With the annual reporting deadline of 31 May approaching, Kenny Law, senior manager, global mobility services at Crowe, sets out the payroll compliance requirements for short-term business visitors to the UK
UK organisations with short-term business visitors, ie, employees of an overseas subsidiary, parent or other group organisations coming to work temporarily in the UK, have two choices:
- to operate PAYE tax on the employees’ pay while in the UK; or
- to obtain a short-term business visitor (STBV) agreement from HMRC.
In many cases, there is a double tax treaty in place which will mitigate the UK personal tax liability of a STBV employee. Where this is the case, a STBV agreement must still be entered into, otherwise the employer will be required to operate PAYE tax and then the employee would need to file a tax return to reclaim the PAYE tax.
By entering into a STBV agreement, all that is required is the filing of a STBV report to HMRC on an annual basis.
