For international companies, from DAX-listed corporations to smaller medium-sized businesses, cross-border employee secondments are often extremely beneficial. However, this regularly involves high costs and significant administrative effort, especially for smaller companies.
A secondment affects the employee’s domestic and foreign taxation. The same applies to social security issues. The employee’s pension and retirement planning must also be taken into account.
It must be clarified whose payroll the employee should be on, whether the company or the employee is obliged to report their salary to the authorities and to withhold taxes and social security contributions.
Taking compliance and risk management aspects into account, we support you in ensuring that your company complies with all global tax and social security regulations.
In particular, we offer the following consulting services in the context of employee secondments:
- Tax registration as an employer and representation before the foreign tax authorities in the country of employment, regularly with the assistance of a foreign consultant
- Drafting of secondment agreements or employment contracts for seconded employees with the assistance of a solicitor
- Consideration of company pension schemes
- Support in discussions with expatriate employees to ensure they receive comprehensive information and support
- Calculation and information regarding the impact on the payroll of expatriate employees
- International tax planning advice in the context of secondment from a single source: consideration of possible indications for transfer pricing, e.g. for intra-group services or questions of establishing or avoiding permanent establishments
- Ongoing payroll accounting, both gross-net and net-gross
- Calculation of possible tax equalisation (e.g. tax protection or tax equalisation calculations)
- For complex questions of social security law, we consult an external advisor to guarantee optimal advice in the interests of the client.
Of course, we also advise expatriate employees in the same way, including the preparation of tax returns for the duration of their assignment abroad.