Mexican IVA on Stripe Digital Services in QuickBooks

A US company sells a $30 monthly software subscription. In March it signs up its first customer in Guadalajara. Mexico's VAT law gives that company 30 calendar days to register with Mexico's tax administration, the Servicio de Administración Tributaria (SAT). There is no revenue threshold, no small-seller exemption and no simplified registration: the first sale starts the clock.

Mexico also does something no other country in this series does. If a foreign provider of a covered digital service never registers, the law lets the SAT order Mexico's telecom operators to block access to the service until it complies.

This guide covers which digital services Mexico taxes, the four tests that put a customer "in Mexico", how registration works (the RFC, a legal representative and an address in Mexico), the 16 percent rate on amounts actually collected, the monthly return due on the 17th, paying in pesos or in dollars, the PDF receipts Mexican customers can ask for, refunds, a worked month, and what reaches QuickBooks. It is bookkeeping guidance, not tax advice.

Acodei brings Stripe Tax amounts into QuickBooks, so the Mexican tax you collect is already in your liability account when the month closes. Start a free trial.

The rules, and where they live

Mexico's value added tax is the IVA (impuesto al valor agregado). Its rules for foreign digital providers are in Chapter III Bis of the Ley del Impuesto al Valor Agregado (LIVA), titled "De la prestación de servicios digitales por residentes en el extranjero sin establecimiento en México": the provision of digital services by foreign residents without an establishment in Mexico. The chapter was added on 9 December 2019, has applied since June 2020, and was last amended in November 2021. The Chamber of Deputies' consolidated text still shows 12 November 2021 as the latest reform.

The procedure sits in the SAT's annual Resolución Miscelánea Fiscal (RMF), Chapter 12.1. This guide uses the RMF for 2026 as published on 28 December 2025, checked against the SAT's compilation of the first amendment published on 9 July 2026. That amendment changed rules 12.1.2 and 12.1.9 in wording only, and none of the deadlines below moved. The law, the rules and the SAT notices are in Spanish, and every quotation from them here is our translation.

Which digital services Mexico taxes

Article 18-B is a closed list. It covers "únicamente" (only) the services below, when they are provided through applications or digital content over the internet, are "fundamentalmente automatizados" (essentially automated, with minimal or no human intervention), and are paid for:

1. Downloads of or access to content: images, films, text, information, video, audio, music, games (including gambling), other multimedia content, multiplayer environments, ringtones, online news, traffic information, weather forecasts and statistics. E-books, newspapers and magazines are excluded.
2. Intermediation between third parties who offer goods or services and those who buy them (marketplaces, which have their own rules in Section II of the chapter).
3. Online clubs and dating sites.
4. Distance learning, tests and exercises.

Software as a service is not named. Whether a given SaaS product counts as "access to information" under item 1 is a scope question for your Mexican adviser, and this guide doesn't answer it. What the public record shows is how software companies have acted. The SAT's latest list of registered digital service providers, dated 3 September 2026 with data to 31 August, has 289 entries, and they include Microsoft, Salesforce, Atlassian, Slack Technologies, Figma, Canva, Zoom and Notion Labs (registered on 11 May 2026).

Two scope rules matter if your product mixes things:

• Bundles. Article 18-H: if a covered service is sold together with services outside the list, the 16 percent applies only to the covered part, provided your receipt separates the two at their standalone prices. If it doesn't, 70 percent of the price is treated as the covered service.
• Marketplace sellers. The last paragraph of Article 18-D excuses a foreign provider from the whole regime when it sells through a marketplace that withholds the IVA from it under Article 18-J. That is not the usual Stripe setup, where you sell directly.

When a customer is "in Mexico": four tests, any one of them

Article 16 places a covered digital service in Mexico when the recipient is in Mexico. Article 18-C defines that with four tests, and a customer is in Mexico if "cualquiera" (any one) of them is met:

1. the customer gave you an address in Mexico
2. the customer pays you "mediante un intermediario ubicado en territorio nacional" (through an intermediary located in Mexico)
3. the IP address of the customer's device is in the range assigned to Mexico
4. the customer gave you a phone number with Mexico's country code

That is wider than how Stripe decides. Stripe's customer location rules settle on one location per transaction: for invoices and subscriptions, the shipping address if present, then the billing address, then the payment method's billing details, and the customer's IP address only last. A customer with a Texas billing address who signs up from a Mexican IP address is in Mexico under test 3, and Stripe will treat them as being in Texas.

