New Mexico LLC taxes for owners abroad: gross receipts tax follows New Mexico business
A New Mexico LLC owned from abroad, with no customers, staff, property or services in New Mexico, owes New Mexico no tax and no yearly fee. New Mexico's Limited Liability Company Act has no annual report for LLCs.
Its gross receipts tax is real but narrow: it applies to business in New Mexico, or to remote sellers with US$100,000 or more of New Mexico receipts in the previous year. Partners, a corporate election or New Mexico income bring more paperwork.
Read a few guides on New Mexico LLC taxes and you'll be told your LLC "typically owes gross receipts tax". For a founder in Nairobi or Kraków selling to clients worldwide, that's wrong, and acting on it means registering for a tax you don't owe. New Mexico taxes business that happens in New Mexico. Here's how the Taxation and Revenue Department draws the line, and what does reach you.
Key takeaways
- Gross receipts tax covers selling, leasing or performing services in New Mexico, including services whose product is first used there.
- Without a physical presence, you're "engaging in business" only with US$100,000 or more of taxable New Mexico receipts in the previous calendar year.
- A single member LLC files no New Mexico income tax return. A multi-member LLC doing business in the state files Form PTE and withholds for owners abroad.
- Elect corporate tax and the LLC owes the US$50 franchise tax every year, even with no New Mexico business.
- A single owner abroad sends the IRS Form 5472 every April, income or not.
New Mexico gross receipts tax: what it actually reaches
New Mexico has no sales tax in the usual sense. It has a gross receipts tax on the business, which most businesses pass on to the buyer; if they do, it has to be shown separately on the invoice. The rate is a combined state, county and city rate set by location, and since July 2025 it changes only in July.
- Selling property in New Mexico
- Leasing or licensing property used in New Mexico
- Performing services in New Mexico
- Services done elsewhere whose product is first used in New Mexico
- Services done abroad for clients abroad
- Goods sold to buyers outside New Mexico
- Anything your LLC earns with no New Mexico customer or use
The Department's gross receipts overview sets out these rules and links its location rate map.
Gross receipts tax looks at where the sale or service lands, not where the LLC was formed.
Nexus test: do you have to register?
Anyone engaging in business in New Mexico has to register with the Department and get a Business Tax Identification Number (BTIN), free of charge. For a business with no physical presence, the Department sets a dollar line.
Marketplace sellers and providers count toward the same US$100,000 since 1 July 2019. The Department's own examples of physical presence don't mention a registered agent, and it doesn't address the "formed here, nothing else" case in so many words; our reading is that an agent address alone isn't nexus.
No presence and under US$100,000 of New Mexico receipts: no BTIN, no gross receipts returns.
New Mexico income tax returns: one owner versus several
New Mexico follows the federal classification, and its pass-through rules treat the two shapes of LLC very differently.
| Your LLC | New Mexico return | For owners abroad |
|---|---|---|
| One owner, default | None: disregarded LLCs are left out of the pass-through rules | Personal New Mexico tax only on New Mexico income |
| Several owners, default | Form PTE, when doing business in the state | The LLC withholds tax from each non-resident owner's share of New Mexico net income |
| Elected corporation | Form CIT-1, with the franchise tax | Corporate tax on New Mexico income, plus US$50 a year |
Since the 2023 tax year, withholding is reported on the PTE return itself, unless the entity elected to pay entity-level tax for that owner, as the Department's pass-through entity page explains.
One owner: no New Mexico return. Partners with New Mexico business: a PTE return and withholding.
The US$50 franchise tax: a trap in the corporate election
Some founders elect corporate tax for their LLC to use the US 21% rate or to look like a company to their home country. In New Mexico that election has a small, permanent cost.
Leave the default classification and the franchise tax never applies; the Department's corporate income and franchise tax overview covers who pays it. Our New Mexico annual fees page lists everything else that recurs, which isn't much.
The corporate election turns New Mexico's US$0 a year into US$50 plus a corporate return.
Federal duties for a foreign-owned New Mexico LLC
New Mexico's quiet treatment doesn't reach Washington. The IRS works from two questions.
For a single owner abroad, the yearly return is a pro forma Form 1120 with Form 5472 attached, due 15 April and sent by fax or post, never e-filed. It reports transactions between you and the LLC, money in and money out included (IRS instructions). Our Form 5472 guide shows the lines.
With partners, the LLC files Form 1065 by 15 March and, if it has US business income, withholds on foreign partners' shares at 37%, or 21% for corporate partners. That's separate from New Mexico's own withholding on New Mexico income. A tax treaty may lower federal tax; whether a state honours it is up to the state.
Zero New Mexico tax still leaves one IRS filing a year for a single foreign owner.
Your home tax: the part no US state decides
What to settle with your own tax office
When New Mexico and the IRS take nothing, the LLC's profit is usually taxed where you live, on your country's timing.
- Is a US LLC see-through to you, or a separate company?
- If it's a company, are its kept profits taxed under foreign company rules?
- Does running it from home make it resident at home?
New Mexico's appeal is low cost and short filings. It isn't a way to change where you pay income tax, and treating it as one tends to end badly.
Settle how your country treats a US LLC before choosing between default and corporate status.
Your New Mexico filings, from four facts
Filings this year
No annual report and no state fee for an LLC under default classification.
The default for one owner abroad: nothing to New Mexico, Form 5472 to the IRS.
New Mexico LLC tax questions, answered
Does a New Mexico LLC have to pay gross receipts tax?
Does a New Mexico LLC pay an annual fee?
Does a single member New Mexico LLC file a state tax return?
What happens with partners living abroad?
Do I need a BTIN to form the LLC?
Can people see my New Mexico LLC's owners?
What does keeping it running cost with you?
Changelog
- 13 November 2026: first published.
More reading: US LLC for non-residents, Form 5472 guide, New Mexico annual fees, New Mexico company search. A guide, not tax advice.
A New Mexico LLC, with nothing to renew at the state.
US$99 to start: New Mexico's US$50 at cost plus US$49 for us. Then US$69 a year for the registered agent.