# What I need to know



## Montegirl (Jan 20, 2021)

Hello all, I’m a US citizen born in the US, but both parents are Mexican, so I also have my Mexican citizenship. My question is based on me wanting to move to Mexico and buy a house over there! How would I do this? As I have money saved from working over here, income tax returns and a life insurance. How can I move all money or send over there to purchase a house and car? Isn’t there a limit on money I can take to Mexico from the US? And when entering Mexico do I just enter with my Mexican papers, like my IFE/INE? Also do I have to pay taxes or something on money I already paid taxes on(like what I described above)? I’m so confused, on how this works! I just want to do it right and easy, just want to buy a small house, relax and work in Mexico as a Mexican. I’m just done with the life of America, where all you do is live to work.


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## TundraGreen (Jul 15, 2010)

Welcome.
I suggest keeping your US bank account(s). Move or come to Mexico and use ATMs for cash to start with. Then open a Mexican bank account and do a wire transfer of the money you will need for purchasing a house. You won't have to pay taxes on the money you move, unless it is in an IRA or other retirement type account. If you are just moving money from one bank to another there is no tax involved.
Entering Mexico, you normally use your Mexican passport, but I am pretty sure you can just use your INE card if you have no passport.
Finally, you didn't ask for advice, but I will give it anyway. You don't mention how much time you have spent in Mexico. If it is not a lot, you might hold off buying a house until you have been here for a year or so. It is a lot easier and quicker to buy than it is to sell.


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## Montegirl (Jan 20, 2021)

TundraGreen said:


> Welcome.
> I suggest keeping your US bank account(s). Move or come to Mexico and use ATMs for cash to start with. Then open a Mexican bank account and do a wire transfer of the money you will need for purchasing a house. You won't have to pay taxes on the money you move, unless it is in an IRA or other retirement type account. If you are just moving money from one bank to another there is no tax involved.
> Entering Mexico, you normally use your Mexican passport, but I am pretty sure you can just use your INE card if you have no passport.
> Finally, you didn't ask for advice, but I will give it anyway. You don't mention how much time you have spent in Mexico. If it is not a lot, you might hold off buying a house until you have been here for a year or so. It is a lot easier and quicker to buy than it is to sell.


Thanks for your response and your advice. 😀 So the reason why I’m so confused is because I have read that if you transfer more than 10,000.00 you will be questioned and you are supposed to file something with IRS not to pay taxes but to let them know? And that in in Mexico hacienda can tax you if you have more than again 10,000.00. I just don’t want to do things wrong or get taxed wrongly, So I have no idea on how to or where to send the money to hold it in an account until I finally make up my mind on a house and if it is possible.
Also, to answer your question on if I have lived in Mexico before, i have. I lived in Ciudad Juárez, in the past for about a year, my parents have a house there and I didn’t have to worry about rent or buying. My dad currently lives in Chihuahua and I visit quite often, but just last year I have visited Monterrey a couple of times and just fell in love. I have looked at jobs and have a good potential of getting a good job to begin and hopefully be able to get an even better job once I have settled and made relationships with new people that know Monterrey better. I always knew I wanted to one day maybe live in Mexico but I had you know a job stability here in the USA and was afraid to move and leave a good paying job, but since I lost my job here in the USA due to COVID why keep losing money from what I have saved to live in a place I don’t like, and can’t find a job that pays what I used to get paid and can’t afford living here anymore? When I could just use my savings to buy a nice small house not worry about a mortgage or rent and just get a job there and would have more than enough to pay the bills like, water, gas etc... and live comfortably in a place where I love the weather, the scenery and the people?


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## TundraGreen (Jul 15, 2010)

Neither Mexico nor the US tax you just because you have an account with some money in it. Both have some some laws about reporting when you exceed some thresholds. For example bringing more than some large amount of cash when crossing borders. Or depositing or withdrawing large amounts of cash. Transfers don't trigger the same rules but I assume large transfers are also reported by the banks particularly in the US and maybe in Mexico. But you don't have to report them. I transferred a couple million pesos when I bought my house.


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## Montegirl (Jan 20, 2021)

TundraGreen said:


> Neither Mexico nor the US tax you just because you have an account with some money in it. Both have some some laws about reporting when you exceed some thresholds. For example bringing more than some large amount of cash when crossing borders. Or depositing or withdrawing large amounts of cash. Transfers don't trigger the same rules but I assume large transfers are also reported by the banks particularly in the US and maybe in Mexico. But you don't have to report them. I transferred a couple million pesos when I bought my house.


Awesome that helps a lot, cause yes I heard it triggers but as long as I have a trail saying well this is money that onbviously went in from tax returns, and income from when I worked that would be proof that is not ilegal! So I don’t have to let IRS know before hand when transferring for instance about 1 million pesos for a house? And one last question, where did you keep it in Mexico until you actually purchased? Did you open an account at a Mexican bank or did you not transfer until you transferred to seller’s account or something of that sort? Thanks!