For most customers the tests agree. Where they don't, you have two options: collect an address that reflects where the service is used, or accept that some Mexican customers will be taxed by Stripe as non-Mexican. Decide which with your adviser, and keep the evidence. Our place of supply entry covers why the location test decides the tax.

Registering: 30 days from the first Mexican customer

Article 18-D lists the obligations. The foreign provider "únicamente" (only) has to do these:

1. Register in the RFC (Registro Federal de Contribuyentes, Mexico's taxpayer register) "dentro de los 30 días naturales siguientes" (within 30 calendar days) of first providing the service to a recipient in Mexico.
2. Charge the IVA with the price, "en forma expresa y por separado" (expressly and separately).
3. Report monthly the number of services or transactions with Mexican recipients, by type and price, and the number of recipients.
4. Calculate and pay the tax monthly.
5. Send receipts to Mexican customers who ask for them.
6. Appoint a legal representative and give an address in Mexico when registering, for notices and audits.
7. Obtain an e.firma, the SAT's advanced electronic signature.

Stripe's Mexico entry agrees: "Remote sellers providing digital goods or electronically supplied services (digital products) to Mexican customers must register for VAT purposes within 30 days of the first sale to a customer located in Mexico. There are no registration thresholds or simplified registration procedures." It lists the registration threshold as "1 transaction".

Registration uses procedure 1/PLT, "Solicitud de inscripción en el RFC de residentes en el extranjero que proporcionen servicios digitales," now in Annex 2 of the RMF (RMF rules 12.1.1 and 12.1.3). The SAT's published version of the procedure asks for:

• a certified copy of your incorporation documents, apostilled or legalized
• a certified, apostilled or legalized document showing your home tax ID, where your country issues one
• proof of an address in Mexico
• a notarized power of attorney for the legal representative, apostilled if granted abroad, and formalized before a Mexican notary
• the representative's official ID

Documents not in Spanish need a translation by an authorized expert ("perito autorizado"), and the legal representative must be registered in the RFC. The procedure is free. Rule 12.1.3 says a later change of address or representative is notified through a "caso de aclaración" (a clarification case) on the SAT portal.

The representative is the practical cost of Mexico. Our tax representative entry explains what the role involves in general.

Article 18-E adds the reassurance Costa Rica also gives: complying with these obligations "no dará lugar a que se considere" (will not mean) that you have a permanent establishment in Mexico.

The public list, and what happens if you never register

The SAT publishes the providers registered in the RFC every two months, on its portal and in the Diario Oficial de la Federación (DOF), Mexico's official gazette (rule 12.1.5). The list matters for three reasons.

Your Mexican business customers pay the tax themselves. Article 18-I: when a provider isn't on the list, Mexican recipients treat the service as an import and pay the IVA themselves. Rule 12.1.6 gives a recipient whose only IVA obligation is that import 15 days after paying you to file it on the SAT's "IVA actos accidentales" return.

Access can be blocked. Article 18-H BIS: failing to register, appoint a representative and address, or obtain an e.firma "dará lugar a que se bloquee temporalmente el acceso al servicio digital" (will lead to temporary blocking of access to the digital service), carried out by Mexico's public telecom network operators until you comply. The same applies if a registered provider fails to pay or file for three consecutive months, and the SAT then also cancels the registration and removes the name from the list.

There is a hearing first. Article 18-H TER: before a block, the SAT publishes or notifies its finding, and you have 15 days (extendable once by 5) to show you have complied. Article 18-H QUINTUS has the SAT publish the provider's name and the block date, so that Mexican users "se abstengan de contratar servicios futuros" (refrain from buying future services).

The rate: 16 percent, on what you actually collected

Article 18-D(IV): you calculate the IVA each calendar month "aplicando la tasa del 16% a las contraprestaciones efectivamente cobradas en dicho mes" (applying 16 percent to the amounts actually collected in that month).

