Mexican VAT & Income Taxes

From October 1, 2025, tax changes on Patreon will take effect that impact creators and fans in Mexico. 

These changes are important, in particular if you are a creator based in Mexico. This article explains what these changes are, how they will impact you, and what actions you should take. 

The most important thing to do now is to provide your tax registration information, known locally as an RFC (“Registro Federal de Contribuyentes”). If you are not registered for tax, we recommend that you consider registering to avoid income withholding tax being applied to your earnings.

VAT Collection on Sales to Mexican Fans

From October 2025, Patreon will start collecting VAT on amounts paid by fans located in Mexico. The applicable VAT rate is currently 16%.

Your fans in Mexico will be notified of this and will see a resulting increase in the price they pay. This is the same as VAT collections in other countries - they will see the tax applied at checkout (you do not need to adjust your tier prices to account for this). For example, a $10 tier will appear as $11.60 to fans in Mexico (VAT included).

Depending on whether you have a local tax registration, known locally as an RFC (Registro Federal de Contribuyentes), Patreon is required to withhold the VAT collected and pay it directly to the Mexican tax authorities (SAT). If you have an RFC, Patreon will remit some or all of the Mexican VAT collected to you, and you are required to report and pay this VAT to the Mexican tax authorities through your own tax filings.

Please see the FAQ section for more information on how the VAT withholdings are calculated.

Income withholding tax (“Income WHT”)

From October 2025, Patreon will begin withholding income tax from the earnings of creators based in Mexico, in compliance with local laws. Income WHT is separate to VAT (which is a tax added to your tier price and paid by your fans). Income WHT applies to your earnings before the deduction of Patreon’s fees.

Patreon will pay the income tax withheld from your earnings to the Mexican tax authority (SAT). The rate of income WHT applied to your earnings depends on your RFC status - 

• Without an RFC: 20% of your earnings will be withheld as income tax.
• With an RFC (individual): 2.5% of your earnings will be withheld.
• With an RFC (business): No income tax will be withheld.

Please see the FAQ section for more information on how income WHT is calculated.

Importance of Providing Your Mexican Tax ID (RFC)

Your RFC is a unique tax identification number issued by the Mexican tax authority (SAT). Please note that an RFC is different from a CURP (Clave Única de Registro de Población), which is automatically assigned to all Mexican citizens and residents. 

Providing your RFC is crucial because it determines how VAT collected is remitted to the authorities and the rate of income withholding tax applied to your earnings. Here’s a summary of how your RFC status will impact your earnings and VAT remittance:

It’s important to provide your RFC now if you have one. Updates to RFC status will be made from the first of the month after the month you provide a valid RFC - changes cannot be made to withholdings made in the current month or previous months.

Please see What you should do now below for instructions on how to provide your RFC.

Impact on Earnings and Payouts

We are working to make changes to your Insights so that you can see clearly how much income WHT has been applied to your earnings, and how much VAT we have sent to you (for you to onward pay to the SAT). We’ll update this article with more information about this soon.

What you should do now

Important: You must provide your RFC by September 28, 2025 for your October 2025 withholdings to reflect your correct RFC status. Any future changes to your RFC status will take effect from the 1st day of the month following your change of status.

If you already have an RFC:

1. Log in to your Patreon account and go to Settings > Billing & Payouts
2. Fill out the correct tax form based on:
   • Whether you're an individual or a business
   • Whether you are a U.S. citizen or resident

Here's how to choose the right form:

• If you’re an individual and not a US citizen or resident: you’ll be directed to the “Non-US Individual Tax Information” form
  • Enter your RFC in Field 6
• If you’re a business or entity and not US resident: you’ll be directed to the “Non-US Entity Tax Information” form
  • Enter your RFC in Field 9B
• If you are a U.S. citizen living in Mexico, select “I am not a US citizen or resident” to access the Non-U.S. tax forms - you can still list the U.S. as your country of residence
  • Then, provide your RFC in the relevant field listed above

⚠️ Make sure your info matches exactly: When entering your RFC, double-check that your name and post code exactly match what’s on file with the Mexican tax authority (SAT). In particular, please note that your RFC document may not include any special characters in your legal name, and that the postal code you enter on your Tax form is the postal code on your RFC document. If your name includes special characters (such as é or ñ), check whether your RFC includes them. Be sure the spelling on your RFC matches exactly what you enter on your tax form.

Please double-check that:

• Your name and postal code match SAT records exactly
• Your name in your RFC document includes any special characters in your legal name - sometimes, the RFC document does not include these special characters. For example:
  • Fernández in your legal name may be Fernandez on your RFC (no accent over “a”)
  • Niña in your legal name may be Nina on your RFC document (nothing above the “n”)

Patreon will attempt to validate your info with SAT - if anything doesn’t match, your RFC will fail validation and you’ll receive an email from Patreon asking you to review it. You’ll also receive an email when your RFC passes validation.

Tax Form Example:


RFC Example:

If you do not have an RFC:

If you do not have an RFC, we strongly recommend consulting with your local tax adviser/accountant and consider registering. Information regarding the registration process can be found on the SAT’s website.

Operating without an RFC will result in higher income withholding tax rates and may affect your net earnings.

FAQ

• Your RFC (“Registro Federal de Contribuyentes”) is a unique tax identification number issued by the Mexican tax authority (SAT). Please note that an RFC is different from a CURP (Clave Única de Registro de Población), which is automatically assigned to all Mexican citizens and residents.
  