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## TundraGreen (Jul 15, 2010)

I had been living here for a couple of years and had an account in a Mexican bank. So I moved the money there, then paid the seller. But I suppose you could transfer the money directly to the seller as another option. As you will learn, if you don't know already, house sales in Mexico are handled differently than in the US. There is no escrow account, nor title insurance. You pay the seller and they give you the keys. All of that occurs after a Notaria Publica, chosen by the buyer, has drawn up all the paper work. There are no inspections required, nor any recourse if you find something you don't like about it after the sale.
I still would suggest renting in Monterrey or where ever for a year or so before buying even if you think you know you want to stay.


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## eastwind (Jun 18, 2016)

I just bought my condo this year. I did it all without a Mexican bank account, by wiring money from the US. Fortunately I had Schwab, and an account with enough in it (they had my house money) that Schwab was waiving the wire fees, otherwise I'd have paid a good bit in wire fees. It wasn't all one big wire, there was an earnest money wire, a deposit to the Notario, two wires to the two people who owned the place that were selling it (a man and his mother co-owned it 50/50), a wire to the real estate agent, and another wire to the notario for the balance. Plus payments to the bank for the fidescomo (one of which I made in cash by pulling the money with my ATM card, and the other was charged on my Schwab card), and payments to an abogado who helped me.

I have to say having a Mexican bank account would have been helpful, but my history proved it's not necessary. I got along for 4 years renting before I bought, and only now that I'm really permanent here have I opened an account. (I had avoided it before because I didn't want to worry about FBARs, and because some banks won't give an account to a person on Residente Temporale status).

Schwab sent me (to the mailing address that they have on file, which is a US address) paper confirmations for each wire. I intend to keep those basically forever. I have read that if you ever need to move the money back to the US it's helpful to have proof that it came from the US. It's apparently not sufficient to say 'it came from sale of a house in Mexico', because the house could have been bought with dirty money. So I'm keeping the wire receipts so I can show that my place was bought with 'clean' money. I read about this not on this forum, but on another forum for another country, but the issue was the same - moving money from the US to a foreign country to buy real estate, then later wanting to move it back. They said you needed receipts to show the US banks accepting your foreign money.


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## Montegirl (Jan 20, 2021)

Thanks!! So I’m guessing the Fbar’s is the form you fill with IRS letting them Know you have an account in a foreign country with mora than 10,000 dollars right? But that was my question if this was necessary for me to let them know. Also what if I’m a national of Mexico too, would I still need to let them know? I’m guessing yes, cause money still came from US and I’m a citizen who files taxes... 🤷🏼‍♀️ so what makes the difference with you having to do FBAR’s before and not now? Thanks


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## TundraGreen (Jul 15, 2010)

If you are a US citizen and the total balance of all your bank accounts outside the US is greater than $10,000 USD, you have to file. It doesn't matter where the money came from or what other nationalities you have. US citizen, more than 10K outside US, file. I you have assets over a few hundred thousand dollars US outside the US, there is another form you also have to file, Form 8938, FATCA. I think it does not count a personal residence, just other assets, like bank accounts, investments, companies etc.


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## eastwind (Jun 18, 2016)

Montegirl said:


> So I’m guessing the Fbar’s is the form you fill with IRS letting them Know you have an account in a foreign country with mora than 10,000 dollars right?


yes



Montegirl said:


> But that was my question if this was necessary for me to let them know.


yes



Montegirl said:


> Also what if I’m a national of Mexico too, would I still need to let them know?


yes



Montegirl said:


> so what makes the difference with you having to do FBAR’s before and not now?


Is it me you're asking? I didn't have to do FBARs before, because I didn't have any accounts, and I liked it that way, and was a little phobic about the whole thing, so I avoided getting the accounts until just this month. Now I really need the account to pay bills more easily, so I decided to bite the bullet. Also it's harder to get an account when you are on Residente Temporale status, so I waited until I got my Residente Permanente card to try to open a bank account. Those were the two factors that helped me "put off" getting one for four years.

I'm still planning on keeping my Mexican account balance below US$10,000, so I won't have to file the FBAR, but if it goes over, I'll file the FBAR, it's supposedly not a big hassle to fill out.


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## dvinton (Mar 8, 2019)

"So I’m guessing the Fbar’s is the form you fill with IRS letting them Know you have an account in a foreign country with mora than 10,000 dollars right?"

Fyi, the FBAR is not filed with your federal tax filing. It is submitted directly to FinCEN (Financial Crimes Enforcement Network). It's a little confusing that an IRS page (Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR) | Internal Revenue Service) describes this requirement and the due date is April 15 (but can be extended to October 15 w/o request).


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## MangoTango (Feb 8, 2020)

... and the FBAR can only be filed electronically. (Whereas I am probably one of the handful of people who still files my tax returns via the postal service - even from Mexico)


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## eastwind (Jun 18, 2016)




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