Payroll Receipt Mexico (Recibo de Nómina)

A Payroll Receipt Mexico (Recibo de Nómina) is the formal document issued by a Mexican employer to each worker at the end of every pay period, documenting all salary perceptions (percepciones) and deductions (deducciones) to arrive at the net pay (neto a pagar) owed to the worker, as mandated by Article 132, Fraction VII of the Ley Federal del Trabajo (LFT), published in the Diario Oficial de la Federación on 1 April 1970, and Article 99, Fraction III of the Ley del Impuesto sobre la Renta (LISR), published in the DOF on 11 December 2013. The Recibo de Nómina serves simultaneously as a labour law compliance document, a fiscal voucher for ISR withholding purposes, and an IMSS and INFONAVIT contribution record.

Since 1 January 2017, the Mexican payroll receipt has been integrated into the Comprobante Fiscal Digital por Internet (CFDI) system administered by the Servicio de Administración Tributaria (SAT). Under the SAT's Complemento de Nómina version 1.2 (Complemento de Nómina 1.2, technical specification published in the DOF on 17 October 2014 and updated through 2022) and the transition to CFDI 4.0 (effective 1 January 2023 under Resolución Miscelánea Fiscal 2023), every payroll payment must be accompanied by a digital fiscal receipt (CFDI de nómina) stamped by the SAT through an authorized stamp provider (Proveedor Autorizado de Certificación — PAC). Employers who fail to issue CFDI de nómina for each salary payment commit a fiscal infraction under Article 81 of the Código Fiscal de la Federación (CFF) and face fines under Article 82 CFF, plus the risk of disallowance of the salary expense deduction in the employer's annual ISR return.

The Recibo de Nómina must disclose all worker perceptions — salary and wages (salario base), overtime pay (tiempo extraordinario calculated under Articles 66–68 LFT), vacation premium (prima vacacional under Article 80 LFT), Christmas bonus (aguinaldo under Article 87 LFT), profit sharing (PTU under Articles 117–131 LFT), and any other recurring or non-recurring compensation — categorized using the SAT's official perception catalog codes (catálogo de percepciones del SAT) specified in the CFDI Nómina complemento. ISR-exempt perceptions — overtime up to 5 times the minimum wage per week under Article 93 LISR, vacation premium up to 15 days minimum wage per year, aguinaldo up to 30 days minimum wage, and PTU up to 15 days minimum wage — must be separately identified to correctly calculate the ISR withholding base.

Deductions disclosed on the Recibo de Nómina include: ISR (Impuesto sobre la Renta) withheld under Article 96 LISR using the monthly or annual withholding tables published by the SAT; IMSS worker quota (cuota obrera IMSS) calculated under Articles 25 and 106 of the Ley del Seguro Social on the worker's Salario Diario de Cotización (SDC) — branches include enfermedad y maternidad (worker share), retiro/cesantía/vejez (RCV worker share 1.125% of SDC), and invalidez y vida (worker share 0.625% of SDC); INFONAVIT worker contribution (subcuenta de vivienda), though INFONAVIT contributions are technically employer-funded (5% SDC) and only deducted from the worker's SDI for SDC calculation purposes; voluntary savings fund deductions (fondo de ahorro) where applicable; loan repayments (préstamos FONACOT or INFONAVIT Crédito); and salary deductions for unjustified absences under Article 110 LFT.

The Salario Mínimo General (SMG) set annually by the CONASAMI (Comisión Nacional de los Salarios Mínimos) is the floor salary that must appear in any Recibo de Nómina — for 2025 the SMG is $278.80 MXN per day in the general zone and $419.88 MXN per day in the Zona Libre de la Frontera Norte (ZLFN). Payroll receipts for workers earning the minimum wage in the ZLFN must use the elevated ZLFN rate for all calculations including SDC, overtime, and proportional benefits.

A Payroll Receipt Mexico is required to be issued by every Mexican employer to each registered worker at the end of every pay period — weekly, biweekly, or monthly — under Article 132, Fraction VII of the Ley Federal del Trabajo and Article 99, Fraction III of the LISR. The employer's obligation is absolute and cannot be waived by agreement: failure to issue the payroll receipt is an independent labour law infraction subject to STPS fines under Article 994 LFT.

The Recibo de Nómina is required in its CFDI 4.0 digital form (complemento de nómina CFDI) for all salary payments made by employers registered with the SAT. The SAT's transition to CFDI 4.0 effective 1 January 2023 means that all payroll receipts must include the full RFC and fiscal address of both the employer (emisor) and the worker (receptor), and must use the current catalog of perception and deduction codes updated by the SAT. Employers using outsourcing or insourcing arrangements regulated by the Decreto de reforma laboral en materia de subcontratación (published in the DOF on 23 April 2021) must issue payroll receipts in the name of the direct employer (empresa que paga el salario) — the prohibition on outsourced payroll structures under Article 12 LFT makes clear that the entity that actually benefits from the worker's services must also issue the CFDI de nómina.

