In 2021 the Mexican Congress approved the proposed amendments on outsourcing and insourcing activities.
A brief summary of the relevant provisions of these new laws can be found below:
As expected, the general outsourcing or insourcing of personnel is now prohibited,
however, such activities are still permitted as long as the services provided by the third party
are of a specialized nature or for a specific project. Subcontracting personnel is prohibited,
with subcontracting of personnel being understood as a provision of services in which an entity
or individual provides or makes available its own employees to another entity for said entity’s benefit.
Specialized services and project-based personnel service providers will need to be registered
with the labor authorities (the registration will be valid for three years before it must be renewed).
Note that shared services (e.g., management, accounting, legal, IT, logistics, etc.) among corporate groups
will be considered specialized services as long as they are not part of the core business of the party benefitting from them.
Joint liability for labor and tax obligations is established for any person who engages in
outsourcing/insourcing activities and the party providing such services.
Any parties that are found in violation of these new laws shall also be subject to monetary fines and, potentially, criminal liability.
Any payments made for unauthorized outsourcing/insourcing services shall be deemed non-deductible for Mexican income tax purposes and any value added tax associated with such payments will not qualify for a credit.
All these amendments were published in the Official Gazette of the Federation on April 23th, 2021. Nowadays, this labor act is in full force and effect.