Mexico Customs Duty

Key Takeaways

• Mexico’s standard IVA (VAT) rate is 16%, applied to imports above the relevant threshold.
• Courier shipments confirmed as US or Mexico-origin under USMCA keep a tiered de minimis: exempt under $50, IVA-only (17%) between $50-$117, full IVA plus duty above $117.
• Shipments from non-USMCA countries (the common case for stores shipping directly from China) lost their de minimis entirely as of 15 August 2025 - a flat 33.5% simplified rate now applies to orders up to $2,500, replacing separate IVA and duty.
• Mexico’s low-value import rules have changed three times in under two years (January 2025, August 2025, January 2026) - treat any figure here as current-as-of-review, not permanently fixed.

How Mexican Import Rules Work

Mexico runs two genuinely different sets of rules depending on where a shipment originates, and the non-USMCA rules in particular have shifted rapidly as the government has moved to close a loophole heavily used by Chinese cross-border platforms.

USMCA-origin courier shipments (US or Mexico):

• Under $50 USD: fully exempt from both IVA and customs duty.
• $50.01-$117 USD: IVA-only, at a 17% rate - no customs duty.
• Over $117 USD: full 16% IVA plus customs duty (product-category dependent), through formal import procedures.

Non-USMCA-origin shipments (most other countries):

• Up to $2,500 USD: a flat 33.5% simplified tax applies to the full order value, replacing separate IVA and duty calculations entirely. There is no exemption below any value - this rate applies from the first peso.
• Over $2,500 USD: full formal import procedures apply, with HS-code-based duty plus 16% IVA.

The Servicio de Administración Tributaria (SAT) is the authority responsible for these rules, issued through Mexico’s Reglas Generales de Comercio Exterior (General Foreign Trade Rules).

A Timeline of Rapid Change

Mexico’s low-value import rules have moved unusually fast for a country in this guide, largely as a policy response to the volume of low-cost parcels arriving from Chinese cross-border e-commerce platforms:

• Before January 2025: A $50 de minimis (tax-and-duty exempt) and $50-$117 IVA-only tier applied to courier shipments from every country, not just the US and Mexico.
• 1 January 2025: The $50 de minimis was eliminated for every country except USMCA partners. Non-USMCA courier and parcel shipments became subject to a flat 19% “tasa global” (global rate) regardless of value.
• 15 August 2025: The non-USMCA flat rate rose again, from 19% to 33.5%, for shipments under $2,500 - the rate this guide currently uses. USMCA treatment for US/Mexico-origin shipments was left largely unchanged.
• 1 January 2026: A broader tariff reform affecting roughly 1,463 non-USMCA product lines (concentrated in textiles, footwear, steel, and automotive parts) took effect on top of the courier rules above, layering additional category-specific duty on certain goods.

Given this pace of change, treat the 33.5% figure and the USMCA tier boundaries as accurate as of this page’s last review date, and expect they may move again.

Frequently Asked Questions About Customs Duty in Mexico

Why do US-origin and non-US-origin orders get treated so differently?

USMCA (the US-Mexico-Canada trade agreement) preserves a preferential low-value threshold for courier shipments between the three member countries. Shipments from outside that agreement - most notably from China, where a large share of ultra-low-cost e-commerce originates - lost their de minimis specifically because Mexico judged the old $50 exemption was being used at a scale that undermined domestic retailers and tax collection.

How does Dutix know if my order qualifies for USMCA treatment?

There’s no way to trace formal customs origin documentation from a product page alone, so this calculator uses a practical proxy: if the store is a recognized US-based retailer, it applies USMCA’s tiered thresholds; otherwise, it applies the non-USMCA flat rate. This is an approximation - actual eligibility depends on where the goods themselves originate.

Is the postal de minimis different from the courier de minimis in Mexico?

No reliable, distinctly-different figure for postal shipments was found during research for this page - the 2025-2026 rule changes are explicitly scoped to courier and parcel companies and express air carriers. Treat the figures above as applying broadly rather than assuming a separate, lower postal-specific number.

Could the $117 USMCA threshold change again?

Possibly - some commentary has suggested a review that could lower it to $50, though this wasn’t independently confirmed at the time of writing. Given how frequently Mexico’s rules have moved since 2025, check back for updates before relying on an exact figure for a high-value purchase.

What happens above $2,500 for a non-USMCA order?

It no longer qualifies for the simplified flat-rate regime and needs a full formal import declaration instead, with duty assessed by HS code plus 16% IVA - a more involved process this guide’s calculator doesn’t estimate.