# RFC registration: can it really be that simple?



## Pastel de nata

Hello folks!
I sell services and have just been told by Mexican friends 'oh, we could really use some of those! _If _you can register in Mexico and give us a factura..." They then described nightmarish paperwork storms and visits to the state capital to register a small business. 
However, when I looked it up online it seems that you can register for an RFC (number for the Régimen de Incorporación Fiscal) and online invoicing/tax payments account just by using your CURP number, on the SAT (servicio de administración tributaria) website. 
I went through the process and got to the end, but there the online system apparently crashed. 
What are your experiences of this? Can it really be that simple - sign up online using your CURP, become formal? 
Was my problem just an internet hitch, or do you think the website crash was a sign of my having to que in offices somewhere with sheaves of papers? 
It seems like the system has been changed as of the beginning of this year (2015) so previous experiences may not reflect the current state of affairs...

Any insights gratefully received!


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## TundraGreen

Pastel de nata said:


> Hello folks!
> I sell services and have just been told by Mexican friends 'oh, we could really use some of those! _If _you can register in Mexico and give us a factura..." They then described nightmarish paperwork storms and visits to the state capital to register a small business.
> However, when I looked it up online it seems that you can register for an RFC (number for the Régimen de Incorporación Fiscal) and online invoicing/tax payments account just by using your CURP number, on the SAT (servicio de administración tributaria) website.
> I went through the process and got to the end, but there the online system apparently crashed.
> What are your experiences of this? Can it really be that simple - sign up online using your CURP, become formal?
> Was my problem just an internet hitch, or do you think the website crash was a sign of my having to que in offices somewhere with sheaves of papers?
> It seems like the system has been changed as of the beginning of this year (2015) so previous experiences may not reflect the current state of affairs...
> 
> Any insights gratefully received!


I got my RFC number a while ago at an SAT office. Getting an RFC as an individual was simple. The paperwork to register a small business, I know nothing about. I haven't explored their online system much because it was all Windows based and I don't have a computer running Windows.


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## makaloco

I believe a corporation must be registered as a "persona moral" as opposed to a "persona fisica". Is that what you did? Just looking at the site, the data entries and information required are totally different.

I'm registered as a "persona fisica". My bank issued me an RFC number when I opened my account. Several years later, when I obtained a CURP and permanent residence, I used the SAT online system to verify my registration and to print out a card that I later had laminated. TG, I had no problem using the site with my iMac.


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## Cristobal

makaloco said:


> I believe a corporation must be registered as a "persona moral" as opposed to a "persona fisica". Is that what you did? Just looking at the site, the data entries and information required are totally different.
> 
> I'm registered as a "persona fisica". My bank issued me an RFC number when I opened my account. Several years later, when I obtained a CURP and permanent residence, I used the SAT online system to verify my registration and to print out a card that I later had laminated. TG, I had no problem using the site with my iMac.


They don't need to form a corporation. It can be run as a sole proprietorship under actividades empresariales.


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## TundraGreen

makaloco said:


> I believe a corporation must be registered as a "persona moral" as opposed to a "persona fisica". Is that what you did? Just looking at the site, the data entries and information required are totally different.
> 
> I'm registered as a "persona fisica". My bank issued me an RFC number when I opened my account. Several years later, when I obtained a CURP and permanent residence, I used the SAT online system to verify my registration and to print out a card that I later had laminated. TG, I had no problem using the site with my iMac.


It has been awhile since I did it and I don't remember what I was trying to do. I think it required downloading an .exe file.


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## Mextrav46

I walked into their office with my accountant and my CURP and passport and had a card and a firma electronica in under 10 minutes.


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## Pastel de nata

*...yes it can!*

Now I can update everyone on how it goes: 
- Yes, it's that simple to get an RFC: you just need your CURP (on your residence card) and you sign up on the SAT website.
- It's also simple to register as a small business (turnover under MX$2 million a year) under 'Régimen de Incorporación Fiscal', again online on the SAT website. You get a .key and a .req file and a password which allow you to sign in to your SAT account where you can track your expenses and income and register for your taxes every 2 months (even if you've had no income). I haven't gotten as far as paying any taxes yet. It also allows you to make formal invoices (factura). 
This system seems to have been set up to attract small businesses to become formal, so there's a significant tax rebate for the first three years. 

- If you need an even more formal setup, you can register for a firma electronica (FIEL), also on the SAT website. But then you need to show in person to a SAT office to prove that you are who you say you are: this needs an appointment (made online), plus: 2x the form FE_V8 signed in blue pen; residence permit card; (passport - I'm not sure), proof of address. One office I asked also wanted a printout of my CURP, the other one didn't. Then you go to the office where they take your fingerprints and a photo of your irises and issue the FIEL (a file that you have to save on a USB stick or similar). 
I was stumped trying to use my FIEL, though, because the system asked for a password which I'd forgotten. In order to re-issue the password I had to fill in an online form. One of the compulsory fields was the maternal surname... which I've never used on any paperwork and which is hence not registered anywhere. So now I'm stuck at that point. The RIF version still works though. 