Two consequences:

• Collected, not invoiced. A Stripe invoice finalized on 30 January and paid on 3 February belongs to February's return. An invoice that is never paid never enters a return. If your tax export groups transactions by invoice date, re-sort the Mexico rows by payment date before you file.
• Exclusive pricing is the clean fit. Article 18-D(II) has you offer and charge the IVA with the price, expressly and separately. Priced exclusive, a $30 plan becomes $34.80, and the $4.80 shows as its own line. Priced inclusive, the tax inside $30 is $30 × 16/116, or $4.14, and your revenue is $25.86. Our guide to inclusive and exclusive tax in QuickBooks covers how each posts.

Stripe only calculates Mexican tax for a non-resident on products with a digital product tax code. Its entry says that as a non-resident seller "only digital goods or electronically supplied services (digital products) product tax codes can be used for tax collection." See our product tax code entry. Stripe also notes that it "doesn't support the reduced VAT rates that apply in the Northern or Southern Border Region of Mexico." For a foreign provider charging under Chapter III Bis, the rate in Article 18-D is 16 percent.

Business customers pay too, and claim it back

Chapter III Bis doesn't carve out business customers. Article 18-D covers services to "receptores ubicados en territorio nacional" (recipients located in Mexico), whoever they are, and Stripe's entry says that a registered remote seller's IVA "is typically collected on sales to both individuals and business customers."

Stripe's customer tax ID table lists mx_rfc, "Mexican RFC number," with the example ABC010203AB9, and marks its impact on tax calculation as No. Storing a Mexican company's RFC puts it on the invoice. It doesn't stop the tax.

The tax isn't a dead cost for that company. Article 18-F lets Mexican recipients credit the IVA a foreign provider charged expressly and separately, on the normal IVA conditions, except one: they don't need a CFDI (the Mexican electronic invoice). Your receipt replaces it. Our input VAT entry explains the credit.

Receipts: a PDF with eight fields

Article 18-D(V) has you send receipts to Mexican customers "cuando lo solicite el receptor" (when the recipient asks). Rule 12.1.4 says they are PDF files issued under your own country's rules, with at least:

1. your company name
2. the city and country where it is issued
3. your tax registration number
4. the price of the service, without IVA
5. the IVA
6. a description of the service
7. the date of issue and the period covered
8. the customer's RFC

A Stripe invoice with Stripe Tax shows most of these already: the line amounts, the tax, the description and, for a subscription, the service period. Add your Mexican RFC to the tax IDs shown on your Stripe invoices and the customer's mx_rfc to their customer record, and the business customers who need receipts get usable ones. Since only customers who ask are owed one, a consumer who never asks needs nothing beyond Stripe's normal emails.

The monthly return, due on the 17th

Rule 12.1.8: you pay through the "Declaración de pago del Impuesto al Valor Agregado, por la prestación de servicios digitales" by the 17th of the following month. January's IVA is due by 17 February.

Rule 12.1.9: the monthly information Article 18-D(III) asks for (number of services, by type and price, and number of recipients) goes in the same return. Under the law, missing it carries the penalties in Article 18-G and counts toward the three-month blocking rule.

Records. Article 18-D(III) also has you "mantener los registros base" (keep the underlying records) for the information you report. Keep them with the transaction-level tax file described in our itemized tax export entry. Your customer count comes from that file, not from Stripe's summary report.

Paying in pesos or in dollars

Rule 12.1.7 gives two ways to pay:

• In pesos, from a Mexican bank. You file the return, the SAT portal generates a "línea de captura" (a payment reference), and you pay it through a bank authorized by the federal treasury (TESOFE).
• From abroad, in pesos or US dollars. You opt in once, through procedure 5/PLT, "Aviso de opción para el pago de contribuciones desde el extranjero." Each month you still file the return and generate the línea de captura. To pay in dollars, you work out the dollar equivalent "de conformidad con el tipo de cambio determinado por BANXICO, que se publique en el DOF el día hábil bancario inmediato anterior a aquel en que se haga el pago" (using the exchange rate Banco de México sets, as published in the DOF on the banking day before you pay).

