On November 12th at his morning press conference, the President of the Republic, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, as well as the head of the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare, Luisa María Alcalde, announced the scope of the reform initiative to the labor scheme known as ‘outsourcing’.
This initiative includes modifications to the Federal Labor Law, the Social Security Law, the Law of the Institute of the National Housing Fund for Workers, the Federal Tax Code, the Income Tax Law and the Value Added Tax Law.
Principal changes
From the analysis carried out to the document which contains the initiative, we consider it important to highlight the following:
- The ‘outsourcing’ does not disappear.- The initiative contemplates the possibility that a contractor provides specialized services with its workers to another individual or legal entity.
- MLSW must authorize the ‘outsourcing’ .- A new figure is created through which the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare will authorize or revoke contractors the possibility of providing specialized services. Said authorization must be renewed every three years.
- ‘Outsourcing’ Register .- Through provisions that the MLSW will have to issue, a public register will be created and will be available on the internet, where the registers referred to in the previous point will be located.
- Fines for contracting without authorization.- In the case of contracting specialized services without the aforementioned authorization from the MLSW, both parties may be sanctioned up to more than 4 million pesos.
- Report to the IMSS.- It is established in the Social Security Law that on a quarterly basis, the service provider must report on the contracts it has entered into and attach the authorization from the MLSW.
- Joint verifications by IMSS and MLSW.- It is stated that these authorities must enter into collaboration agreements and thus carry out joint verifications.
- Report to the Infonavit.- The contractor is required to report quarterly to the Infonavit on aspects of the contract for the provision of specialized services.
- Non-deductibility.- In those cases where there is no authorization from the MLSW or the other legal requirements are not complied with, in addition to the aforementioned penalties, the operation will not be deductible or creditable for tax purposes.
- Crime of tax fraud.- It is contemplated in the Tax Code of the Federation that it will be classified as a crime of tax fraud when the requirements imposed on the figure are not complied with.
Legislative process
This initiative must follow its corresponding legislative process to enter into force, the President of the Republic will turn it over to the Chamber of Deputies for its analysis, discussion and voting, to later go to the Senate of the Republic for the same purposes and return to the Executive Branch for its promulgation and publication.
Preventive care in companies
With the foregoing, the importance of companies in Mexico reviewing their labor schemes and diagnosing their levels of compliance in order to comply with the next guidelines that will be implemented if this initiative is approved becomes more relevanr, for which, the team of Vega, Guerrero & Asociados is qualified to carry out the corresponding audits and implement the necessary changes to avoid any type of sanction by the authorities.
