Mexico income tax (ISR) withholding FAQ

This help page only covers Mexican income tax (ISR for its acronym in Spanish ‘Impuesto Sobre la Renta’) withholding. VAT (IVA) that a buyer pays on products you sell and on seller fees for services you purchase from Amazon is unrelated to income tax ISR withholding. Please see the Mexican marketplace VAT (IVA) collection FAQ and Mexico VAT on seller fees for information.

The Mexican government introduced tax reform legislation effective from 1 June, 2020, that requires Amazon to remit Mexico income tax (ISR) on eligible seller accounts and orders worldwide. The ISR withholding rate is based on information that you provide to Amazon. If you and/or your business are physically located in Mexico, and/or you store inventory in Mexico, and/or products that you sell are shipped from and to a Mexican address, your account(s) may be subject to Mexican ISR.

Once a week, Amazon will review your account information, Registro Federal de Contribuyentes identification number (RFC ID) registration type, and validation status to determine if ISR withholding is necessary. If necessary, your month-to-date earnings will be used to update your ISR withholding in your account-level reserve (unavailable balance) accordingly. The reserve estimate is designed to avoid or reduce the chance of an unexpected negative account balance when ISR is remitted to the Mexican government and charged to your account.

Any ISR amount withheld in excess of your ISR obligation will be released to your seller account. All ISR remitted to the Mexican government will be reflected in your account payment reports and withholding certificate uploaded to your account during the first week following each month.

Please review our FAQs below for complete details about how ISR may apply to your selling account(s), updating your RFC ID, reviewing withholding schedules, and more.

How does Amazon determine the estimated weekly withholding amount and monthly income tax (ISR) remittance to the Mexican government?

Once a week, Amazon will update the ISR withheld in your account-level reserve (unavailable balance) based on your current RFC ID status, account and order information available in Seller Central, and month-to-date earnings using the ISR withholding schedule below.

Valid and verified RFC ID

• Entity/business-registered sellers (persona moral): 0% (zero) withholding
• Effective from 1 January, 2021: Individual-registered sellers (persona física): 1% of your month-to-date gross sales will be withheld for ISR
• 1 June, 2020-31 December, 2020: Individual-registered sellers (persona física): 0.4% to 5.41% of your month-to-date gross sales will be withheld for ISR
  • $1 to $1,500 MXN_____________________0.4%
  • Up to $5,000 MXN_____________________0.5%
  • Up to $10,000 MXN_____________________0.9%
  • Up to $25,000 MXN_____________________1.1%
  • Up to $100,000 MXN ____________________2.0%
  • More than $100,000 MXN_________________5.4%

Pending validation, invalid, incomplete, no RFC

• Non-registered sellers: 20% of your month-to-date gross sales will be withheld and remitted for ISR when you do not have a validated RFC ID on file

During the first week following each month, Amazon will use your current RFC ID status, account information, and prior month earnings to determine the amount of ISR to be deducted from your selling account and remitted to the Mexican government. The withholding certificate represents the amount of ISR remitted to the Mexican government on your behalf and cannot be refunded by Amazon.

How do I provide my RFC ID to Amazon?

To register or update your RFC ID in your seller account, follow these steps:

1. Click here to go directly to the RFC ID registration page; or,
2. In Seller Central, go to Settings and select Account info
3. Locate the Tax information section and click RFC ID
4. Complete the RFC information form
5. Click Submit
6. Click Select file to upload your CSF (Constancia de Situación Fiscal) document
   • If you click Upload later, your registration information will remain in Incomplete status until you upload your CSF document
7. Click Exit
8. RFC ID will apply once validation with the Mexico Tax Authority (Servicio de Administración Tributaria – ‘SAT’) database is complete

Why do I need to provide my RFC information to Amazon?

Due to the tax reform legislation effective from 1 June, 2020, Amazon became a withholding agent and is legally obligated to remit Mexico income tax (ISR) based on your RFC ID registration.

