How to buy a boat in Mexico

1. Know what you’re buying: flag and TIP status

Before price, before survey, establish two facts:

• What flag does the boat fly?A Mexican-flagged boat transfers through Mexico’s national maritime registry like any domestic sale. But the typical cruiser or sportfisher for sale in La Paz, Puerto Vallarta, or Cabo is US- or Canadian-flagged — and most of this guide is about that case. If the boat is Mexican-flagged, see the next section.
• Is the boat in Mexico under an active TIP, and in whose name?A foreign-flagged recreational vessel over 4.5 m is legally present in Mexico only under a Temporary Import Permit issued by Banjercito. Ask the seller for the TIP document on day one. If they can’t produce it, or it’s in a previous owner’s name, stop — that’s the whole deal.

2. Buying a Mexican-flagged boat

A Mexican-flagged boat has none of the TIP baggage — it’s a domestic asset and transfers in-country. The catch is on the ownership side: the Mexican matrícula can be held by Mexican citizens, foreigners with permanent residency, and Mexican-incorporated companies. A buyer on a tourist visa can’t take a Mexican registration into their personal name; for non-residents the workable routes are buying through a Mexican company (a standard structure — talk to a Mexican attorney about foreign-investment limits for your use case), or re-flagging the boat to your home country after purchase and bringing it back under a TIP.

The basic transfer process, for a buyer who can legally hold the flag:

• Verify the registration and check for liens.Ask for the vessel’s certificado de matrícula and search the National Maritime Public Registry (Registro Público Marítimo Nacional, RPMM) for the ownership record and any registered encumbrances — the RPMM is Mexico’s equivalent of a USCG abstract of title. Registrations are administered by the Port Captaincies, which since 2021 sit under the Navy (SEMAR).
• Formalize the sale. A written purchase agreement and bill of sale (factura or contrato de compraventa); for registered vessels the transfer document is typically ratified before a notary public so it can be recorded at the RPMM.
• Record the transfer and re-issue the matrícula. File at the local Capitanía de Puerto / RPMM to record the new owner and update the certificate of registry. Government fees are set annually by the Ley Federal de Derechos and are modest — typically in the hundreds-to-low-thousands of pesos range, plus notary and agent costs, which usually dwarf them. Exact amounts change yearly; confirm current fees with the capitanía or your agent.
• Taxes. Buying from a business or dealer means 16% IVA on the invoice. Private-party sales between individuals are generally outside IVA, but get specific advice — structure matters, and this is a common audit point on higher-value boats.
• Immigration and tax status. Foreigners with permanent residency can buy and register a Mexican-flagged boat in their own name. Expect to need Mexican tax and identity credentials to complete the transfer and pay fees — in practice an RFC (tax ID), which for individuals requires a CURP; both come with residency. A tourist-visa buyer cannot complete a Mexican-flag transfer personally, which is why the Mexican-company route (the company holds the RFC) is the standard structure for non-resident buyers. Requirements vary between port captaincies — confirm locally before committing.

If you’re a foreign buyer and the Mexican flag is incidental — you just want the boat — it’s often simpler to buy it, deregister it from the RPMM, flag it in your home country, and re-enter Mexico under a TIP in your name. That path swaps the ownership restriction for the TIP regime described in the rest of this guide.

3. The core rule: a boat under TIP cannot be sold in Mexico

The temporary import regime exists so tourists can bring their own boats into Mexican waters without paying import duty and VAT. The trade-off is written directly into the Customs Law: goods under temporary importation may not be transferred or sold within national territory. A bill of sale signed at the dock in Cabo for a boat under an active TIP is not a legal Mexican sale — it’s a customs violation that puts the buyer’s new asset at risk of seizure.

To buy the boat legally, one of two things has to happen first:

• The seller’s TIP is formally canceled and the boat exits Mexico (a real exit, provable — see the enforcement section below), with the sale closing outside Mexican territory; or
• The boat is permanently imported into Mexico via a customs entry (pedimento), with import duty and 16% VAT (IVA) paid — the boat becomes Mexican-flagged and can be sold domestically like any other asset. Budget seriously for this path: duty, IVA, and broker fees together run on the order of 30% of the vessel’s value.

4. The five laws that govern the transaction

Five overlapping legal structures apply to a foreign-flagged boat changing hands in or around Mexico. Cite-checking these matters, because a lot of what circulates on cruising forums (and in broker listings) is wrong.

