PTU Profit Sharing in Mexico: Eligibility, Caps, and Deadlines

PTU profit sharing in Mexico requires most employers to distribute 10% of their annual taxable profits to eligible workers, split evenly between two formulas — one based on days worked, the other on salary — and paid within 60 days after the company’s annual tax return is due. The right sits in Article 123 of the Constitution and the mechanics live in the Federal Labor Law (Ley Federal del Trabajo).¹

Which Employers Have to Pay

Any business operating in Mexico that reports a taxable profit for the fiscal year owes PTU. That covers corporations, sole proprietors, and permanent establishments of foreign companies, regardless of industry or headcount.

Article 126 of the Federal Labor Law lists the exemptions:

New companies during their first year of operation after incorporation.
Companies dedicated to producing a genuinely new product, for their first two years.
Mining and other extractive companies during the exploration phase, before commercial production begins.
Private charitable institutions recognized by law that operate on a non-profit basis.
The Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS) and decentralized public bodies performing cultural, welfare, or charitable functions.
Small businesses whose capital and gross income fall below thresholds set by the Ministry of Labor.

These exemptions are narrow.² A company that had a bad year isn’t exempt; it simply reports no taxable profit, and no distribution is owed. The exemptions target entities whose structure or stage makes the obligation unreasonable, not businesses that happen to be unprofitable.

Which Employees Qualify

Permanent employees are eligible from their first day. Temporary or seasonal workers qualify once they have worked at least 60 days during the fiscal year, and those days don’t have to be consecutive. Former employees who left the company during the year — whether they quit or were terminated — still receive a share based on the time they worked.² You don’t forfeit PTU just because you no longer work there when payment day arrives.

Article 127 excludes two groups entirely: directors, administrators, and general managers; and domestic workers employed in a private home.

The Trusted Employee Salary Cap

Supervisors, department heads, and similar positions below the top executive level are called empleados de confianza. They do participate in PTU, but the salary used to calculate their share is capped. If a trusted employee earns more than the highest-paid unionized worker in the company, only that unionized worker’s salary plus 20% counts for the PTU formula.² If there’s no union, the comparison uses the highest-paid non-management employee.

How the Amount Is Calculated

The pool starts at 10% of the company’s taxable income for the fiscal year, as reported on its annual tax return. This percentage has held at 10% for decades.³ “Taxable income” here means the renta gravable defined by the Income Tax Law — not gross revenue and not net accounting income, but the specific tax base fiscal rules produce.²

That pool is split in two, and each half is distributed by a different formula:

The first 50% goes out in proportion to the days each eligible employee worked during the year, against total days worked by the eligible workforce. Days absent for work-related injuries or maternity leave count as worked.
The second 50% goes out in proportion to each employee’s annual taxable salary, against the total payroll of eligible workers. Salary means the daily cash wage; variable pay is averaged over the year, and commissions and overtime are excluded.

A lower-paid employee with perfect attendance captures more of the first half; a higher-paid employee captures more of the second.³

The Individual Cap Added in 2021

Until 2021, the calculated share went to each worker with no upper limit. When the outsourcing reform banned subcontracting and forced companies to move previously outsourced workers onto their own payrolls, Congress added a cap in Article 127, Fraction VIII of the Federal Labor Law.

Each employee’s PTU is now limited to the greater of:

Three months of the employee’s salary, or
The average PTU the employee received over the prior three fiscal years.

The higher of the two figures is what the employer pays.² Any calculated amount above the cap stays with the company. It is not redistributed to other workers.

Payment Deadlines and Penalties

Article 122 gives employers 60 days after the annual tax return deadline to distribute PTU. Because corporations and individual employers file on different schedules, the payment dates differ:

Corporations (personas morales): annual return due March 31, so PTU must be paid by May 30.
Individual employers (personas físicas): annual return due April 30, so PTU must be paid by June 29.

The deadlines are firm.² Missing them exposes the employer to fines from labor inspectors of 250 to 5,000 times the daily UMA (Unidad de Medida y Actualización). For 2026, the daily UMA is $117.31 pesos, so the fine range runs from roughly $29,328 to $586,550 pesos.⁴ Inspectors can impose penalties even where no PTU was generated, because the fine covers the entire process: filing on time, providing the tax return copy to workers, and making the mixed commission’s calculations available.

Employees and former employees have one year from the day after the payment was due (May 31 for corporate employers, June 30 for individuals) to claim unpaid PTU. After that, the statute of limitations closes the door. If a later tax audit adjusts the company’s taxable income upward, a fresh 60-day payment window opens, with its own one-year claim period.

Tax Treatment

For employers, PTU payments are an authorized deduction against corporate income tax, based on the amount actually paid during the fiscal year rather than accrued. If PTU and other authorized deductions push total deductions above income, the resulting fiscal loss can be carried forward against taxable income for the next 10 fiscal years.

For employees, PTU is taxable income under the Income Tax Law, but a portion is exempt. The exemption equals 15 days of the UMA, which for 2026 works out to about $1,760 pesos ($117.31 × 15).⁴ Anything above that threshold is subject to income tax withholding, which the employer applies at the time of payment. PTU must be paid in legal currency, not in merchandise, vouchers, or any money substitute.³

Employees’ Right to Review the Numbers

Employers have to provide workers with a copy of the annual tax return within 10 days of filing it. The annexes and supporting documents must remain available at the company’s offices for 30 days so that the union, or a majority of the workforce, can review them. If employees believe the reported taxable income is wrong, they have 30 days to file objections with the Ministry of Finance (Secretaría de Hacienda y Crédito Público), which is required to respond in writing after its review.²

If the Ministry’s review raises the taxable income figure, the employer must distribute the additional PTU within 60 days of notification. The employer can challenge the resolution, but if a court suspends the additional payment pending appeal and the employer ultimately loses, the money is still owed.

What Happens to Unclaimed PTU

PTU that goes unclaimed within the one-year window does not become the company’s profit. Under Article 122, unclaimed amounts must be added to the distributable pool for the following fiscal year.² The money stays in the workers’ pool, but it benefits the current workforce rather than the specific person who never collected. Employers who absorb unclaimed PTU as general revenue are violating the law.

Situations That Change the Picture

PTU obligations don’t always stop at the company’s own payroll. Under the 2021 outsourcing reform, personnel subcontracting is banned; specialized services or works are only permitted through providers registered with REPSE (Registro de Empresas de Servicios y Obras Especializadas), and only for tasks outside the contracting company’s core business. Workers hired through a REPSE-registered provider are employees of the provider, so the provider pays their PTU based on its own taxable income. If the provider fails to meet those obligations, the contracting company can face joint liability.

In a sale of a Mexican business, any gain from the transaction forms part of taxable income for the year and enters the PTU calculation. The gain for PTU purposes is often larger than for regular tax, because the tax basis isn’t adjusted for inflation.

In insolvency, PTU claims survive. Under the Commercial Insolvency Law (Ley de Concursos Mercantiles), labor claims — including wages and profit-sharing from the two years preceding the insolvency judgment — are first-priority claims against the debtor’s estate, ahead of secured creditors holding mortgages or pledges.¹ Priority is the strongest protection the law offers, though a company with no remaining assets can still leave workers with uncollectable judgments.

1
Justia México. Mexico Code Constitución Política de los Estados Unidos Mexicanos – Artículo 123
2
Justia México. Ley Federal del Trabajo – Artículos 117 al 131
3
Secretaría del Trabajo y Previsión Social. Todo lo que necesitas saber del Reparto de Utilidades
4
Diario Oficial de la Federación. Unidad de Medida y Actualización de 2026