Within Amazon, your RFC ID is used to determine whether weekly ISR withholdings and/or month-end ISR payment is due to the Mexican government. We also use your RFC ID on your monthly withholding certificate and seller fee invoice as necessary.

When an RFC ID is not provided to Amazon, the Mexican government requires Amazon to apply and remit the maximum ‘Non-registered’ withholding rate. This may lead to unexpected withholding that may not apply to your business. Additionally, any withholding certificate will use a generic RFC ID indicating that none was provided to Amazon.

Does Amazon accept any other Mexican tax registration numbers than RFC?

No. At this time, only the RFC Mexico tax registration applies to online selling and it is the only registration that Amazon is able to accept and consider towards income tax (ISR) withholdings.

How does an incomplete or unvalidated RFC ID affect income tax (ISR) withholding?

An incomplete or unvalidated RFC ID will result in the maximum ‘Non-registered sellers’ withholding rate being used until your information has been provided in your account and validated. Once remitted to the Mexican government, there is no option for a refund from Amazon.

How does Amazon determine whether I am subject to income tax (ISR) withholding?

Any information that you have provided in your account may be used in our ISR withholding determination.

Seller account information that may be used for ISR determination is billing information, banking information, credit card information, ship from and shipping template address for product offers, and any other identity information supplied to Amazon.

I have active listing on non-Mexican online stores. Is Amazon required to calculate income tax (ISR) withholding outside Mexico?

Yes. By law, Amazon is required to calculate ISR withholdings for any seller with Mexican indicators on any of their selling accounts and/or orders, even when conducting business outside Mexico.

I am not a Mexican resident and/or my business is not registered for an RFC ID and/or I don’t hold inventory in Mexico. Does Mexico income tax (ISR) apply to me?

ISR applies to all sellers who sell on any Amazon store and have Mexican indicators attached to their account, store inventory in, or fulfil orders from Mexico (applies to both merchant-fulfilled and fulfilment by Amazon orders).

I have already provided my RFC ID on my Mexican selling account. Do I need to provide it again?

It depends on your previous registration type. To ensure that current information is available to Amazon, review your RFC ID information in Seller Central to confirm completeness and identify any additional information that may be needed, such as your CSF (Constancia de Situación Fiscal) document.

I added my RFC ID on my Mexican selling account. Do I need to provide the same information on Amazon.com and Amazon.ca?

Providing your RFC ID in Seller Central will apply to all Seller Central accounts linked together (North America Unified Account). If you have accounts that are not linked, you may need to update your RFC ID on those accounts separately.

Where do I find the amount of income tax (ISR) that Amazon is withholding during the month?

ISR amounts withheld are added to your account-level reserve (unavailable balance), available on your Payments dashboard.

Where do I find the amount of income tax (ISR) that Amazon remitted to the Mexican government?

The ISR remittance to the Mexican government and charge to your account will typically occur within the first week of the new month. The amount charged will be shown on your Payment transaction view.

You can find the amount of ISR remitted and charged to your account by:

1. Logging in to Seller Central
2. Under the Reports tab, click Payments
3. Click Transaction view (tab)
4. Set filter view by = Other and
5. Set within statement period dates within 4-8 days of the month
6. Under Product details, look for Income tax charged

Where do I find my Mexican income tax (ISR) withholding certificate?

Your Mexican ISR withholding certificate for the previous month will typically be uploaded to your tax document library during the first week of each new month.

• You can find your Mexican withholding certificate by doing the following:
• Log in to Seller Central
• Under the Reports tab, click Tax document library
• Click the Mexican tax invoices tab
• Locate Withholding certificate with the appropriate start/end date
• Click the blue pdf or xml link to download

I am no longer a resident of Mexico and I have updated all my information to reflect my current address. Can Amazon refund income tax (ISR) charged to my seller account?

Amazon is required to remit ISR withholdings based on the information available in your selling account at the time ISR was charged.

At the time your account was charged, information from your account, orders, or inventory location associated your account with Mexico and indicated that the ISR charge was required as per Mexican tax law.

ISR remitted to the Mexican government cannot be refunded by Amazon.