed shares), while the holding company has the deferral; it is the case where modeling matters most.
• Medical expenses, tuition, the mortgage on your home: remember art. 151 — they are your personal deductions (with caps), another reason certain expenses must be paid by the right individual, using the payment methods the law requires.