Risk bulletin

REPSE: what happens when your provider’s registration expires or is canceled

The specialized services registration must be renewed every three years and can be canceled at any time. The consequences also reach the client.

LEXURE Employment Practice Team 4 min read Regulatory status verified in 2026

Many com­pa­nies ver­i­fied the reg­is­tra­tion of their spe­cial­ized ser­vice providers when they hired them and never checked it again. The reg­is­tra­tion, how­ever, has a fixed term and can be lost, and what counts is that the provider holds a valid reg­is­tra­tion on the day it ren­ders the ser­vice.

What the law requires

Under Arti­cles 12 and 13 of the Fed­eral Labor Law (Ley Fed­eral del Tra­bajo), the sub­con­tract­ing of per­son­nel is pro­hib­ited; only the sub­con­tract­ing of spe­cial­ized ser­vices or works that are not part of the client’s cor­po­rate pur­pose or pre­dom­i­nant eco­nomic activ­ity is per­mit­ted, pro­vided the con­trac­tor is reg­is­tered. Reg­is­tra­tion with the Min­istry of Labor and Social Wel­fare (STPS) requires proof that the con­trac­tor is cur­rent on its tax and social secu­rity obli­ga­tions, must be renewed every three years, and may be denied or can­celed by the Min­istry at any time for anyone who fails to meet the require­ments (Arti­cle 15). The appli­ca­tion must be resolved within twenty days; if there is no response, the appli­cant may require the author­ity to act and, if no notice is served within three days, the reg­is­tra­tion is deemed granted.

Within a cor­po­rate group, com­ple­men­tary or shared ser­vices between com­pa­nies of the same group are also con­sid­ered spe­cial­ized, pro­vided they are not part of the cor­po­rate pur­pose or the pre­dom­i­nant activ­ity of the com­pany receiv­ing them (Arti­cle 13). In that case the provider also needs the reg­is­tra­tion, and its expi­ra­tion affects every com­pany in the group that receives the ser­vice.

What to do and by when

  1. If you are the provider, sched­ule the renewal well ahead of the three-year mark and stay cur­rent on your tax and social secu­rity obli­ga­tions.
  2. If you are the client, verify each provider’s valid reg­is­tra­tion in the public reg­istry before every pay­ment, not only at the time of hiring.
  3. Include in your con­tracts the provider’s obli­ga­tion to report imme­di­ately any can­cel­la­tion or denial of renewal, and your right to ter­mi­nate with­out lia­bil­ity.
  4. Keep dated evi­dence of each check of the reg­istry.
  5. If your com­pany pro­vides ser­vices within its own group, include those rela­tion­ships in the same valid­ity con­trol.

Recommendations to mitigate risk

Pro­vid­ing ser­vices with­out reg­is­tra­tion, and ben­e­fit­ing from them, is pun­ish­able by a fine of 2,000 to 50,000 Units of Mea­sure­ment and Update, or UMA (MXN 234,620 to MXN 5,865,500), for both the provider and the client (Arti­cle 1004-C). Under Arti­cle 15-D of the Fed­eral Tax Code (Código Fiscal de la Fed­eración), pay­ments for ser­vices from an unreg­is­tered con­trac­tor are not deductible, and the value added tax on them cannot be cred­ited. In addi­tion, under Arti­cle 14 of the Fed­eral Labor Law and Arti­cle 15 A of the Social Secu­rity Law (Ley del Seguro Social), the client is jointly and sev­er­ally liable to the work­ers used when the con­trac­tor fails to meet its labor and social secu­rity obli­ga­tions.

How we approach it at LEXURE

We review your spe­cial­ized ser­vices con­tracts, set up peri­odic checks of the reg­istry, and manage the renewal when your com­pany is the provider.

If you do not know when your spe­cial­ized providers’ reg­is­tra­tions expire, sched­ule a diag­nos­tic meet­ing with us.

Schedule a diagnostic meeting See our service lines

Legal basis

  1. Federal Labor Law, Articles 12, 13, 14, 15, and 1004-C. Current text (opens in a new tab)
  2. Federal Tax Code, Article 15-D. Current text (opens in a new tab)
  3. Social Security Law, Article 15 A. Current text (opens in a new tab)
  4. 2026 value of the Unit of Measurement and Update, National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI). Official publication (opens in a new tab)

This note is for information only and describes the law in force on the verification date. It is not legal advice on a specific matter. It is a translation of the Spanish original: Mexican law is published in Spanish, and the official Spanish texts prevail.

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