A shelter company in Mexico is your legal employer and importer of record. It runs payroll and IMSS, files customs entries under its own IMMEX program, keeps the accounting and tax filings, recruits and administers your workforce, and carries the permits. You keep production, quality, your equipment and your customers. The split is cleaner than most proposals make it sound, and it is worth seeing week by week.
We operate a shelter, so this is a description of our own job rather than a sales page. Most shelter content explains why the model exists. Almost none of it says what actually happens on a Tuesday, which is the part a plant manager needs before deciding who runs what.
(The word “turnkey” does a lot of work in this industry. Somebody still turns the key, logs the hours, files the entry and signs for the inventory. It is worth knowing which somebody.)
Who Does What
The division of labor is the whole product. Everything in the first column is the provider’s legal responsibility, not a favour, because the shelter is the entity on the filings.
| Function | The shelter | You |
|---|---|---|
| Employment | Legal employer, contracts, payroll, IMSS, INFONAVIT | Headcount plan, supervision, training content |
| Recruiting | Sourcing, screening, hiring paperwork | Final interviews and the skills bar |
| Customs | Importer of record, pedimentos, broker relationship, inventory control | Accurate part numbers, values and bills of material |
| Tax and accounting | Books, monthly filings, the maquiladora tax calculation | Your own group reporting |
| Facilities and EHS | Permits, safety programs, inspections | Process safety inside your operation |
| Production | Nothing | Everything: process, quality, output, equipment |
| Commercial | Nothing | Customers, pricing, contracts, IP |
Read the bottom two rows twice. A shelter does not make your product and does not sell it. If a proposal blurs that line, you are looking at contract manufacturing, which is a different model with different economics.
The Weekly Rhythm
Shelter arrangements run on a weekly clock, not a monthly one. The one shelter agreement that is public, filed with the SEC, sets the pattern plainly: labor and fringe benefits invoiced weekly on a pass-through basis based on hours paid, the administrative charge invoiced weekly on an hourly rate schedule, and payment terms of net seven days.
That same contract requires money up front: a pre-operation deposit and an initial payroll deposit, both due within ten days of signing, plus a severance fund equal to 10% of weekly payroll. The provider is paying your people before your invoice clears, so it asks you to fund the float. Every shelter does some version of this.
Practically, it means your Mexican operation has a cash cycle measured in days. Budget for the deposits at signature, not at ramp, and build the severance reserve into the model from the first hire rather than the first departure.
The Compliance Calendar Somebody Has to Keep
Most of a shelter’s real work is a calendar. Miss a date and the consequences are not a fine, they are a suspended program. Here is the recurring cycle behind an export plant in Mexico.
| Obligation | When | What happens if it slips |
|---|---|---|
| IMSS employer contributions | Monthly, by the 17th of the following month | Surcharges and an audit flag |
| INFONAVIT and retirement contributions | Every two months, by the 17th | Same, plus worker complaints |
| IMMEX annual foreign trade report (RAOCE) | By the last business day of May | Program suspended from 1 June |
| Maquiladora informative return | June | The tax protection behind the structure weakens |
| Profit sharing (PTU) | By the end of May | Labor claims, interest |
| Aguinaldo | Before 20 December | Fines per worker |
| Inventory control under Anexo 24 | Continuous | Certification and duty exposure |
The RAOCE deadline is the one that bites hardest. For 2026 it fell on 29 May, with suspension from 1 June and cancellation if not corrected by 31 August. The IMSS payment dates come from the 2026 contribution calendar, and the aguinaldo deadline is explained in our guide to Mexico’s 13th-month pay.
Where Shared Service Becomes Shared Risk
A shelter’s staff work across clients, which is exactly why it is cheaper than hiring your own. The same arrangement means your filings sit in somebody else’s queue, behind other plants with their own deadlines.
IVEMSA, a shelter operator, makes the point against its own industry: some shelters assign one HR representative to 300 or more employees across several client operations. That is a staffing ratio, not a service level, and it only shows up during a bad week.
So ask for names rather than departments: who files your customs entries, who answers an IMSS notice, who signs the annual report, and how many other plants each of them carries. The full set of checks is in our shelter company scorecard.
What a Shelter Will Not Do for You
The limits matter as much as the scope, and two of them are written into Mexican tax law rather than into the contract.
- Sell your product in Mexico. Goods made under a shelter cannot be sold domestically without an export pedimento, which is why Mexican market plans need their own entity.
- Own your machinery. Equipment stays yours, and cannot be sold to the provider before or during the arrangement.
- Run your process. Yield, scrap, takt time and quality stay on your side of the line.
- Make the tax question disappear. Income tax is still calculated and paid on your operation, as explained in our guide to permanent establishment risk under a shelter.
- Decide whether the model fits. That one is honest arithmetic, covered in when a shelter is the wrong choice.
How to Test the Scope in a Proposal
Scope is where quotes differ, and it is the reason two prices for “the same service” are never the same service. Five questions settle it before you compare a single number.
- Which roles are on your payroll in this plan? A customs analyst moved to your side makes any fee look smaller.
- Who is importer of record, and whose broker is it? The answer decides where customs liability sits.
- Who keeps the inventory control records, and can you see them live? Anexo 24 data is the first thing an auditor asks for.
- What is the response time on an IMSS or SAT notice? Put a number in the contract, not an adjective.
- What transfers to you on exit, and when? Records, people and machinery, in the sequence set out in our guide to moving to your own entity.
Once scope is identical on paper, pricing becomes comparable, and the method for that is in what a shelter actually costs in Mexico. Doing it the other way round is how plants end up with a cheap fee and an expensive year.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does a shelter company in Mexico actually do?
It acts as legal employer and importer of record: payroll, IMSS and INFONAVIT, recruiting, customs filings under its IMMEX program, inventory control, accounting and tax filings, permits and EHS. The client runs production, quality and commercial activity.
Who employs the workers in a shelter arrangement?
The shelter does. Workers are hired by the provider’s Mexican entity, which carries the labor obligations, while you direct the work and set the headcount.
How often does a shelter invoice?
Typically weekly, with labor billed as a pass-through on hours paid and the administrative fee billed alongside it. Deposits and a severance reserve are usually required at the start.
Does the shelter handle my customs filings?
Yes. It is the importer of record under its own IMMEX program and manages the customs broker, the pedimentos and the inventory control system. You supply accurate classifications, values and bills of material.
Can I use a shelter if I want to sell inside Mexico?
No. Products made under a shelter cannot be sold in Mexico without an export pedimento. Domestic sales require your own Mexican entity.
The honest way to compare providers is to compare scope first and price second. Tell us what you plan to build and we will map the split of responsibilities against your operation, free of charge, including the lines our own shelter program would own.
