Mexico 2026: What Actually Remains After ISR and IVA Withholding

If you sell on a marketplace in Mexico, since 1 January 2026 two separate withholdings come out of your payout: income tax (ISR) and value added tax (IVA). Together they amount to 10.5% of the VAT-excluded base — roughly 9.05% of the VAT-inclusive list price. This article works through which law actually made the change, how much is withheld from whom, and — most importantly — for which seller this is merely a cash-flow shift and for which seller it is a real tax increase. To try the numbers on your own product, the profit margin calculator and the minimum selling price calculator run the same logic.

What exactly changed on 1 January 2026 — and under which law?

This is the most frequently misreported point: the change was not made by amending the LISR (Income Tax Law). Article 113-A of the LISR still reads 1%. The increase came through article 25, section VI of the 2026 Federal Revenue Law (LIF 2026), in substitution of the 113-A rate. Published in the DOF on 7 November 2025, in force from 1 January 2026.

“…en sustitución de la tasa de retención a que se refiere el artículo 113-A, párrafo tercero, fracción III, de la Ley del Impuesto sobre la Renta, aplicarán la tasa del 2.5 por ciento.” — LIF 2026, art. 25, sec. VI (DOF 07/11/2025)

The practical consequence should not be glossed over: the LIF is an annual law. The 2.5% rate belongs to fiscal year 2026. For the same rate to continue in 2027 it must be written into the LIF 2027, or the LISR must be amended permanently. The sentence “Mexico permanently raised the withholding to 2.5%” is not supported by the published text.

The second and structurally larger effect of the same provision: legal entities (personas morales) were not subject to ISR withholding at all before 2026. Now they are.

ISR withholding: 2.5% — but only on one of three rates

The third paragraph of LISR article 113-A lists three rates for three activities. Only one of them changed in 2026:

• Ground passenger transport and delivery of goods (sec. I): 2.1% — unchanged.
• Lodging (sec. II): 4% — unchanged.
• Sale of goods and provision of services (sec. III): 1% → 2.5% — the only line that concerns a marketplace seller.

So “Mexico raised all platform withholdings to 2.5%” is inaccurate. On the base, 113-A is explicit: the withholding applies to total income actually received, excluding VAT, and it has the character of a provisional payment — a prepayment, not a final tax.

If no RFC (tax ID) is provided, the rate is not 2.5% but 20% (LISR art. 113-C, sec. IV). This is the single largest lever in your account: a missing RFC record multiplies the ISR withholding eightfold.

For a legal entity (persona moral)

The published LIF text also says 2.5% for legal entities and states that the base is gross, with no deductions (“sin deducción alguna”). But the same paragraph continues: the tax withheld may be credited against provisional payments or the annual return (“podrá acreditarse”). Without an RFC, again 20%.

A caveat is needed here: many summaries dated September–October 2025 state 4% for legal entities. That figure has a real origin — the executive’s initiative of 8 September 2025 proposed 4%. Congress lowered it to 2.5% during debate; the text published in the DOF says 2.5%. Those articles are not wrong, they simply describe a bill that did not become law in that form.

IVA withholding: 50% of the VAT collected — that is, 8% of the base

LIVA article 18-J, sec. II, subsection a): the platform withholds 50% of the VAT the individual seller collected. If no RFC is provided, 100%. Since the general VAT rate in Mexico is 16%:

50% × 16% = 8% of the VAT-excluded base

Three additions on the IVA side for 2026 (LIF 2026, art. 25, sec. IX):

• Legal entities were brought into scope — the same 50% regime.
• Foreign residents without a permanent establishment in Mexico: 100% of the VAT.
• If payments are deposited into a bank account abroad: 100% of the VAT — regardless of whether the seller is an individual or a legal entity. This is the most concrete cash trap for cross-border sellers. Rule 12.2.10 of the 2026 miscellaneous tax resolution (RMF) obliges platforms to collect that foreign-account declaration from the seller.

