GTN Mobility Tax Blog

Picture this.

In order to attract and retain the best talent, your company has made the decision to continue to allow employees to work from home indefinitely.

To you, the HR Manager, “home” means employees must work from the address on their paycheck, but to the employee, “home” just means they can work remotely from anywhere they choose. And some have chosen to work in another state while others have chosen to work in another country.

Your mobility tax provider has informed you that when your remote workers work outside of their Home jurisdiction, they are potentially creating reporting and withholding tax risks and compliance requirements for both themselves and the company. You now realize you need to know exactly where everyone is working so you can begin to address any potential compliance risks.

Now that the intensity of another US tax busy season has passed, it’s an opportune time to reflect on your mobility program with a post-tax season check-up. Taking time now to review this past busy season will allow you and your mobility tax provider to discover ways to enhance the employee experience, highlight areas of risk and outline necessary actions, and understand any frustrations that occurred so you can strategize future improvements. To guide you through this review, we’ve created a checklist that includes key considerations and tips for a successful post-tax season review. 

If your auditor doubles as your company’s mobility tax services provider, you may have found benefits from this seemingly convenient arrangement.

It’s not unusual to see companies using the same firm to provide multiple kinds of accounting and tax services, especially for emerging and fast-growing companies. However, it is important to be aware of the challenges that may arise in this situation and understand why it may be beneficial to use different firms for your auditing and mobility tax needs.

By understanding your specific needs and the service limitations that can exist for audit firms, your organization will be in a better position to assess and select a vendor that will provide the experience needed for your mobility program and employees.

For many companies, the new workforce norm has shifted to virtual and remote employees. However, for several businesses, there remains a need to have employees working in-person on multiple projects across the country or around the world. Business travel, while still not up to pre-pandemic levels, is making its way back as a standard way of working.

While typical mobile workforce structures such as permanent and long-term assignments are generally managed through a defined HR or mobility function, management of short-term business travel tends to be less defined. Yet, understanding and actively managing the tax risks of short-term business travelers can greatly reduce costs and a variety of risks for both your organization and business travelers. Therefore, developing a structure to oversee this area is imperative.

As the future of work continues to evolve, providing a “positive employee experience” is top of mind for companies. While some organizations have gone back to in-office working arrangements, many have retained a full or partial remote workforce culture. These businesses see the provision of a flexible workplace as critical to not only retaining key employees, but also in recruiting top talent to fill essential job duties. And while this incentive is a benefit for the employee and employer, there are important duty of care responsibilities that need to be considered when you have a remote workforce.

Imagine this: you are sitting at your desk working to finalize the weekly status update. In walks the president of the company and says, “In order to increase our business, we are expanding overseas. I would like to send Jane Smith to Germany for three years. How soon can you make this happen?”

I’ll bet the questions that race through your mind are the same as every other HR manager tasked with sending employees internationally for the first time:

• Where do I start?
• What do I need to consider?
• What processes need to be in place?