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Second citizenship - Mexico

As I understand it, there is a significant disadvantage of acquiring mx citizenship vs residency. A citizen is automatically considered a taxpayer vs a resident that is not. A permanent resident has to qualify by presence and request an RFC number to become a taxpayer.
Mexican citizens who can prove residence for tax purposes in a foreign country are taxed only on their Mexican-source income. But you are correct, no citizenship = nothing to prove.
 
There are some safe spots around the country (e.g. Merida, Aguascalientes, Certain neighbourhoods of CDMX, etc), however, there's little stopping the crime from coming there. My friends in Aguascalientes tell me that it has become worse since I left security wise.
What are those in CDMX? Coyoacán, Roma.... What else?
Oaxaca - used to be or perhaps still is relatevely safe, isn't it?
Rivera Nayarit? Baja California?

Aguascalientes -- I've seen a video that this particular place, if I'm not mistaken, has become a war zone and people flee their home.

Merida -- yeah, I felt more or less safe, but it's also very boring.

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Also, many police stuff, if not the majority, work for cartels, don't they?
 
What are those in CDMX? Coyoacán, Roma.... What else?
Oaxaca - used to be or perhaps still is relatevely safe, isn't it?
Rivera Nayarit? Baja California?

Aguascalientes -- I've seen a video that this particular place, if I'm not mistaken, has become a war zone and people flee their home.

Merida -- yeah, I felt more or less safe, but it's also very boring.

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Also, many police stuff, if not the majority, work for cartels, don't they?
I found Polanco, Condesa, and Coyoacan to be safer than other parts of the city. You also notice more police cars patrolling the streets in these nicer neighbourhoods. However, I've heard plenty stories of robberies, violence, express kidnappings, drug dealing and other mischief in these nice areas. The threat of earthquakes and the terrible air pollution is also something to keep in mind.

I've only visited Oaxaca as a tourist so I can't comment on living there. It's a poor state that's very earthquake prone.

Nayarit should be avoided as it's prime narco territory.

The police that are in areas dominated by narcos are likely on their payroll Police that are not in narco areas are usually very corrupt and locals consider them bandits. There is a really small percentage of police in Mexico that you can trust, however, you're safer assuming they're all criminals that are after your money.

I once had a police officer in Guadalajara pull me over and wouldn't give me back my license until I gave him all the money in my wallet. He saw the cash I had in my wallet when he asked to inspect my wallet for drugs. I learned afterwards that you should never give your license to a non-federal policeman and you should always hide your cash when being pulled over.
 
most people that I know who have Mexican passports 100% of the time obtained in an illegal way, and this can lead to big risk of the passport being taken away. There was an instance of a person arriving in an international airport for the border guard to simple say "This passport has been annulled, you must show me another one"

Huge risk to obtain Mexican passport, and I would stay away from it. Same goes for Venezuela, Italy, Bulgaria and all those other shady passports people have been trying to offer me
 
Huge risk to obtain Mexican passport, and I would stay away from it. Same goes for Venezuela, Italy, Bulgaria and all those other shady passports people have been trying to offer me
There is no problem with any of those passports if you acquired them through the proper legal process.

Obviously, you do not wish to acquire a gray market or black market passport. Always check the naturalization laws of the country and ensure that you have complied with those laws -- and always be suspicious of any low-cost citizenship or any citizenship process that does not comply with the law.
 
I would stay out of Mexico for any reason.
 
Mexican citizenship is not bad itself on the world scale (it's a pretty decent travel document), but I would not get Mexican citizenship primarily for the reasons of taxation. Furthermore, in case of any doubts, domestically they will treat you as a Mexican for any legal matters, so you lose your foreign consular protection (if you can still get any in Mexico when they arrest you for some fabricated reason---it happens, personal experience). Stay there on a temp/perm residency visa (you can renew your visas rather easily and indefinitely, at least for now) and don't buy real estate in your name to avoid getting caught up in the tax system. Set up banking offshore from Mexico so you don't set off the cartel safety inspectors with your large crypto bank account. Mexico is fun and interesting, but you have to be careful there. If you need to prove tax residency somewhere and you're Ms Moneybags, just get CBI elsewhere.
 