The full arithmetic: 10.5% of the base, 9.05% of the list price (example)

For a seller with a registered RFC, on a VAT-liable sale of goods:

• ISR withholding: 2.5% — on the VAT-excluded sale amount
• IVA withholding: 8% (50% of the VAT) — on the VAT-excluded sale amount
• Total: 10.5% — converted to the VAT-inclusive list price: 10.5% ÷ 1.16 = 9.05%

Example (illustrative): an item with a VAT-inclusive list price of 1,600 MXN carrying 16% VAT.

1. VAT-excluded base: 1,600 ÷ 1.16 = 1,379.31 MXN
2. VAT: 1,600 − 1,379.31 = 220.69 MXN
3. ISR withholding: 1,379.31 × 2.5% = 34.48 MXN
4. IVA withholding: 220.69 × 50% = 110.34 MXN
5. Total withheld: 34.48 + 110.34 = 144.83 MXN → 9.05% of the list price

Had the same sale been made without an RFC: 20% ISR + 100% IVA → 275.86 + 220.69 = 496.55 MXN. For a seller doing 100,000 MXN a month, that means 20,000 MXN of ISR withholding instead of 2,500 MXN. Verifying the RFC record on your account is the highest-return one-minute task in this article.

The critical detail: the marketplace commission is not deducted from the base

The withholding is not calculated on the net amount that reaches you but on the sale price. Mercado Libre defines the base explicitly on its own seller page as the sale price minus the item’s VAT; the commission is not subtracted from that base, it is expensed separately. So on a thin-margin item, the impact of the withholding on profit is markedly larger than the 10.5% figure suggests. Verify how other marketplaces define the base from your own panel.

For the small seller this is not cash flow — it is a direct tax increase

This is the sharpest point of the whole change. LISR article 113-B lets individuals whose platform income did not exceed 300,000 MXN in the previous year treat the platform’s withholding as a final payment (pago definitivo). The same article states that anyone taking this option cannot claim deductions for the activity carried out through the platform.

The consequence: for that seller the withholding is not “a prepayment to be credited at year-end”, it is the tax itself. So in 2026 their final income tax on gross revenue went from 1% to 2.5% — two and a half times higher.

Example (illustrative): an individual seller with 250,000 MXN of annual platform revenue who uses the final-payment option:

• Final ISR under the 2025 regime: 250,000 × 1% = 2,500 MXN
• Final ISR under the 2026 regime: 250,000 × 2.5% = 6,250 MXN
• Difference: +3,750 MXN — a real cost that never comes back and is never credited

Above that threshold the picture is different: the withholding is a provisional payment, credited at year-end; the effect is timing, not amount. To model the cash-flow side by product and period, the cash flow feature exists to show when money tied up like this frees up.

SAT’s own 2026 rules support this reading: RMF 2026 rule 12.3.15 refers directly to LIF art. 25, sec. VI in the context of the final-payment option and writes the 8% IVA rate into its own text. The heading of RMF section 12.3 was also updated in 2026 — it now reads “personas físicas y morales”.

RESICO is not the way out (RMF 2026, rule 3.13.3)

The first escape route that comes to mind is RESICO (LISR art. 113-E; monthly brackets of 1.00%–2.50%, an annual cap of 3.5 million MXN). The 2026 reform did not touch RESICO’s rate table. But the more fundamental issue is that SAT’s own rule closes the door on taxing platform income under RESICO for individuals.

RMF 2026, rule 3.13.3: the option is exercised for the totality of activities; individuals obliged to pay ISR on platform income under 113-A “no podrán tributar conforme al Título IV, Capítulo II, Sección IV de la misma Ley, por los referidos ingresos.”

The scope of this rule is read in different ways by practitioners (what exactly “los referidos ingresos” refers back to is open in the text). Rather than stating a categorical conclusion, the right move is to show the rule by number to your accountant and get confirmation for your own case. In practice, the regime applied to a marketplace seller is Sección III (plataformas) and the 2026 rate is 2.5%.

Guanajuato: another 2.5% at state level on top of the federal rate

The federal withholding is not the whole story. For individual sellers with a sale address registered in Guanajuato, a separate state-level withholding (impuesto cedular) applies, and according to the reform approved by the Congress of Guanajuato it rose from 1% to 2.5% as of 1 January 2026. The legal basis is article 37-A, sec. III of the Guanajuato Ley de Hacienda; LIVA article 43, sec. IV grants states this power, and the power covers individuals only.

