US Citizen with Property in Mexico, Payout Methods

Karen3152
Level 3
Sacramento, CA

US Citizen with Property in Mexico, Payout Methods

I list my Mexican property in USD and the money is sent to my US bank account.  I receive emails of the  expected payout in USD when the reservation is made, however, the actual payout is less.  I have tried to figure out why and the closest I can  get is that the original estimate does not include the 4% income tax that is withheld.  I am taxed at that rate because I supplied a Mexican RFC (tax ID). Without that tax ID, AirBnb states they will withhold 20% for income tax which you cannot recover.

 

Because of the amount of money I am earning on AirBnb with my Mexican property, I meet the Mexican government requirement to file my taxes monthly, which my Mexican accountant handles.  I make sure that I get facturas for everything I possibly can.  I have a property management company that provides facturas. Sometimes I have a tax credit and occasionally, I owe additional Mexican income tax, which is usually not that much.  When I owed income or VAT tax, I sent the money from the US to my accountant’s business account and he paid it.  He really didn’t care for me doing that.  All my other Mexican bills, I found ways to directly pay them myself without a Mexican bank account, such as Xoom for CFE, XE for HOA fees, paying the accountant or American credit card for property taxes.  I recently opened a Mexican personal bank account with Banorte.  I did not have to open a business account as I own my Mexican property near the coast under a fideicomiso and not a Mexican Corporation.  By the way, I advise highly against buying property through a Mexican Corp. as the accountant fees are very high and it is much more complicated to open an account.  I know of one Mexican accountant where his clients don’t have access to their own business accounts and have no idea how much money they have, etc. I was able to easily open my Banorte personal account by myself. I speak a little Spanish and the bank employee used Google Translate and we were able to get it done in less than one hour.

 

Now, with the new Mexican bank account, I send money from the US with XE in order to start paying bills related to the Mexican property and it is working well. I really like the Banorte mobile app.  So now, I am wondering if I should send my AirBnb payouts directly to my Mexican peso account instead of my US account. XE gives the best transfer rates around, but I understand that you have to be careful because the Mexican government may decide to tax it as income.  XE says that any more than $10,000 and you may owe taxes, but I don’t know if that is one transaction or for a year.

 

I’ve seen people complaining about a 3% charge that AirBnb has for the exchange rate when guests are making a reservation and some people have equated that to be the same for host payouts where the currency of the listing does not match the currency of the payout bank.  If you have listed your payout account as Paypal, you are paying some hefty fees and I advise against it.  If you are sending through an International or even Domestic wire, you will be charged whatever your banking institution charges.  I use a credit union in the US that charges no fees as a direct deposit from AirBnb, and not as a wire transfer.  

I set up a new payment method on AirBnb to send the money directly to my Mexican bank account.  I am waiting for verification and then I will set it as the new default payout method.  However, all future reservations already made will still go to the US account as AirBnb collects those fees when the reservation is made.  Once I receive a payout to my Mexican bank account, I will make a follow-up post comparing the payouts to either the US or Mexico using the published average exchange rate between buy and sell for that date.

 

In the meantime, if any other members have experience with this, I would like to hear.

2 Replies 2
Karen3152
Level 3
Sacramento, CA

So I got my first payout to my Mexican bank account.  Here are the results.  First, a payout to my USD account, then the Mexican account.  Calculated the same.

 

Payout to USD account in USPayout to USD account in US

Payout in Pesos to Mex accountPayout in Pesos to Mex account

 

The only difference now is, how much it costs to transfer money from US versus having AirBnb pay directly into your Mexican peso account.

 

I usually use XE.com to transfer money to Mexico account from US.  This is the rate as of today with XE.com, the same date I received the AirBnb money into my Mexican account:

 

AirBnb 3AirBnb 3

 

Now, what did AirBnb give me in terms of exchange for the direct payout to my Mexican account on the same date an the proposed XE.com exchange?  

 

$809.95 (reservation) + $133.60 (Host remitted tax) - 66.80 (Tax withholding VAT) - $33.40 (Tax Withholding Income) = $843.35 (if they paid in USD).

 

$15,996.20 (pesos payout) divided $843.35 (what would have paid in USD) = 18.9674

 

AirBnb is 0.0543 better than transferring with XE.com.  

 

On this transaction, I would have gotten $15,951.12 pesos from XE.com or 45 pesos ($2.25 USD) less than letting AirBnb handle the exchange.

 

Bottom line - you will not lose any money by directing your AirBnb funds directly into your Mexican bank account.  In fact, you will do a little better. And I got acknowledgment from my Mexican bank (Banorte), they received and accepted the funds the same day AirBnb sent them.

 

 

Bhumika
Community Manager
Community Manager
Toronto, Canada

Thank you @Karen3152 for sharing such an informative post.

I am sure, many Mexican Hosts would find your thread helpful in-case they need to check on adding payout methods to their account.


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