It seems that SAT (Mexico's tax agency) is requiring both temporary and permanent residents to obtain a tax ID by July 1st 2022 whether they earn income in Mexico or not. This requires you to visit a SAT office and provide biometric data (facial photographs and fingerprints). Link to Article

Without the tax ID, it could be difficult to open a bank account, sign up for Internet, buy or sell a car or house.

Mexico has usually turned a blind eye to its expat population for tax purposes unless they're earning income locally or purchasing real estate. My attorney in Mexico told me to not even bother filing a tax return when I lived there since I was a tax resident in Canada in his eyes. If I did everything by the books, I should have declared a return in both countries and receive a credit under the double tax treaty

This is in contrast to a country like Colombia which is very strict with taxation of expats and requires a tax return to be filed every year after 6 months in the country.

Perhaps a looming financial crisis will finally force the Mexican government to come after the lucrative expat and digital nomad tax base. The regulation is already there, they just have to enforce it.
 
Thanks for the heads up @botero, it's good to know the latest developments in Mexico. Neither my friends nor I stayed there long enough to worry about taxes, but this makes me think twice about planning a long term stay. Nevertheless, they still have some loopholes for certain passive or trading income, so it could be done, depending how your income is sourced. I guess it's time to get another tax ID now. Bollocks. Many countries are going to try squeezing the tax base now. Global tax authority, here we come!
 
Does anyone believe that Colombia and Mexico ever will be able to put their rules into force? Both countries has a criminal rate higher than Burj Khalifa and the Empire State building on top of each other.

Only bullets and money talk in both countries.
 
Does anyone believe that Colombia and Mexico ever will be able to put their rules into force? Both countries has a criminal rate higher than Burj Khalifa and the Empire State building on top of each other.

Only bullets and money talk in both countries.
Yes, Colombia already does. You must register all investment money that enters Colombia. That way, any capital gains or revenue gets taxed before the money leaves that country. Otherwise, you potentially encounter big problems trying to get your money back out. And Colombia has high tax rates.

I try to avoid any country with capital controls -- even soft ones, such as Colombia and Brazil.
 
Colombia is very strict with taxes unlike Mexico. I have heard stories of customs officials in airports confronting people who don't have their taxes in order.

Colombia also has a wealth tax:
This tax requires the annual payment of 1% of the total patrimony of people with patrimony estimated over 5 thousand million pesos (about 1,4 million USD as of February 2021).

There's also the silly 4x1000 tax for bank transactions. If your bank balance is more than 12,000,000 COP (~3000 USD) you're charged 0.004 % for every transaction.

I was a fully integrated resident there but never stayed for longer than 6 months in the year to avoid becoming a tax resident. The women are cute and the weather is great, however, it's not a great place for long-term living due to the crime, low quality of life and typical third world issues like air pollution, corruption, bad infrastructure, etc.
 
correct, mexico doesnt enforce taxes very much, even with citizens its easy to circumvent. 70% of the economy is informal so there you go. As a foreigner in Mexico get your residency but never go for a MX passport since you are considered a mexican for the law then. No consular help from your 1st world country citizenship! And keep your money outside of MX, just have some petty cash on a MX bank account. Use foreign credit cards/ debit cards when you can. Having that said, you can live a comfortable life if you can keep up with the corruption, pollution etc. The value of the peso has gone down faster than prices of restaurants have risen in the last few years.
 
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Both countries has a criminal rate higher than Burj Khalifa and the Empire State building on top of each other.
Haha. Funny but true. However, at the same time, as the towers get higher, are you going to keep scaling them until they topple? That is to say, once you start having to make grey area arrangements for your tax situation, things may get complicated beyond control.

The women are cute and the weather is great
YES and YES. Great women and possibly the best variety of weather in the world. But it may not outweigh the other issues of living in Colombia, and taxes is a big problem. It will be interesting to see the results of this presidential election.

There's also the silly 4x1000 tax for bank transactions. If your bank balance is more than 12,000,000 COP (~3000 USD) you're charged 0.004 % for every transaction.
^ This. I read some time last year they were considering to get rid of this, but then you have to ask yourself what new tax they will implement to replace this one. Easy cash grab for slime bag bureaucrats.
 
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