Good luck everyone!


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## cuerna1

TundraGreen said:


> I got my RFC number a while ago at an SAT office. Getting an RFC as an individual was simple. The paperwork to register a small business, I know nothing about. I haven't explored their online system much because it was all Windows based and I don't have a computer running Windows.


If you don't have a small business - active income - why do you need an RFC ?


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## citlali

you need an RFC to get facturas which comes in handy when you go to the hospital or doctors and your insurrance asks you for the facturas before they reimburse you.


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## Hound Dog

[I Changes made for efficacy.


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## citlali

yes Hound Dog I am 7 hours ahead of you..


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## TundraGreen

cuerna1 said:


> If you don't have a small business - active income - why do you need an RFC ?


If you have income from Mexican sources and are paying Mexican taxes, an RFC number is required. And with an RFC number, you can request facturas and deduct the IVA paid for purchases from the taxes you owe to the Mexican government. If you have no Mexican income, an RFC and facturas are less useful. I have no experience with health insurance reimbursement mentioned by Citlali.


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## Hound Dog

_


TundraGreen said:



If you have income from Mexican sources and are paying Mexican taxes, an RFC number is required. And with an RFC number, you can request facturas and deduct the IVA paid for purchases from the taxes you owe to the Mexican government. If you have no Mexican income, an RFC and facturas are less useful. I have no experience with health insurance reimbursement mentioned by Citlali.

Click to expand...

_Thank you for these remarks TG. Readers must realize that if they move down here to reside as permanent residents, they should have both RFC and CURP numbers in case they become ill in some remote área and need to seek health insurance reimbursement from a health insurance company. We subscribe to major health coverage from AXA, a reputable international insurance company but when I became ill in Chiapas. where we maintain a residence, when Ineeded health insurance coverage, those RFC and CURP numbers became critically important when we sought reimbursement for medical care rendered in an unrecognized hospital - a common problem in Chiapas, Mexico´s poorest state, where the hospitals are generally total crap to the point AXA won´t even recognize them as health providers. Newcomers - get your RFC and CURP numbers and be serious about completing that task.


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## cuerna1

Hound Dog said:


> Thank you for these remarks TG. Readers must realize that if they move down here to reside as permanent residents, they should have both RFC and CURP numbers in case they become ill in some remote área and need to seek health insurance reimbursement from a health insurance company. We subscribe to major health coverage from AXA, a reputable international insurance company but when I became ill in Chiapas. where we maintain a residence, when Ineeded health insurance coverage, those RFC and CURP numbers became critically important when we sought reimbursement for medical care rendered in an unrecognized hospital - a common problem in Chiapas, Mexico´s poorest state, where the hospitals are generally total crap to the point AXA won´t even recognize them as health providers. Newcomers - get your RFC and CURP numbers and be serious about completing that task.


We have several financial accounts in Mexico and all of the institutions use the same truncated RFC. The banks all withhold tax on our earnings and issue us a '1099 like document' each year. Everyone we have personally had the conversation with - expats and Mexicans has said - don't go there. We even visited SAT and they said we were fine. Before a person would need to file a tax return for bank interest earnings I think they have to have something like 100,000 'real' in earnings (after inflation). That is hard to do for most people.

As for insurance we have IMSS and Cuernavaca being a kind of large city - the hospital here is very well thought of. We have a great GP there. There have been a couple of times we have sought outside medical care - and we just paid out of pocket. The costs were a faction of the costs in the US - and we could just walk in and request a test which in the US would require all sorts of pre-approvals / referrals.

We do have CURPS (and INAPAM cards).


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## citlali

We have RFC and have zero problems. Once we went to SAT told them we were retired and had no Mexican earning and that was the end of it.


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## ojosazules11

Regarding getting the RFC number on-line, I recently tried to get one for my mother-in-law because the bank said she needed it for payment of fees for her passport renewal. The website would only give the option of birth years back to 1950, in other words it would not generate the number through the website for anyone older than 65 yrs, so she had to go in person to get hers.


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## Hound Dog

[_QUOTE=ojosazules11;7035954]Regarding getting the RFC number on-line, I recently tried to get one for my mother-in-law because the bank said she needed it for payment of fees for her passport renewal. The website would only give the option of birth years back to 1950, in other words it would not generate the number through the website for anyone older than 65 yrs, so she had to go in person to get hers.[/QUOTE]_

Jesús Jones, ojo; here I am 73 years old and damned if I remember how I got my RFC number but I did get one plus a CURP number. I was born so long ago that my first Alabama license plate only had five numbers. I was born so long ago that when I made a phone call, the operator would come on the line and say, "Number please" and my telephone number was 434-J. I was born so long ago that the nearby city of Montgomery had a polio epidemic for which, in those days, there was no cure and for the better part of a year my mom refused to drive me the 38 miles to that city where thousands of children were dying or becoming paralized for life. I was born so long ago that the city in which I was born emptied all its raw, untreated sewage into Persimmon Creek which, as a result, stank for the surrounding 13 miles. I was born so long ago that the first black & white televisión station out of Montgomery came on the air daily at 4:00PM with a test pattern and broadcast until 10:00PM - mostly cooking shows, Ed Sullivan and Howdy Doody with Uncle Bob. I could go on but, due to my age, I need a nap.


