REPSE fines in 2026: violations, liability and amounts

The fine for engaging in prohibited subcontracting, or for providing subcontracting services without registration, ranges from 2,000 to 50,000 times the UMA. With the 2026 UMA, that is MXN 234,620 to MXN 5,865,500. The same sanction applies to whoever benefits from those services: the client.

The main sanction: LFT article 1004-C

Article 1004-C of the Federal Labor Law (Ley Federal del Trabajo, LFT; official text, in Spanish) sets a fine of 2,000 to 50,000 UMA for anyone who engages in subcontracting of personnel (prohibited by article 12) and for anyone who provides subcontracting services without the registration required by articles 14 and 15. Its second paragraph extends the same sanction to individuals or companies that benefit from subcontracting carried out in breach of the law. Anyone who benefits from subcontracting that breaches articles 12 to 15 faces the same range of fines as whoever provides it.

Refusing an inspection: LFT article 1004-A

There is a less familiar sanction, and a consequence that weighs more than the fine. Article 1004-A of the LFT fines an employer that does not allow an inspection 250 to 5,000 UMA, and adds the part that really matters: the employer is summoned to produce all the requested information, with the warning that if it does not, it will be presumed not to have that information. A legal presumption against you turns every document you fail to produce into a presumed breach. This is the strongest argument for a compliance file that already exists before the visit: what you hand over is not presumed missing.

In pesos, with the 2026 UMA

The UMA (Unidad de Medida y Actualización, Mexico's reference unit for fines) is updated every year and takes effect on February 1, so these peso amounts change annually; the range in UMA is what the law sets. The authority determines the specific amount within the range case by case.

The tax consequences weigh more than the fine

• Loss of the deduction and of the VAT credit. Article 15-D of the Federal Tax Code (Código Fiscal de la Federación, CFF; official text, in Spanish) denies tax effects to payments for subcontracting of personnel and to specialized services that fail to meet the requirements. In a service relationship worth several million pesos a year, the lost deduction quickly exceeds any fine.
• Incomplete file, same result. Even with a registered provider, a client that does not gather the documents that article 27, section V of the Income Tax Law (Ley del Impuesto sobre la Renta, LISR) calls for (verifying the registration when paying, and obtaining the payroll CFDI, the proof that withholdings were paid over and the proof of the payments to the IMSS and Infonavit) puts its Mexican income-tax deduction at risk. That file is the subject of the guide to supporting records.
• Joint and several liability. If the provider fails to meet its IMSS or Infonavit obligations, the client is jointly and severally liable for the workers used in the service (art. 15 A of the Social Security Law, Ley del Seguro Social, LSS; art. 29 Bis of the Infonavit Law). This is not a fine: it means taking on someone else's social-security debts.

The registration can also be lost

The Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare (Secretaría del Trabajo y Previsión Social, STPS) can refuse a registration or its renewal when the company is not up to date with the SAT, IMSS and Infonavit, fails to meet the requirements of the REPSE Acuerdo or submits false information. It can also cancel a registration already granted, at any time, on any of the eleven grounds in article 15 (artículo décimo quinto) of the Acuerdo (the original seven and four added by the 2023 amendment). Among them: providing services that are not registered or that form part of the client's corporate purpose or main activity, having debts under final tax or social-security assessments (créditos firmes) with those same authorities, no longer meeting the requirements on which the registration was granted, breaching the LFT on subcontracting, not responding to an STPS request, not renewing within the deadline, data or documents supplied during an inspection visit that differ from those filed on the platform, providing false information or forged documents during a visit, and having workers not enrolled with the IMSS or irregularities in their wages or in the service contract. Cancellation immediately puts every active contract of that provider into the scenarios above, for the provider and for its clients. That is why verification is done per payment and not per contract.

The criminal scenario: aggravated tax fraud

Since the 2021 reform, using simulated schemes for the provision of specialized services, or engaging in the subcontracting of personnel prohibited by article 15-D, aggravates the offense of tax fraud (defraudación fiscal calificada; CFF article 108, item i, in Spanish). The base penalty depends on the amount defrauded (up to three to nine years in prison in the highest bracket) and, because the offense is aggravated, that penalty is increased by half. This is not one more administrative fine: it is the scenario that turns a paper scheme into a criminal matter for both parties.

How the authority arrives: visits and inspections

The STPS inspection protocol on subcontracting (September 2025) provides for three oversight actions: verification visits (visitas de constatación) to those who apply for or already hold a REPSE registration (so the visit can come before the registration is granted), subcontracting inspections of providers and of client companies, and a cross-cutting approach that adds subcontracting indicators to any ordinary labor inspection. Extraordinary inspections take place without prior notice (ordinary ones come with a summons only 24 hours ahead), and the list of requested information is handed over when the visit starts: the file has to exist beforehand, not be put together when the inspector is already at reception. The main activity is assessed at the workplace, with walkthroughs and worker interviews, not only on paper. A finding opens the administrative sanction procedure and, in parallel, can open the registration-cancellation procedure: answering one does not close the other. The full detail (what they ask for at the door, the interviews and the five types of violation) is in the inspection guide.

How the risk is shared