The full rule, no myths
The second paragraph of art. 90 of the LISR requires individuals resident in Mexico to report in their annual return the loans, gifts and prizes obtained during the tax year, when individually or in the aggregate they exceed $600,000. Three points that always come up:
- It is an aggregate total: a $400,000 loan plus a $250,000 gift = $650,000 → both are reported, even though neither on its own crosses the threshold.
- Reporting ≠ paying: the reported loan does not trigger ISR — it is still a debt, not income. The field is informational.
- It applies even if you are not otherwise required to file based on your income: receiving these amounts above the threshold pulls you into the annual return solely to report them.
The cost of omitting it: tax discrepancy
Art. 91 LISR empowers the SAT to compare your outlays (spending, acquisitions, deposits, card payments) against your declared income. When you spend more than you declare, the difference is presumed to be income. And here is the catch: loans and gifts not reported under art. 90 cannot be used to rebut the discrepancy — the law itself treats them as omitted income. The money your father lent you, real and documented, is taxed as your own gain because you failed to tick a box.
Reporting is not enough: you have to be able to prove it
The field protects you from the automatic assessment; the documentation protects you from the audit. The ideal file for a loan received:
- A loan agreement (contrato de mutuo) with a certain date (fecha cierta) (notarial ratification) — it proves it was a loan from that moment on, not a document assembled once the invitation letter arrived.
- An identifiable transfer from the lender to you (a cash deposit is the enemy).
- Visible repayments — a "loan" that is never repaid, with no interest or term, smells like a gift or a simulation.
On the other side of the table: if the lender is an individual, their interest is taxable income (we covered this in loans between private parties and taxes); your reporting obligation does not depend on them meeting theirs.
Gifts: the cousin with its own rules
Do not confuse the reporting duty with the exemption for gifts: those between spouses and lineal ascendants and descendants are exempt from ISR without limit (subject to conditions); other gifts are exempt up to a certain annual cap, and the excess is taxed. But the obligation to report under art. 90 runs on a separate track: an exempt gift is still reported if the aggregate crosses $600,000. Exempt but unreported = an avoidable problem.