Rule 12.1.7 also warns that money sent to TESOFE's accounts without following the technical payment instructions is treated as received "sin concepto" (unidentified), and doesn't count as your payment until you regularize it. A payment counts once you have filed the return, paid the full amount on a valid línea de captura, and received the SAT's electronic payment receipt.

The detail that matters for your books: the amount due is set in pesos. Your Stripe Tax figures are in dollars if you price in dollars. So the dollar amount that leaves your bank will not exactly match the dollar tax Stripe calculated. Our Stripe Tax filing currency entry covers what Stripe gives you for the conversion, and the worked month below shows the entry.

Refunds

Chapter III Bis has no refund rule of its own. The general one is Article 7 of the LIVA: a taxpayer that refunds or discounts a taxed sale deducts the amount "en la siguiente o siguientes declaraciones de pago" (in the next return or returns), provided a document records that the IVA was given back, with the amount and the IVA shown separately and a reference to the original receipt. Ask your representative how they apply it to a Chapter III Bis return.

A Stripe credit note is that kind of document: it shows the refunded amount and tax, and points to the original invoice. That is the reason to refund Mexican invoices through credit notes.

A worked month for a software company

A Delaware company sells project management software, priced in USD with tax added on top. It registered in the RFC within 30 days of its first Mexican customer, its Mexico registration in Stripe Tax is active, and it has opted to pay from abroad in dollars. February 2027, counting only payments actually collected in February:

1. 120 consumer subscribers at $30 a month. $3,600.00. IVA $576.00.
2. 5 annual plans at $300. $1,500.00. IVA $240.00. Two of them were invoiced on 29 January and paid on 2 February, so they are February sales under Article 18-D(IV).
3. A Monterrey agency on a $500 team plan, with its RFC stored as mx_rfc. Stripe still charges IVA: $80.00. The agency asks for a receipt, and gets the Stripe invoice PDF with its RFC on it.
4. A refund of a January charge through a credit note: $30.00, with $4.80 of IVA.

IVA for February: $576.00 plus $240.00 plus $80.00 is $896.00, less $4.80 for the refund, which is $891.20 in Stripe.

The return is in pesos. With an illustrative conversion of 18.50 pesos to the dollar, the return shows MXN 16,487.20. The company pays on 16 March. The Banco de México rate published in the DOF on 15 March is, again for illustration, 18.40, so the dollar equivalent of MXN 16,487.20 is $896.04. The company's bank charges $25 for the transfer. The return also reports 126 subscriptions and 126 customers, from the Mexico rows of Stripe's itemized export.

What reaches QuickBooks, and what you book yourself

Acodei syncs the tax Stripe Tax calculated, so the Mexico registration in Stripe has to be in place first, and Stripe Tax has to be active in your Stripe account.

For a US QuickBooks company, Acodei's method is the Tax Product: a non-inventory "Sales Tax" product mapped to a liability account, with all Stripe Tax amounts on a sale rolled into one line on the QuickBooks invoice or sales receipt. QuickBooks' Sales Tax Center doesn't let third parties create official tax rates for US companies, which is why the product approach is the one that works there. Acodei's documentation notes this needs Stripe Tax used with Stripe Invoicing or Stripe Checkout. You file from Stripe's reports and pay from the liability account.

For a QuickBooks company outside the US, Acodei's documentation describes a second option: mapping individual Stripe tax rates to QuickBooks tax codes you set up, such as a 16 percent Mexico code.

The refund, item 4. Acodei's documentation says a refund issued through a credit note carries the line-level tax breakdown. A refund made on the payment alone may not show how much was tax, and that case can need a manual adjustment in QuickBooks. Our guide to refunding Stripe Tax in QuickBooks walks through both cases.

The payment. The liability for February holds $891.20 of Mexican IVA. The transfer leaves your account for $921.04: $896.04 to TESOFE plus the $25.00 fee. Book it in three parts:

Account	Debit	Credit
Sales tax liability (Mexico slice)	$891.20
Exchange gain or loss	$4.84
Bank fees	$25.00
Bank		$921.04

The $4.84 is the peso movement between the rate behind the return and the rate on the day before you paid. In a month when the peso moves the other way, it is a gain. It isn't tax, and it isn't a fee. Post it to the account your accountant uses for exchange gains and losses.

