Frequent Business Travelers

Short-term assignments and business travel requires proactive tracking and management. These trips can trigger personal and corporate tax requirements based on US and foreign rules that can be complex and difficult to apply. Magnifying the concern, some countries have ramped up their monitoring of short-term business travellers to maximize tax revenue from this fast-growing population.

The traditional tools and methods used to manage short-term business travel - such as asking business teams to report travel or using electronic expense systems - are often inefficient and ineffective. In fact, many executives refer to employees who take sporadic, cross-border business trips as "stealth" business travellers because their HR and Tax departments may have little or no knowledge of these trips.

However, if the tax costs of business travellers aren't accounted for and remitted properly, you may be exposed to not only unpaid taxes but also interest and penalties that could negatively affect your bottom line.

Actions you can take to reduce costs, limit risk and proactively plan

Because the risks and processes of business travel differ for each company, you need solutions that are tailored to the specific needs of their globally-mobile employees. At a minimum, you should consider taking the following actions:

• Assess, quantify and gather their potential financial exposure in the jurisdictions their business travellers visit.
• Ensure their company is tax compliant both from a domestic and foreign perspective.
• Capture potential costs upfront by generating cost estimates for future business travel and create policies that proactively surface costs.
• Design their business traveller plans to reduce tax and administrative costs.

The value you will realize

• Reduced financial exposure to foreign and US tax liabilities and related interest and penalties triggered by frequent business travellers.
• Reduced risk that tax and administrative costs will affect your bottom line by using an integrated and customized approach to manage business travel, taking into account both planning and compliance needs.
• Quick and efficient tools and processes for tracking foreign tax costs and immigration requirements based on travellers' actual physical presence. You'll no longer need to perform time-consuming downloads from expense systems that may not yield accurate data or spend time contacting project teams to gather business travel information.
• Avoid duplication of effort and address your specific risk areas by having enhanced processes and resources in place.

For more information around PwC's frequent business traveler solutions, please reach out to ias@us.pwc.com.