GTN Mobility Tax Blog

Global mobility tax services encompass the full range of tax, payroll, and compliance activities required when employees work outside their Home country. From managing shadow payrolls to supporting tax equalization, these services help companies maintain compliance, reduce risk, and create a smoother experience for mobile employees.

Accurately budgeting and accruing for tax equalized assignment costs is essential to reduce year-end surprises and for keeping your mobility program financially predictable. The initial tax cost projection is the starting point which considers key elements of the assignment compensation package. However, the real challenge to maintain a reasonable accrual often comes with managing complexities that can arise once the assignment is underway. 

Global mobility programs are complex, and with complexity comes questions. Whether you’re managing a few mobile employees or a large, international program, understanding how global mobility tax works, and how GTN supports you along the way, can make all the difference.

This guide addresses two key areas:

1. Mobility tax questions that impact HR and mobility professionals every day.
2. Questions about GTN and how we partner with clients worldwide.

Global mobility is constantly evolving, and HR and mobility leaders often find themselves balancing competing priorities all at once. Tax compliance, payroll coordination, executive travel, equity issues, and remote work oversight all demand attention. And each comes with its own layer of complexity. Amid all the chaos, certain questions consistently rise to the surface as teams look for clarity, alignment, and practical direction.

In this article, we’ve highlighted the top 10 questions HR and mobility professionals asked most often in 2025, along with clear explanations and resources to help guide your planning for the year ahead.

Tax equalization is a policy widely used by companies with mobile employees. At its core, tax equalization is a mechanism to ensure that an employee is neither better nor worse off financially, from a tax perspective, for having accepted an international assignment. However, there are many misconceptions about what exactly it means to be “tax equalized.” One common misconception is that implementing the policy will automatically result in high company costs and administrative burdens.

If your company has tax equalized assignees, you may have heard from employees who’ve received unexpected tax bills, have yet to settle their tax equalization payments, and/or are confused about how their tax liabilities were calculated. If any of these rings a bell, now is the time to re-examine the hypothetical tax positions for your mobile employees.