• Customs Law (Ley Aduanera), Article 106, fraction V, inciso (a).The primary authority for TIPs — re-lettered from the former inciso (c) by the reform decree published in the DOF on November 19, 2025. It authorizes temporary importation of recreational and sports vessels over 4.5 m for up to 5 years(down from 10; effective April 1, 2026, with pre-reform TIPs keeping their original 10-year terms), extendable once for an equal period with customs-authority authorization and justified cause. The no-transfer, no-sale rule for goods under the temporary regime is Article 105 of the same law: “La propiedad o el uso de las mercancías destinadas al régimen de importación temporal no podrá ser objeto de transferencia o enajenación.” Full text: Ley Aduanera (Cámara de Diputados, PDF).
• Regulations of the Customs Law (Reglamento de la Ley Aduanera), Article 161.The operational “how-to”: the vessel TIP is filed by the owner — or by the captain or a representative in the owner’s name — with documentary proof of ownership (tax invoice or equivalent, charter contract, title, or certificate of registry). A permit that doesn’t match the owner is a defect customs can act on. Reformed February 23, 2026 (in force February 24, 2026), adding a SAT-authorized digital seal for customs filings and moving operational supervision to ANAM. Full text: Reglamento de la Ley Aduanera (Cámara de Diputados, PDF).
• Law of Navigation and Maritime Commerce (Ley de Navegación y Comercio Marítimos), Articles 10, 42, and 50.Governs the vessel’s physical movements — and runs on the vessel’s registration, not its customs permit (Article 10: the certificate of registry stays aboard as the vessel’s proof of nationality). Under Article 50, a foreign pleasure vessel registers its arrival with the Port Captain at its first Mexican port; a formal departure clearance (despacho de altura, colloquially the Zarpe) is required for open-ocean navigation — including the exit voyage that closes out a TIP — while coastal movement is logged at authorized marinas. Chartering or carrying paying passengers requires a port-captaincy permit (Article 42). Full text: Ley de Navegación y Comercio Marítimos (Cámara de Diputados, PDF).
• General Foreign Trade Rules (Reglas Generales de Comercio Exterior — RGCE), Rule 4.2.5.The SAT’s operational rule for recreational-vessel TIPs, administered by Banjercito through CIITEV modules. The 2026 rules confirm the 5-year term, allow a replacement permit to be requested up to 45 days before expiry, and bar stacking: a new permit issued while a prior one exists runs only for the time remaining on the old one, which is canceled on issuance. Critically for buyers, the rule’s relief procedure for expired or irregular TIPs is available only if the vessel has not changed owners since it entered Mexico. Published in the DOF on December 27, 2025; full text at the SAT (PDF).
• The TIP fee — set in Rule 4.2.5 itself. Paid to Banjercito, dollar-denominated: US$51 plus IVA at a CIITEV module or Mexican consulate, US$45 plus IVA online — one fee for the full permit term. Trivial money; the point is that the permit is cheap and skipping it is not. Details: ANAM — permiso de importación temporal de embarcaciones.

5. Significant changes in 2026

For years the TIP regime was loosely policed, and “paper exits” were common. That era is over. Three changes matter to you as a buyer:

• The November 19, 2025 Customs Law decree.TIP terms cut from 10 years to 5 (effective April 1, 2026; existing permits keep their original terms), one extension maximum, and sharply higher penalties — fines for certain aggravated infractions now reach 250–300% of the goods’ commercial value, up from 70–100%. Long-stay boats that used to coast on a decade-long permit now hit a compliance decision point twice as often — which is exactly when many of them get listed for sale.
• One hull, one permit — and no cleanup after a sale.Under RGCE Rule 4.2.5, permits can’t stack: a new permit issued while a prior one exists inherits the old clock and cancels the old permit. And the regularization procedure for an expired or irregular TIP is available only if the boat has not changed owners since it entered Mexico — buy a boat with an open TIP problem and the cleanup path closes behind you.
• Digitalized customs records.The February 2026 Reglamento reform mandates a SAT-authorized digital seal on customs information and puts ANAM in operational control. Combined with the marina entry/exit logs the navigation law already requires, the paper trail on a boat’s movements is now consistent, electronic, and checkable.

The practical effect: authorities now judge transactions on substance over form. Movement records, port-captaincy and marina documentation, Banjercito’s cancellation records, and the money trail all have to tell the same story — an “offshore” sale that doesn’t hold up against them gets reclassified.