The payroll receipt is required whenever overtime pay, vacation premium, or proportional benefits are paid — these payments must be itemized and their ISR-exempt portions identified using the correct SAT catalog codes under the CFDI Nómina complemento. The SAT performs automated cross-checks between CFDI de nómina data and the employer's annual ISR declaration — discrepancies trigger pre-audit alerts (cartas invitación) from the SAT.

The document is required as evidence in Tribunal Laboral proceedings. Under Article 784 LFT, the employer bears the burden of proof on salary amounts paid — production of signed original payroll receipts or CFDI de nómina XML files is the employer's primary evidence. Workers claiming unpaid overtime, unpaid vacation premium, or incorrect bonus calculations before the CFCRL or Tribunales Laborales base their claims on discrepancies between the payroll receipts and the hours logs or benefit entitlement calculations.

The receipt is required for IMSS audit purposes: the IMSS Sistema de Fiscalización compares the SDC registered by the employer in the SUA (Sistema Único de Autodeterminación) with the perceptions disclosed in the CFDI de nómina. Systematic underreporting of recurring bonuses or variable pay in the SDC — while correctly showing the full amounts in the payroll receipt — creates an automatic IMSS audit flag for SDI underreporting under Article 27 LSS.

A valid Payroll Receipt Mexico under Ley Federal del Trabajo art. 132-frac.VII and LISR art. 99 must contain the following essential elements to comply with STPS, SAT, and IMSS requirements and to be admissible as evidence in Tribunal Laboral proceedings.

Employer and Worker Identification: The employer's full legal name (razón social), RFC (Registro Federal de Contribuyentes), registered address (domicilio fiscal), IMSS Registro Patronal, and INFONAVIT employer registration. The worker's full legal name, RFC, CURP, NSS (Número de Seguridad Social), job title (puesto), and employee number. Under CFDI 4.0 requirements effective 1 January 2023, the RFC of both parties must be validated against the SAT's registered taxpayer list (RPMF — Relación de Personas Morales y Físicas) before the CFDI is stamped.

Pay Period: The specific payroll period (período de pago) — start date (fecha de inicio del período) and end date (fecha de término del período) in DD/MM/YYYY format — and the payment date (fecha de pago). The payroll period defines which working days, overtime hours, and benefit accruals are included in the receipt and cross-references the working hours log under Article 63 LFT.

Perceptions Table (Tabla de Percepciones): An itemized table listing every taxable and exempt income component paid to the worker, organized using the SAT's official perception catalog codes: Salario base (code 001); Tiempo extraordinario (code 019); Prima vacacional (code 023); Aguinaldo (code 002); PTU (code 009); Bono o gratificación (code 010); Vales de despensa (code 028); Fondo de ahorro (code 013); and all other applicable codes. Each perception must show the taxable amount (monto gravado) and the ISR-exempt amount (monto exento) separately, as the ISR withholding is calculated only on the taxable portion.

Deductions Table (Tabla de Deducciones): An itemized table of all amounts withheld from gross pay, using the SAT's official deduction catalog codes: ISR retenido (code 002); IMSS cuota obrera (code 001) — broken down by insurance branch; INFONAVIT amortización (code 006) if the worker has an active INFONAVIT credit; Fondo de ahorro (code 007) where applicable; Préstamos FONACOT (code 009); and Faltas injustificadas (code 017) referencing the attendance control form under Article 804 LFT.

Gross Pay, Deductions, and Net Pay: A clearly visible summary showing: total gross perceptions (total de percepciones brutas); total ISR-exempt perceptions (total de percepciones exentas); total taxable perceptions (total de percepciones gravadas); total deductions (total de deducciones); and the net amount payable to the worker (neto a pagar). The net pay amount must match the bank transfer or cash payment record (comprobante de pago) to enable STPS and IMSS audit reconciliation.

IMSS Contribution Summary: The employer's SDC (Salario Diario de Cotización) registered with IMSS for the pay period, and a reference to the employer's bimonthly quota payment schedule through the SUA. While the employer's share of IMSS contributions (cuotas patronales) are not deducted from the worker's salary — they are entirely the employer's cost — the worker's share (cuota obrera) is deducted and must be itemized in the deductions table. For workers with two or more simultaneous employments (pluriempleo), each employer must issue a separate Recibo de Nómina showing only the perceptions and deductions corresponding to their employment relationship.

SAT CFDI Stamp Data: In the digital CFDI 4.0 version — the legally required format for all employers — the receipt must display: the UUID (folio fiscal) assigned by the PAC upon stamping; the digital seal of the SAT (sello del SAT); the digital seal of the issuer (sello del emisor); the stamp date and time (fecha y hora de certificación); and the QR code for online verification through the SAT portal. The XML file of the CFDI de nómina is the definitive legal record — the printed version is a human-readable summary.

Forms-legal.com provides this Payroll Receipt Mexico template as a practical administrative reference for payroll record-keeping and STPS audit preparation. All CFDI de nómina must be issued through a SAT-authorized stamp provider (PAC) using certified payroll software. Every payroll process should be reviewed by a licensed Contador Público or abogado fiscalista to confirm that perception codes, ISR withholding tables, and SDC calculations comply with current SAT and IMSS rules.