Mexico.

Mexico has no federal inheritance, estate, or gift tax. The Impuesto Sobre la Renta (LISR) treats certain transfers at death as taxable acquisitions if not properly documented, and individual states (notably Mexico City and Estado de México) have historically imposed local impuesto sobre adquisiciones. Forced heirship rules vary significantly by state under each state’s Código Civil, with the Código Civil Federal applying as default in some federal contexts.

Mexican real property held by foreigners must use a fideicomiso (bank trust) within the restricted zone — a fifty-kilometre coastal strip and one-hundred-kilometre border strip — creating distinctive cross-border succession issues. Mexico’s default matrimonial regime is sociedad conyugal, with separation-of-property elections affecting the estate base for non-resident spouses.

The memoranda in this series address the recurring fact patterns in Mexican cross-border estate planning — including fideicomiso beneficiary substitution, Article 93 LISR exemption for inherited property, sucesión testamentaria before a notario público, recognition of foreign wills, repatriation of inheritance proceeds under CNBV reporting, and the absence of estate-tax treaties with Canada and the United States.