Global employee mobility: Managing risk and compliance

The international relocation of ‘employees’ on short and long-term assignments (typically anywhere from 3 months to 5 years) may create so-called permanent establishment (PE) risk for the enterprise. Companies may fail to establish or enforce guidelines designed to limit the creation of a taxable presence for the home country ‘employer’. The actual presence of the individual in a foreign jurisdiction may create an unintended taxable presence.

Corporate tax departments need to understand the structure and nature of temporary international work assignments. How many employees will be working in a particular location? What activities will they be doing? What is the duration of time in-country as well as the long-term plan for operations there? All of these factors are necessary to gauge the level of enterprise tax risk by jurisdiction. Working with HR departments and monitoring this risk for global mobility programs should be a fundamental part of the corporate tax department’s risk management activities.

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A global economy requires a global business strategy, which invariably involves the need to move your most important asset -- your people -- fluidly and expeditiously across borders.

But today there’s much more to a global mobility strategy than securing work visas and residency permits, and assuring unimpeded business travel -- as critical as those functions are. Business planning also requires you to take a strategic approach to immigration, which means having your finger on the pulse of pending immigration changes across multiple countries and regions -- and often having your voice heard by policymakers.

As government tax and immigration departments increasingly share information about multinationals, it makes sense to work with a legal services provider with a marquee brand, government know-how, and a global reach who can provide effective, integrated immigration and tax advice -- saving you time and expense, and streamlining processes.

Find out more about our Immigration practice.

Growing your business often means moving employees between countries – and that means fulfilling local social security obligations. In an environment where regulations change continuously and scrutiny from the authorities is on the rise, it’s becoming harder to get it right.

Our worldwide network of social security experts maintains close links with government authorities to keep you up to date on social security developments and to help you to reduce your risks.

Find out more about our Social Security practice.