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## cuerna1

felices suenos

we got the CURP from INM - five minute process with appointment. But prior - we did get the run-around from other agencies - some even saying that a CURP was only for citizens.


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## ojosazules11

Hound Dog said:


> Jesús Jones, ojo; here I am 73 years old and damned if I remember how I got my RFC number but I did get one plus a CURP number. I was born so long ago that my first Alabama license plate only had five numbers. I was born so long ago that when I made a phone call, the operator would come on the line and say, "Number please" and my telephone number was 434-J. I was born so long ago that the nearby city of Montgomery had a polio epidemic for which, in those days, there was no cure and for the better part of a year my mom refused to drive me the 38 miles to that city where thousands of children were dying or becoming paralized for life. I was born so long ago that the city in which I was born emptied all its raw, untreated sewage into Persimmon Creek which, as a result, stank for the surrounding 13 miles. I was born so long ago that the first black & white televisión station out of Montgomery came on the air daily at 4:00PM with a test pattern and broadcast until 10:00PM - mostly cooking shows, Ed Sullivan and Howdy Doody with Uncle Bob. I could go on but, due to my age, I need a nap.



Well, you've got 20 years on me HD, so by the time I was old enough to use the phone, we could dial direct, but we had a party line, so you could pick up and hear the neighbour's gossip. I remember that test pattern on TV, and I remember Ed Sullivan - we'd go to my uncle's house to watch it Sunday nights, because they had a TV and we didn't get ours until the moonwalk in 1969. I remember the emergency warning siren being tested every day at noon - and it was loud enough that we could hear it on the farm, 7 miles from town. Of course, it wasn't until I was older that I realized it was to warn us to go hide in our non-existent bomb shelter in case a bomb was coming our way. If any such thing had happened, I would have continued happily playing, thinking they changed the schedule of that daily siren.

Fortunately I was born after the polio vaccine was introduced, but a neighbour boy had paralysis due to polio. We didn't wear seat belts, no helmets when riding bikes, and we all piled into the open back of a pickup and barreled down country roads. Somehow we survived.


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## TundraGreen

ojosazules11 said:


> Well, you've got 20 years on me HD, so by the time I was old enough to use the phone, we could dial direct, but we had a party line, so you could pick up and hear the neighbour's gossip. I remember that test pattern on TV, and I remember Ed Sullivan - we'd go to my uncle's house to watch it Sunday nights, because they had a TV and we didn't get ours until the moonwalk in 1969. I remember the emergency warning siren being tested every day at noon - and it was loud enough that we could hear it on the farm, 7 miles from town. Of course, it wasn't until I was older that I realized it was to warn us to go hide in our non-existent bomb shelter in case a bomb was coming our way. If any such thing had happened, I would have continued happily playing, thinking they changed the schedule of that daily siren.
> 
> Fortunately I was born after the polio vaccine was introduced, but a neighbour boy had paralysis due to polio. We didn't wear seat belts, no helmets when riding bikes, and we all piled into the open back of a pickup and barreled down country roads. Somehow we survived.


I was struck by your next to last comment. Since moving to Mexico, I have spent a fair amount of time riding in the back of pickups. On the most memorable ride I shared the pickup bed with 8 Mexicans. We had had a meal with ample supplies of tequila and mariachi, so they were feeling good and sang all the way home.


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## ojosazules11

TundraGreen said:


> I was struck by your next to last comment. Since moving to Mexico, I have spent a fair amount of time riding in the back of pickups. On the most memorable ride I shared the pickup bed with 8 Mexicans. We had had a meal with ample supplies of tequila and mariachi, so they were feeling good and sang all the way home.


That sounds like my kind of ride!


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## jambi

Getting the RFC is easy. However, I highly recommend you retain the services of a good accountant to handle the rest. You can go to SAT, tell them what you want to do, and have them set it up for you, but they won't do it in a way that ultimately benefits you. Setting up a business in MX isn't even close to the basically organized and linear process it is in the US. The process is often confusingly unclear, not to mention full of loopholes. Good Mexican accountants are experts at taking advantage of those loopholes to the benefit of their clients.


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## maesonna

My ‘business‘ is just freelance me providing a translation and editing service via internet, but I couldn’t manage my tax stuff without an accountant. Over the 15 or so years I’ve been in ‘business’, the rules and procedures have changed so many times it’s a full-time occupation to keep up with them. I wouldn’t have known where to look to find out the latest changes, and then it would have been a tough job to wade through it all to understand which parts apply to me and what it means I have to do.


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