No idea how to answer this question…

Earning money within Mexico without a residency visa is a big no-no. She is obviously not paying taxes however she should at least get a "Permanent Residency Visa" which allows her to earn money within Mexico. They are starting to crack down on all this sort of stuff and it would be regretful for her to get her property seized or worse. She will need it to ever sell the properties and more than likely she will need an RFC to pay her property taxes, Simipa, etc in the future.

No, a tourist can't get an RFC number.
As far as her rentals go, if she is getting guests through Airbnb or VRBO, those rental platform are now withholding 50% of the GST (16% is charged to guests) and income tax (and occupancy tax for the states which have it, not all do). If a home owner doesn't provide the listing service with an RFC, they are having 20% income tax (that is deducted from a host's payout for a booking) withheld, as opposed to 4% if an RFC is provided. The listing platform remits the withheld amounts to SAT.

I'm not sure whether Airbnb, etc, withholds and remits the entire 16% IVA if the host doesn't provide an RFC number. If you do provide one, the 8% that is paid out to hosts has to be submitted to SAT by the host. So if your friend isn't doing that, she is going to eventually get in a lot of trouble.

As others have said, she is doing something completely illegal- you can't just run a business in a foreign country as someone who enters as a tourist. That is true of most countries, not just Mexico.
She runs the risk of having her property confiscated and being deported. She needs to straighten out her affairs ASAP.

Carry Bean wrote:She tried to get permanente but was told unless Mexico was her main place of residency she couldn’t have it. Of course, that probably depends on whom you talk to when applying.

She doesn't need permanente. She can run a business here on a temporary residency with permission to earn money in Mexico. She really needs to see a lawyer conversant in immigration and tax law.

If she doesn't have an RFC then the property manager could not be paying income taxes for her. Perhaps she is thinking about property taxes? Or perhaps the property manager is keeping the "tax" monies......

CanuckBob wrote:If she doesn't have an RFC then the property manager could not be paying income taxes for her. Perhaps she is thinking about property taxes? Or perhaps the property manager is keeping the "tax" monies......

Not income tax, IVA, or occupancy tax.

However, if she is doing short term rentals, and is advertising online, if the listing is possibly under the property manager's name and account, then that's the only way he could legally be paying those taxes.