Written for Mexico. This analysis applies to Mexican federal tax law — ISR (income tax), IVA (VAT) and SAT rules — and cites Mexican statutes. Amounts are in Mexican pesos (MXN).
"Transfers between family members don't pay tax" is half myth and half truth — and which half applies to you depends on three things: who gives it to you, how you document it and whether you report it. The law is more generous than you fear with immediate family and harder than you think with everyone else.
Gifts: the exact map of art. 93
- Exempt with no limit: between spouses, and those descendants receive from their ascendants in a direct line (parents to children, grandparents to grandchildren). Also from children to parents — with one anti-abuse condition: that the gifted asset is not later transferred to another descendant in a direct line (the "bridge" through Dad to pass it on to my brother does not work).
- Everyone else — siblings, cousins, uncles, in-laws, friends: exempt only up to 3 annualized UMA (the daily reference unit; ~MXN $128k in 2026); the excess is accruable income for the recipient.
And the formalities the amount demands: gifts of real estate require a public deed under civil law, and for material gifts of money, serious professional practice is a gift contract with fecha cierta (a legally certain date, ratified before a notary) — it is your proof that this was an exempt gift and not omitted income. Also check your state legislation: some states tax gifts locally or require additional formalities.
The $600,000 rule (art. 90 LISR): the silent trap
Loans, gifts and prizes that together exceed MXN $600,000 in the year must be reported in your annual return — even if they are exempt, even if they generate not one peso of tax. The penalty for staying silent is surgical: the unreported amount can be treated as omitted income via tax discrepancy. In other words: your father's perfectly exempt gift becomes taxable income with fines, not because of its nature, but because of your silence in one field of the form. It is the obligation with the worst effort-to-consequence ratio in the entire system for high-net-worth individuals.
Do you move money within your family without any architecture?
Business families transfer money constantly — support, education, advances on inheritance, seed capital. Strategium designs the family transfer protocol: what goes as a gift, what as a loan, what as capital, with the contracts, deeds and informative filings kept up to date. Get things in order today, or face a discrepancy tomorrow.
Loans: neutral when they are real, explosive when they are a disguise
A genuine loan does not trigger ISR — there is no increase in net worth: a million comes in, you owe a million. Survival requirements: a contract with fecha cierta, credible conditions (a repayment term, and for non-family loans, interest — which also has its own tax treatment), banked flows and, above all, real payments. The eternal "loan" that is never repaid, between parties who would never call it in, is the authority's favorite recharacterization: as income, as a deemed dividend if it comes from your company (art. 140 LISR treats loans to shareholders as dividends unless strict requirements of maturity and terms are met), or as a taxed gift if the "lender" is your brother-in-law. And the same $600,000 rule applies: a material loan left unreported = a ticket to discrepancy.
Frequently asked questions
My dad is going to give me the down payment on my house — do I pay tax?
No — a gift from an ascendant to a descendant, exempt with no limit. Document the transfer as a gift (a simple contract with fecha cierta, a legally certain date, is good practice) and report it in your annual return if, together with other gifts and loans, it exceeds $600,000 in the year. That informative line is the difference between exempt and a problem.
Can I 'lend' money to my brother and then forgive the debt?
Forgiving a debt is income for the debtor at the moment of the forgiveness — and between siblings there is no unlimited gift exemption. The detour does not improve the tax result of a direct gift; it only adds one more document to explain. If the goal is to help him, there are better routes depending on the amount (including the bridge through ascendants, executed well and without the anti-abuse clause working against you).
Does the money my husband moves to my account count as my income?
Between spouses, gifts are exempt with no limit. Normal household flows are no problem; large wealth-level amounts are worth documenting and reporting like everything else — the exemption protects you from the tax, the paper protects you from the presumption.
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