How to verify a provider's REPSE registration in Mexico, step by step
You can check a registration free of charge in the public registry kept by Mexico's Ministry of Labor (STPS) at repse.stps.gob.mx (in Spanish). You search by REPSE registration number (folio), Mexican tax ID (RFC) or registered legal name, and the result shows the expiry date and the registered activities. You do not need an account or an e.firma (Mexico's advanced electronic signature) to search.
Do it here: the RepseShield verification tool queries the official registry live and tells you whether the registration is current, until when, and for which activities, with the date of the lookup for your compliance file.
Why it matters: article 27, section V of the Income Tax Law (Ley del Impuesto sobre la Renta, LISR, in Spanish) requires the client to verify that the contractor holds a registration when each payment is made, not just once when the contract is signed. A registration can be cancelled at any time.
The steps
- Go to repse.stps.gob.mx (in Spanish). The home page has two buttons: "Iniciar" (Start), for companies that are going to register, which requires an e.firma, and "Consultar Padrón" (Search the registry). Use the second one.
- Search for the provider. The search accepts the REPSE registration number (folio), the RFC or the registered legal name. The legal name must match the registered one; if the company does not appear on the first try, use the RFC, which has no spelling variants.
- Select the company and click "Buscar" (Search). The portal opens the registration record.
What each field in the record means
| Field | What it is and what to check |
|---|---|
| REPSE registration number (Folio REPSE) | The registration number. Together with the folio of each specialized activity, it must appear in the provider's contracts (REPSE Acuerdo, article 18); many clients also ask for it to be quoted on the invoice. |
| Name or registered legal name (Nombre o razón social) | It must match the company that invoices you. If the invoice comes from a legal name other than the registered one, the registration does not cover it. |
| State / Municipality (Entidad / Municipio) | The address registered with the STPS. |
| Registration notice and date (Aviso de registro) | The notice number issued by the STPS and its date. A recent notice may reflect a renewal or an update of the registration. The notice document carries a QR code: the STPS inspection protocol instructs its inspectors to check authenticity by scanning it, so scanning the QR code on the PDF the provider gave you, before you accept it, is the same check the authority will make. |
| Registration expiry (Vigencia del registro) | The date it expires. A registration lasts three years and must be renewed; an expired registration is the same as having no registration. |
| Registered services (Servicios registrados) | The registered activities, one by one. The service the provider delivers to you must be on this list: a registration for cleaning does not cover security services. |
How to read the result
A search can end in six ways, and not all of them say anything about the provider's registration. Before drawing a conclusion, identify which one you are looking at:
| Result | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| No matching record found | The search found nothing for what you typed. This is not a finding about the provider: a misspelled or abbreviated legal name gives the same result as a company with no registration. | Try the RFC and the REPSE registration number, and ask the provider for its registration notice so you can search for exactly what it says. |
| Several matches | More than one company has a similar name. | Choose the one that matches your provider's RFC before reading the expiry date. |
| Current registration | The registry shows a registration whose expiry date is in the future. | Confirm that the legal name, the RFC and the registered activities correspond to your provider and to the contracted service, and keep the dated lookup. |
| Current, with the renewal window open or already closed | The registration is still current, but its expiry is close: either the provider can already apply for renewal, or the window for applying has already closed. | Ask for the filing acknowledgement of its renewal application. The renewal guide explains the window. |
| Expired, or no current registration | The registry found the company and shows that its registration period has ended, or states expressly that it has no current registration. | This is the only result that says something about the registration. Read the next section before you pay. |
| Lookup unavailable | The STPS portal did not respond or limited the number of searches. There is no result about the provider. | Try again later. A lookup that did not complete proves nothing, either way. |
If the registration has expired or the registry says there is no current registration
Do not pay until you have resolved it. Ask the provider for its registration or renewal notice, and search again with the RFC and the folio shown on it. If the registry confirms that there is no current registration, the consequences fall on both sides:
- The payment is no longer deductible for Mexican income tax and the Mexican VAT (IVA) can no longer be credited, under article 15-D of the Federal Tax Code (Código Fiscal de la Federación, CFF, in Spanish).
- Whoever benefits from subcontracting without a registration can be fined the same as the provider: 2,000 to 50,000 UMA (the Mexican unit of measure used for fines) under article 1004-C of the Federal Labor Law (Ley Federal del Trabajo, LFT, in Spanish). The amounts are in the penalties guide.
- If the provider also fails to meet its obligations to the IMSS (the Mexican Social Security Institute) or Infonavit (the workers' housing fund), you are jointly and severally liable for its workers (Social Security Law, LSS, art. 15 A; Infonavit Law, art. 29 Bis).
A case the law does not settle expressly: the registration has expired, but the provider filed its renewal within the window and the STPS has not yet answered. Article 27, section V of the LISR only says that the contractor must "cuente con el registro" (hold the registration) when the payment is made. Until a published criterion exists, keep the filing acknowledgement of the renewal application together with your lookup.
Verification applies to each payment, not to the contract
This is the most expensive mistake in practice. The registry record reflects today's status: the STPS can cancel a registration at any time, for example for debts under final assessments (créditos firmes) owed to the SAT (the Mexican tax authority), the IMSS or Infonavit. Checking once a year leaves months of payments unverified. The practical approach is to keep dated evidence of the lookup, in every payment cycle, together with the rest of the deduction file.