The same liability account holds US sales tax and any other foreign tax from Stripe Tax, so note the Mexican slice each month. Our guide to reconciling the Stripe Tax report in QuickBooks covers the liability side, and you filter Stripe's export on country_code MX.

Timing. Because Mexico taxes collected amounts, the Mexican IVA in your liability account at month end can differ from the return when invoices straddle the month. If your QuickBooks invoices are dated when Stripe finalizes them, the tax on the two annual plans invoiced on 29 January sits in January's liability, but it belongs on February's return. Keep a short reconciling list of those invoices each month, so the liability clears to zero over time.

Common mistakes with Mexican tax on Stripe sales

• Waiting for a threshold. Mexico has none. Registration is due within 30 calendar days of the first service to a Mexican recipient.
• Testing location the Stripe way only. Mexico's four tests apply with any one enough. An IP address or a Mexican phone number can put a customer in Mexico that Stripe places elsewhere.
• Filing on invoice dates. Mexico taxes amounts actually collected in the month. Unpaid invoices don't count, and late-paid ones move to the month they were paid.
• Expecting the RFC to stop the tax. mx_rfc has no impact on Stripe's calculation. Mexico taxes business customers too, and lets them credit it.
• Booking the dollar difference to tax. The amount due is fixed in pesos. The gap between Stripe's dollar tax and the dollars you pay is an exchange difference.
• Wiring without a línea de captura. Money sent to TESOFE outside the payment instructions is unidentified, not paid.
• Forgetting the representative. A legal representative registered in the RFC and an address in Mexico are part of registration, not an optional extra.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do foreign SaaS companies have to register for VAT in Mexico?

Foreign providers of the digital services listed in Article 18-B of Mexico's IVA law must register in the RFC within 30 calendar days of first providing a service to a customer in Mexico. There is no threshold. The list names content access, intermediation, online clubs and distance learning, and doesn't name software as a service, so whether a SaaS product is covered is a question for a Mexican adviser. Many software companies, including Microsoft, Salesforce, Atlassian and Zoom, are on the SAT's list of registered providers.

What is the VAT rate on digital services in Mexico?

16 percent. A registered foreign provider applies it each month to the amounts actually collected from recipients in Mexico in that month, and charges it expressly and separately from the price.

When is a customer considered to be in Mexico?

When any one of four tests is met: the customer gave you a Mexican address, pays through an intermediary located in Mexico, uses an IP address assigned to Mexico, or gave you a phone number with Mexico's country code. Stripe Tax decides on a single location, with addresses ahead of the IP address, so the two can disagree.

What happens if a foreign digital provider doesn't register in Mexico?

Mexican recipients treat the service as an import and pay the IVA themselves. The SAT can also order Mexico's telecom operators to block access to the service until the provider complies, after publishing or notifying its finding and giving the provider 15 days to respond. The same blocking applies to a registered provider that fails to pay or file for three consecutive months.

When are Mexican IVA returns due for foreign digital providers?

Monthly, by the 17th of the following month, on the SAT's return for IVA on digital services, which also carries the monthly count of services and recipients. Payment is in pesos through an authorized Mexican bank, or, after a one-time election, from abroad in pesos or US dollars, converted at the Banco de México rate published the banking day before payment.

Three Mexican details that decide your numbers

Mexico's first question isn't how much you sell there. It is whether you made a single sale of a covered service to someone who meets any one of four location tests, because that starts a 30-day registration clock with a legal representative and an address in Mexico. After that, the month is built on cash: the 16 percent applies to what you actually collected, so your return and your Stripe invoice dates won't always line up. And the amount due is fixed in pesos, so even a dollar-priced seller paying in dollars books a small exchange difference every month, next to a transfer fee that isn't tax either. Our guides to Costa Rican VAT, Colombian VAT, Chilean VAT, Peruvian IGV and Uruguayan VAT cover the rest of the region.

Acodei syncs Stripe Tax into QuickBooks, so each Mexican month starts from the liability account instead of a spreadsheet. Start a free trial.