Crypto Income Tax in Mexico: What You Owe and How to Stay Compliant

When you trade, earn, or sell cryptocurrency in Mexico, you’re likely subject to crypto income tax Mexico, tax obligations on cryptocurrency gains and earnings under Mexican federal law. Also known as cryptocurrency taxation in Mexico, this isn’t optional—it’s enforced by the SAT, Mexico’s tax authority. If you bought Bitcoin, earned staking rewards, or got an airdrop, you need to know what counts as taxable income.

Unlike some countries that treat crypto like property, Mexico classifies crypto gains as capital gains, profit from selling or exchanging digital assets. If you bought ETH for $2,000 and sold it for $3,500, that $1,500 profit is taxable. The same applies to trading one coin for another—like swapping SOL for USDT. Even if you didn’t convert to pesos, the IRS-equivalent in Mexico, the SAT still sees it as a taxable event. And yes, crypto airdrops, free tokens received without purchase count as income too. If you got 100 FARA tokens worth $50 during a promotion, that’s taxable income the moment you received them.

Reporting is straightforward but easy to miss. You must declare all crypto transactions in your annual income tax return (Declaración Anual). The SAT doesn’t require you to track every tiny trade, but if your total annual crypto gains exceed 400,000 pesos (about $22,000 USD), you’re required to report them. Most people don’t realize that even if you used a foreign exchange like Binance or Kraken, you still have to report it. Mexico doesn’t care where the trade happened—only that you’re a resident taxpayer. And if you mine crypto? That’s business income. You’ll need to track equipment costs, electricity, and report profits separately.

There’s no special tax rate for crypto in Mexico—it flows into your regular income tax bracket, which ranges from 1.92% to 35%. The higher your total income, the more you pay on your crypto gains. No deductions for losses unless you’re registered as a business. And no, you can’t just ignore it. The SAT has been partnering with blockchain analytics firms to trace on-chain activity. They’ve already started auditing high-volume wallets. One user in Monterrey got hit with a 1.2 million peso penalty last year for unreported gains from 2022.

What you’ll find here are real, practical breakdowns of how Mexicans are handling crypto taxes right now. From people who got caught off guard by airdrops to traders who learned the hard way that swapping tokens triggers a tax event. You’ll see how the rules apply to DeFi staking, NFT sales, and even crypto payments received for freelance work. No fluff. No theory. Just what you need to know to file correctly—and avoid the next audit notice.