Owners of property in Mexico today pay a property tax called impuesto predial.

According to Agustín Cue Cánovas's Historia Social y Económica de México, in the colonial era property taxes were not a source of royal income. They were seemingly introduced some time between independence and 1844, when impuestos sobre propiedades contributed something under a million pesos to government income.

When was the property tax introduced and who paid?


In 1829, while Vicente Guerrero was president, the Secretary of the Treasury (or Finance Minister), Lorenzo de Lavala implemented new tariffs, a graduated income tax, and property taxes to try to generate revenue for what was essentially a bankrupt government.

source: Concise Encyclopedia of Mexico, By Michael Werner

Another source, The Essential History of Mexico: From Pre-Conquest to Present By Philip Russell, specifies that this tax was

a 10 percent tax on rent for property worth more than $500. The elite considered the measure dangerous populism.

Both the graduated income tax and the property tax were mainly levied against the wealthy, as stated above, 'the elite'. Note Guerreros' presidency did not last the year, and Lorenzo de Lavala fled to the United States in self-exile.

  • Good stuff. I see now that Harold Sims called it "a 10 percent levy on the owners of rural and urban estates, to be paid quarterly". – Aaron Brick Dec 31 '17 at 5:03

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