Shelter Company in Mexico: Cost, Rules and When It Pays Off

A shelter company is the fastest legal way to run your own production in Mexico without forming a Mexican company, since you bring the machines while the shelter is the employer and importer. The catch is the fee. Few providers publish it, and below roughly 25 workers we'd buy the parts instead.

How a shelter works

A shelter company is the Mexican legal entity, the holder of the IMMEX program (Mexico's temporary import program) and the employer of record, while you supply equipment, materials and production know-how. The shelter runs payroll, customs, taxes and permits. Mexican law calls it an albergue (shelter) program. That's the mechanism.

What 11 shelter providers publish about price

We checked 11 provider websites on 3 Nov 2026 and list only what each site states.

As of 3 Nov 2026, one of the 11 publishes a fee number, two publish only the billing basis and eight publish nothing on price. Only TACNA states a size range. Fees depend on headcount and services, so silence isn't a red flag, but it means you can't compare shelters from their websites.

What a shelter costs: 50 and 200 workers

Numbers here are ours unless marked. Labor rates are Tetakawi's fully loaded estimates for Q3 2026, US$4.33 per hour unskilled and US$5.78 semi-skilled at MXN 17.5 per dollar (provider figures, not audited). We assume 48 paid hours a week, or 2,496 hours a year.

Formulas: labor = workers × 2,496 × rate. Per-hour fee = workers × 2,496 × fee. Per-head fee = workers × monthly fee × 12.

The per-head range comes from a third-party cost compilation by Calder & Vale (accessed 3 Nov 2026), not from any provider's price list. The gap is the finding. For the same plant the per-hour range runs two to three times the per-head one, so we'd ask every shortlisted shelter to quote both bases in writing.

The shelter pays your income tax: 30% of the higher of 6.9% of your assets in Mexico or 6.5% of operating costs. Suppose the 50-worker plant runs on a hypothetical US$2M of machinery and inventory. The asset test gives 138,000 and the cost test 69,195 (labor at US$5.78 plus a US$2.75 fee), so tax comes to about US$41,400 a year. The US$2.75 is simply the midpoint of Prince's published US$1.50 to 4 range. It follows your machines, not your headcount.

The 2026–2030 rule changes that move the numbers

Official rules as of 3 Nov 2026 (accessed 3 Nov 2026)

• IMMEX Decree: art. 3 fr. IV defines albergue; art. 4 allows 18 months for materials; arts. 11 and 24 require exports above US$500,000 or 10% of sales; art. 25: annual report by the last business day of May.
• LISR arts. 183 and 183-Bis (DOF 9 Dec 2019): no time limit since 1 Jan 2020; base is the higher of 6.9% of assets or 6.5% of costs; a breach unfixed after 30 days creates a permanent establishment.
• LIVA art. 28-A, RGCE 2026: VAT certification needs 10 workers registered with IMSS, the social security institute (rule 7.1.2); SAT silence after 60 days is a denial (7.1.6); former shelter clients can use that history (7.1.8); control system in Annex 30.
• LFT arts. 12 to 15 (DOF 23 Apr 2021): personnel subcontracting banned, REPSE registration for specialized services. The STPS REPSE guide doesn't mention shelters.
• Minimum wage 2026 (DOF 9 Dec 2025): MXN 315.04 per day, MXN 440.87 in the border zone.
• Work week (DOF 1 May 2026): 48 hours in 2026, 40 in 2030, no pay cut.
• Enforcement: the DOF notice of 29 Sep 2026 cancelled 189 IMMEX programs.

Last checked: 3 Nov 2026.

The 40-hour week rewrites contracts. Weekly pay can't fall, so each paid hour costs 20% more by 2030. A per-hour fee moves the other way: 2,496 hours become 2,080, and the fee shrinks 16.7% unless the provider reprices, while a per-employee fee doesn't move. And the cancellations show whose paperwork your imports depend on.

Shelter, own entity or contract manufacturer

The 10-worker line decides a lot. Without VAT certification, an own IMMEX company pays 16% VAT up front on temporary imports, so below 10 workers you either fund that VAT in cash or stay under a shelter's certification.

Your own entity pays off when in-house admin and compliance, plus set-up cost spread over the years you stay, cost less than the fee: US$96k to 499k a year at 50 workers. We found no public figure for an in-house team, so we don't guess. Prodensa states many clients move to their own entity after 3 to 5 years.

When buying parts is the better answer

If you don't need your own equipment in Mexico and the process is standard machining, stamping, welding or molding, a contract manufacturer takes the entity, the IMMEX program and the payroll off your desk. You give up process control. Under TACNA's 25-employee floor, we'd get quotes first.

As of 3 Nov 2026 our directory lists more than 500 Mexican manufacturers, including more than 200 machining and CNC shops, about 200 in metal forming and more than 100 in welding and joining. Machining shops cluster where shelter campuses are: Baja California, Chihuahua, Nuevo León, Querétaro, Jalisco and Sonora, plus forming in Nuevo León. A listing isn't a check: use the vetting checklist before a deposit.

Questions to ask a shelter provider

• Is the fee per labor hour or per employee, which costs are pass-through, and how is it repriced as the week falls to 40 hours?
• Was the IMMEX annual report filed by the May deadline, with proof?
• Is the company active in the Padrón de Importadores (Mexico's importer registry), and what is its VAT certification rating?
• How are the workers employed, and is the company REPSE-registered?
• What are the exit terms for equipment and employees?

FAQ

Is there still a four-year tax holiday for shelters?

No. LISR art. 183 limited shelter treatment to four years until the reform of 9 Dec 2019 removed the limit from 1 Jan 2020. Some provider websites still describe the pre-2020 four-year limit. Today there's no end date.

Do I need REPSE?

The official guidance doesn't say. A shelter's workers make your core product, which is what the 2021 reform restricts, so get a written opinion from Mexican labor counsel before you sign.

Before you sign for a plant

Price the shop option first. If a Mexican shop could make the part, send us the drawing and annual quantity through the price check, and we'll compare Mexican shop quotes before you commit to a plant.

General information, not legal or tax advice.