  Individual RFC IDs are 13 characters long: 4 letters, 6 numbers, and then 3 letters or numbers.
  Business RFC IDs are 12 characters long: 3 letters, 6 numbers, and then 3 letters or numbers.
• An RFC is not the same as a CURP (Clave Única de Registro de Población), which is automatically assigned to all citizens and residents. Providing a CURP on your Tax form will not have any impact on the withholdings applied to you - only a valid RFC can have an impact.
• We are working to make changes to your Insights so that you can see clearly how much income WHT has been applied to your earnings, and how much VAT we have sent to you (for you to onward pay to the SAT). We’ll update this article with more information about this soon.
• You’ll need to apply for an RFC with the Mexican tax authorities (SAT). This is different from your CURP (Clave Única de Registro de Población), which is automatically assigned to all citizens and residents.
  
  Information regarding the registration process can be found on the SAT’s website. Operating without an RFC will result in higher income withholding tax rates and may affect your net earnings.
• Patreon will collect VAT (16%) on payments from your fans located in Mexico. We have notified your existing members about this change.
  
  You don’t need to change your tier pricing, because this will be added to the price fans pay at checkout.
• Income WHT is calculated on your earnings. The rate of income WHT depends on your RFC status:
  
  Without an RFC: 20% of your earnings will be withheld as income tax.
  With an RFC (individual): 2.5% of your earnings will be withheld.
  With an RFC (business): 2.5% of your earnings will be withheld.
  
  The above rates will be applied to your earnings on Patreon, before deduction of Patreon’s fees. All earnings on Patreon will be subject to income WHT, irrespective of where your fans are located.

• Income WHT is calculated on your earnings. The rate of income WHT depends on your RFC status:

  • Without an RFC: 20% of your earnings will be withheld as income tax.
  • With an RFC (individual): 2.5% of your earnings will be withheld.
  • With an RFC (business): 2.5% of your earnings will be withheld.

  The above rates will be applied to your earnings on Patreon, before deduction of Patreon’s fees. All earnings on Patreon will be subject to income WHT, irrespective of where your fans are located.

  Value-added Tax (VAT): Patreon will collect Mexican VAT on all sales you make to fans based in Mexico. The current rate of VAT is 16%, which will be added to your tier prices and paid by your fans.

  The VAT WHT is then applied to the full amount of VAT collected from your Mexican fans:

  • If you do not provide an RFC, Patreon will withhold 100% of the VAT, meaning we pay all of the VAT collected to the Mexican tax authorities.
  • With an RFC (individual), Patreon will withhold 50% of the VAT collected and pay this directly to the Mexican tax authorities. The remaining 50% of VAT collected on your sales will be paid out to you. You are then responsible for reporting and paying this portion to the Mexican tax authorities through your own tax filings.
  • With an RFC (business), Patreon will withhold 50% of the VAT collected and pay this directly to the Mexican tax authorities. The remaining 50% of VAT collected on your sales will be paid out to you. You are then responsible for reporting and paying this portion to the Mexican tax authorities through your own tax filings.

  VAT WHT only applies to sales made to Mexico-based fans. If you have fans located outside of Mexico, these sales will be subject to VAT (or similar taxes) where the fan is located, and so these VAT changes do not apply to these sales.

  Here’s an example of how this works:

  	If you do not provide an RFC	RFC (individual)	RFC (business)
  Tier price (A)	$10.00	$10.00	$10.00
  VAT paid by fan based in MX (16%)	$1.60	$1.60	$1.60
  VAT WHT rate Patreon is required to apply	100%	50%	50%
  VAT remitted directly to SAT by Patreon	$1.60	$0.80	$0.80
  VAT remitted to creator - you must report and pay this VAT to the SAT (D)	$0.00	$0.80	$0.80
  Income WHT rate	20%	2.5%	2.5%
  Income tax withheld from your earnings - % applied to tier price (C)	$2.00	$0.25	2.5%
  Patreon fees [assuming total fees of 10%] (B)	$1.00	$1.00	$1.00
  Your earnings (A - B)	$9.00	$9.00	$9.00
  Net payment to creator (includes VAT you must pay to the SAT) (A-B-C+D)	$7.00	$9.55	$9.55

  A = tier price set by you, B = Patreon fees, C = income WHT, D = VAT remitted to you that you must pay to the SAT.

• Patreon provides the Mexican tax authorities with details of sales creators make through Patreon. This report includes your tax information along with details of the transactions you’ve carried out on the platform.

• If you provide a valid RFC on your Tax form mid-month, changes to your income WHT rate and VAT WHT will take effect from the 1st of the following month. For example, if you provide a valid RFC on October 10, the changes will take effect on November 1.

  Patreon cannot amend previous withholdings, so it is important to provide your RFC as soon as you have one.

• Yes, these changes apply to all creators resident in Mexico, regardless of how much you earn on Patreon.

• If your RFC didn’t pass validation, it usually means the information you entered doesn’t exactly match what’s on file with the Mexican tax authority (SAT). The SAT requires the exact name as it appears on the certificate, including spaces, special characters, numbers, and symbols. The tax office also requires the postcode of the address registered on the certificate.
  
  Please double-check if:

  • Your name and postal code match SAT records exactly
  • Your name in your RFC document includes any special characters in your legal name - sometimes, the RFC document does not include these special characters. For example:
    • Fernández in your legal name may be Fernandez on your RFC (no accent over “a”)
    • Niña in your legal name may be Nina on your RFC document (nothing above the “n”)
  • If your name includes special characters (such as é or ñ), check whether your RFC includes them. Be sure the spelling on your RFC matches exactly what you enter on your tax form.

  If your information doesn’t match, you’ll receive an email from Patreon with instructions to review and update your RFC details. Once corrected, you can resubmit your information. We’ll revalidate with SAT and email you again once your RFC has been confirmed as valid.