What Is RESICO?
RESICO is the Régimen Simplificado de Confianza (Simplified Trust Regime), the tax scheme Mexico's SAT created so individuals with business income, professional fees, rental income, or primary-sector activities can pay income tax (ISR) at reduced rates with simpler paperwork. There is also a version of RESICO for legal entities, with its own rules. In both cases, SAT pre-loads most of the return using the CFDI (electronic invoices) already issued, which makes the monthly filing faster than under the general regime.
Not every taxpayer qualifies for RESICO: there's an annual income cap, activities that are excluded outright, and obligations that, if missed, push a taxpayer out of the regime automatically. Here's how it works for individuals and for legal entities.
RESICO for Individuals: Income Cap and ISR Rates
An individual can file under RESICO if their total income for the year — adding business activity, professional fees, property rental, and farming, livestock, fishing, or forestry activities — does not exceed 3,500,000 pesos annually. If you cross that threshold at any point during the year, you stop qualifying for RESICO starting the following month and move to whichever regime applies to your activity.
ISR under RESICO for individuals is calculated on income actually collected during the month, with no deductions, applying a rate that increases by bracket:
- Up to 25,000 pesos per month: 1% rate.
- Up to 50,000 pesos per month: 1.10% rate.
- Up to 83,333.33 pesos per month: 1.50% rate.
- Up to 208,333.33 pesos per month: 2% rate.
- Up to 3,500,000 pesos annually: 2.50% rate.
Because it doesn't allow deductions, RESICO tends to work best for taxpayers with low operating costs relative to income: consultants, independent professionals, or businesses with little spend on supplies. If your activity requires buying inventory, paying payroll, or renting space on an ongoing basis, it's worth comparing your effective ISR under RESICO against the general business-activity regime with deductions before deciding.
Who Cannot File Under RESICO as an Individual
SAT excludes the following taxpayers from RESICO:
- Anyone who is a partner, shareholder, or member of a legal entity, or who receives income from related parties.
- Anyone earning business income through a trust or a joint venture (asociación en participación).
- Anyone whose only income is salary, or who receives income from a foreign source.
- Anyone previously filing under the general regime who doesn't meet the legal requirements to move back into RESICO.
If your situation changes during the year — say, you become a partner in a company — it's time to notify SAT and review which regime you should be filing under, because staying in RESICO without meeting the requirements creates tax differences and surcharges down the line.
RESICO for Legal Entities: How It Works
Legal entities can also file under RESICO if their total income in the prior fiscal year did not exceed 35,000,000 pesos and all of their partners or shareholders are individuals. Excluded are companies that are part of a corporate group, companies that are related parties of another legal entity in the general regime, and financial-sector institutions (banks, insurers, leasing companies, brokerage firms, and similar).
Unlike RESICO for individuals, the ISR rate for legal entities is the same as under the general regime: 30%. The real difference is in the calculation method: under RESICO you accrue income once you actually collect it and deduct expenses once you actually pay them, instead of accruing income the moment a CFDI is issued. That cash-flow method simplifies the accounting, though the underlying tax rate stays the same as the general regime.
Tax Obligations Under RESICO
Filing under RESICO doesn't mean fewer administrative obligations, just simpler ones to meet. In general, both individuals and legal entities must:
- Have an active RFC (tax ID), e.firma, and an enabled buzón tributario (tax mailbox).
- Issue a CFDI 4.0 for every income received, with the correct tax data for the recipient.
- File monthly ISR returns: individuals by the 17th of the following month, using the information SAT pre-loads from the CFDI already issued.
- Keep electronic accounting records and submit them to SAT in the case of legal entities, plus file an annual return in March of the following year.
- Keep receipts for deductible expenses, even though the monthly calculation for individuals under RESICO doesn't allow deductions.
If your business already issues CFDI across multiple clients or payment channels, automating invoice generation cuts down on the data errors that later complicate SAT's pre-filled returns.
What Happens If You Exceed the Cap or Miss an Obligation
Exceeding the income cap — 3,500,000 pesos for individuals, 35,000,000 for legal entities — automatically removes the taxpayer from RESICO starting the month after the excess occurs. You also lose RESICO status if you miss three or more monthly ISR returns within the same fiscal year, whether consecutive or not: SAT moves you to the general regime automatically, with no notice required on your part.
Losing RESICO status isn't just a paperwork issue: it means recalculating ISR under the rules of whichever regime now applies, which usually raises your tax burden because you lose access to the reduced rates. That's why it's worth tracking accumulated income and filed returns on a monthly basis, rather than finding out about the regime change at annual-filing time.
Advantages of RESICO Over Other Regimes
For taxpayers who meet the requirements, RESICO offers real advantages over the traditional business-activity and professional-fees regime:
- Lower ISR rates for individuals, especially in the lower income brackets.
- Monthly returns pre-loaded with issued and received CFDI, which cuts down on data entry.
- Simpler accrual rules for legal entities, since income is calculated on cash flow instead of on what's been invoiced.
- Fewer deduction scenarios to review each month, which simplifies bookkeeping for small businesses.
The trade-off is the lack of deductions for individuals and the income cap, which limits RESICO to businesses of a certain size. Whether it's worth it depends on your actual operating margin, not just the headline rate.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the income cap to file under RESICO as an individual?
3,500,000 pesos in annual income, adding up all the activities eligible under this regime. If you exceed it in any month of the year, you stop qualifying for RESICO starting the following month.
Does RESICO for individuals allow deductions?
No. Monthly ISR under RESICO for individuals is calculated by applying the corresponding rate directly to income collected that month, without subtracting expenses or personal deductions in the monthly calculation.
What ISR rate do legal entities pay under RESICO?
30%, the same rate as under the general regime for legal entities. The difference from the general regime is that RESICO accrues income and deducts expenses on a cash-flow basis — that is, when they are actually collected or paid.
What happens if I stop issuing CFDI or filing returns under RESICO?
If you miss three or more monthly ISR returns in the same fiscal year, SAT automatically moves you to the general regime without you needing to request it, and you lose the regime's reduced rates.
Can I stay in RESICO if I'm a partner in a legal entity?
No. SAT excludes individuals who are partners, shareholders, or members of a legal entity, or who receive income from parties related to it, from filing under RESICO.
Staying compliant under RESICO depends on issuing every CFDI with the correct data and keeping your returns up to date, which gets harder as invoicing volume grows or comes from multiple points of sale. At AISDC we help businesses under RESICO and other regimes automate their CFDI invoicing, cutting down on the errors that later create mismatches in SAT's pre-filled returns. If you want to review which regime fits your business and how to simplify your invoicing, check out our guides on requirements to invoice in Mexico and what a CFDI is, or read our upcoming comparison of SAT tax regimes and how to get your constancia de situación fiscal.