Mercado Libre announced this to its sellers as well: if a sale address in Guanajuato is registered on your account, a 2.5% withholding applies to all sales from 1 January 2026, with the base again being the listing price minus VAT.

Total for an individual seller in Guanajuato: 2.5% (federal ISR) + 2.5% (state) + 8% (IVA) = 13% of the VAT-excluded base. In the 1,600 MXN example above, the deduction becomes 179.31 MXN instead of 144.83 MXN.

Two honest caveats: (1) the consolidated state law text that is publicly reachable (as reformed on 13 November 2025) still shows 1% in article 37-A, sec. III; confirm the final official gazette publication with your accountant. (2) This article examined Guanajuato only — we are not saying “no other state has one”, only that Guanajuato has one.

How to verify it in your own panel

Knowing the rate is not enough; you need to see what is actually applied to your account. The order:

1. Verify the RFC record. If the tax ID on your account is missing or wrong, ISR is 20% and IVA is 100%. This single field multiplies the deduction.
2. Check the country of the bank account receiving your payouts. Payments to a foreign account push the IVA withholding to 100%.
3. Reconcile the withholding lines on the payout report against the sale base. Expected: base × 2.5% and base × 8%. If it does not match, either the RFC/account data or the definition of the base differs.
4. Hand the withholding documents to your accountant. The credit (or final-payment) side is processed in the filing; the fact that tax was withheld does not by itself apply the credit.

One important warning: some marketplaces’ public help pages still show the pre-2026 state of affairs (1% ISR and no withholding for legal entities). So read the rate not from a search result but from the payout/settlement report in the seller panel you log into — the place where the withholding lines appear one by one.

How to put the withholding into your price

The withholding is taken on gross sales, while tax is calculated on profit. For a thin-margin seller the amount withheld can exceed the tax actually owed, and the excess piles up as a refundable balance (saldo a favor) — that was precisely the objection the industry associations ALAI and AMVO raised to the Guanajuato increase. That possibility makes it necessary to treat the withholding as a cost line in your pricing formula.

When you build the floor price, all five items must be inside at the same time:

1. product cost (VAT-excluded),
2. marketplace commission,
3. shipping,
4. advertising share,
5. withholdings — 10.5% of the base (13% for an individual in Guanajuato).

To combine those five in one formula, the minimum selling price calculator reverse-calculates the price you need for a target margin, while the profit margin calculator shows what your margin is at the current price. To compare the same item across channels, the marketplace profit comparison tool puts them side by side on one screen.

Getting the price right once is not enough either: a rule that automatically lowers your price when a competitor drops theirs will push you into a loss if the floor price does not include these withholdings. Margin-protected repricing exists precisely to keep you above that floor, and the real profit X-ray breaks down each order’s deductions line by line to derive net profit per product.

Three frequently asked questions

Is 2.5% the permanent new rate?

Based on the current text, no. The rate was introduced by the LIF 2026, an annual law, and belongs to fiscal year 2026. It would have to be enacted again for 2027; as of the date of this article there is no text covering 2027.

Can I recover the tax withheld?

For a seller not using the final-payment option, the withholding is a prepayment: it is credited against provisional payments and the annual return, and for legal entities the law text says so explicitly. For an individual using the final-payment option (under 300,000 MXN a year), the withholding is the tax itself and is not credited.

Is the commission deducted from the withholding base?

In the calculation Mercado Libre publishes, no: the base is the listing price with only the VAT removed. Verify this for other marketplaces from your own panel — the definition of the base matters as much as the rate itself.

Note and sources

Important: all amounts here are examples, and this article is not tax advice. The rates, thresholds, and rule numbers were verified against official sources as of 6 August 2026; confirm how they apply to your situation with your accountant. Primary sources: LIF 2026 (DOF, 07/11/2025), RMF 2026 (DOF, 28/12/2025) and the Mercado Libre seller centre. To try it with your own product’s real numbers, use the profit margin calculator.