6. The truth about “offshore closings”

Brokers in Mexico will often propose an “offshore closing” to deal with the no-sale-under-TIP rule. The label covers three very different transactions. Know which one you’re being offered:

• Fully compliant offshore sale.The boat’s TIP is properly closed out — vessel presented to Banjercito at the exit customs with the Port Captain’s stamped despacho de altura — the vessel physically departs Mexico, the closing is executed outside Mexican territory, and you take possession outside Mexico. You then re-register the boat in your name and bring it back in under a fresh TIP. Risk: low, when every step is documented.No transaction is “zero risk” — the paper trail is what protects you.
• “Technical” offshore sale.The boat motors out to log a Zarpe, papers are signed “offshore,” and it’s back in its slip days or hours later under a new TIP. Risk: high.The documentary trail — port-captaincy records, the marina entry/exit logs the navigation law requires, Banjercito’s permit records — exposes the pattern, and a transaction structured only to dodge Mexican VAT invites reclassification.
• Fictitious offshore sale.Paperwork claims an offshore closing, but the boat never left its slip and the seller’s TIP is still open. Risk: extreme.An unclosed TIP plus a purported transfer invites assessment of the 16% VAT, fines of 130–150% of the omitted taxes (250–300% of commercial value for aggravated infractions), and seizure of the vessel — and because ownership changed, the TIP can no longer be regularized. The boat is yours when all of that arrives.

The takeaway: legality is not decided by where the ink hits the paper. The transaction has to survive scrutiny of the boat’s actual movements, the port-authority record, and the flow of funds.

7. The buyer’s re-entry: registration before repatriation

Canceling the TIP and closing offshore solves the seller’s problem. Yours starts at the border — and it isn’t customs, it’s registration. Mexican port captains and marinas operate on the vessel’s flag-state registration certificate, and the sale you just completed typically invalidated the seller’s registration (USCG documentation, for one, is void once ownership transfers). A bill of sale may satisfy Banjercito for a TIP — the Customs Regulations accept a title document — but a bill of sale is a title instrument, not a navigation document. Without a valid certificate of registry in your name you cannot register an arrival with the capitanía, check into a marina, or obtain a despacho: the boat is effectively stateless until re-registered.

So close the sale at a foreign port, complete your flag-state registration there — check your registry’s transfer timeline; some offer provisional certificates, while USCG documentation can take weeks with no provisional option — and only then sail back into Mexico.

8. Buyer’s due-diligence checklist

• See the TIP before anything else.Confirm it’s active, matches the hull (HIN) and the seller’s name, and note its issue date — it tells you how the exit-and-close-out must be sequenced.
• Run the flag-state title work as usual.A US-flagged boat in Mexico still transfers under US rules: order the USCG abstract of title, check for mortgages and liens, use the flag state’s bill of sale. Mexico adds a customs layer; it doesn’t replace the title layer.
• Write the TIP mechanics into the purchase agreement.Closing contingent on: seller’s TIP formally canceled with Banjercito (the cancellation record delivered, with the stamped despacho de altura), closing executed outside Mexican territory (or a completed pedimento with VAT paid, if importing permanently). Funds stay in escrow until the customs side is proven, not promised.
• Use professionals licensed for this. A Mexican customs broker (agente aduanal) for the TIP cancellation or pedimento, and a maritime attorney for the closing structure. A yacht broker’s assurance that “we do offshore closings all the time” is not a legal opinion.
• Budget the real costs.Fuel and crew for a genuine exit voyage (San Diego and Ensenada-to-US runs are common from the Pacific side), foreign port fees, the new TIP (~US$51 + IVA), agent and attorney fees — or, on the permanent-import path, duty plus 16% VAT plus broker fees, totaling roughly 30% of the boat’s value.

9. Survey, closing, and your own new TIP

The physical transaction runs like any other boat purchase — written offer, deposit in escrow, survey and sea trial by a surveyor you choose, renegotiate or walk inside the acceptance period (our USA buying guide covers that sequence in detail, and it applies to a US-flagged boat wherever it floats). What changes in Mexico is the closing choreography:

1. Survey and sea trial in Mexico, before anyone commits to the exit voyage.
2. Seller obtains the despacho de altura (Zarpe), sails the boat out of Mexico, and closes out the TIP with Banjercito at the exit customs.
3. Closing and transfer of funds and title outside Mexican territory.
4. You complete flag-state registration in your name at the foreign closing port — before heading south, not after.
5. You obtain your own TIP from Banjercito (online 10–60 days before entry, or at a CIITEV module/consulate, in your name, against your new registration and ownership documents) before bringing the boat back into Mexican waters.
6. On re-entry, register arrival with the Port Captain at your first Mexican port.

If the boat will live in Mexico long-term, remember the clock: 5 years, one renewal, then export or permanent importation. Plan the boat’s future — and your own eventual resale — around it, because the next buyer will be reading a guide like this one.

Disclaimer

This information is provided for general educational purposes only and should not be considered legal, customs, or tax advice. Every vessel, ownership structure, flag state, and transaction is unique, and Mexican customs rules change annually. Buyers and sellers should obtain advice from qualified Mexican maritime attorneys, customs brokers, and tax professionals before completing a transaction involving a Temporary Import Permit or an international vessel transfer.