During June there were lots of posts on the Internet and stories online about the need for Temporary and Permanent Residents to get an RFC number by July 1st. It was suggested that it would be impossible to get utility accounts – CFE, Telmex – or open a bank account without one after that date.

Given that we would be moving into Pueblo Campestre in November and would need to set up these accounts, I thought it was something that I should check out. I messaged Josephina at Paperworks Mexico and she indicated that it was almost impossible to get an appointment at SAT in Cabo San Lucas and that people were going to La Paz or standing in line from 5:00 am to try and get an RFC. I remembered that we may have had one many years ago when we had full time help at the house and Zacatitos that had been suspended. This means that it would just be a matter of getting it reinstated. Easy right? No way!

I contacted our tax accountant at Marba Tax Consultants, Eugenio Martinez. He was able to get us an appointment about three weeks later. He laid out the information that I would have to take with me – Passport, Permanent Resident Card, Proof of Address and a USB drive. He met me at the SAT office in Cabo San Lucas 20 minutes before the appointment, went to the door to tell the woman that we were there and we waited outside to be called. Eugenio explained to me that he could not go along to the meeting, it was principals only.

When I was called, I went into the front counter where they check your documents. I explained that I didn’t speak Spanish and they called someone to help. They want the proof of address and I told them that we lived off the grid with no accounts for electricity or water and that I had brought my Fideicomiso (Trust) for the property. They gave me a number and told me to go into the next room and wait for my number to appear on the screen telling me what station to visit. When I was called, I provided all of the documentation, once again explained about living off the grid and gave them the USB drive. The USB is so that they can transfer all of the data on your file to it for you. I had to provide an email address, username and password for access to the files that they would give me. At this first stop, the checked the forms, had me sign a number of forms and then sent me to Station 1 to get my fingerprints and picture taken. When the biometrics were completed, I was sent to another area with computers where we signed in with my new username and password and the data was transferred to the USB drive. Finally, finished I went outside with my copies of the documents to meet Eugenio once again.

As we had received two letters – one about lodging and the other about payroll taxes – after the meeting was set, he told me that he would research the situation and let me know if there was anything more that needed to be done. He reviewed the USB drive and visited the Finance office to look through my files and determined that there were no obligations. I met him to sign two letters – one on lodging and one on payroll taxes – so that he could clear up any issues.

It turns out this was only the first step as apparently while the RFC had been suspended with Hacienda, the Federal authority in 2010, the same had not been done with the State of BCS.

Consequently, he had to complete monthly reports showing no activity from 2010 to 2022 and I had to sign two copies of each of them. This had to be done separately for lodging (rental of my property) and payroll taxes – almost two hours of signing. It was worse for Eugenio as he would have to go back to the State offices and have all of them stamped – five hours of work. A few days later, it was finally done and my RFC was clear.