International Tax & Legal Compliance for Recruitment Agencies
Recruitment companies working with clients and contractors who are based abroad are often confused as to the tax rules and regulations in each jurisdiction. Our International Compliance experts will help you understand your tax and compliance obligations when your contractors are working abroad.
For example: Can your UK contractor go to work in Germany or Switzerland with their UK limited company?
Our international compliance expert can help you with all of your queries, either on an ad hoc or retention basis. We also offer an International compliance audit to assess how compliant your company is. This is especially useful if you were considering to sell your business in the future, as any risk now can lead to a knock down in your ultimate sale price.
It is also imperative that correct due diligence is performed on any staffing business, this goes for any payroll or umbrella company that contractors work through.
If your client contract is in another language and/or has foreign legal jurisdiction, our International Terms of Business service has you covered.
We can also audit your PSL of umbrella companies to ensure that you stay on the right side of the Criminal Finances Act.
The Criminal Finances Act 2017 (c. 22) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that amends the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 to expand the provisions for confiscating funds to deal with proceeds of tax evasion. The Act makes it a corporate offence for a company or partnership to prevent facilitation of UK tax evasion and failure to prevent facilitation of foreign tax evasion offences
Many years ago, payments to contractors were not regulated, regulations were flouted with contractors being paid by a series of non-compliant options. Authorities seldom investigated which resulted in companies making payments with no concern of the possibility of being audited or deal with the possible consequences thereof.
Today with HMRC Reporting Regulations, the CFA and yourself having to issue confirmation to your clients that all has been done correctly, It is simply worth your while to be compliant. The cost and potential reputational damage to you and your business far outweigh any perceived benefits.
Within any business or sector the responsibility of having a compliant business lies with the directors and senior management. Management and the compliance department should put the following measures in place as a minimum.
Educate all staff on an on-going basis-Staff will appreciate from a corporate perspective why only a compliant engagement of contractors and associated persons is the standard. This can be done through proper induction programs and online training sessions.
Proper initial audits– of umbrella/payroll companies, it is advised to have this carried out by professionals who know what they are looking for to mitigate the risk to your business
On going checks -(quarterly) of “payroll” companies regarding existing contractors to ensure that what has been confirmed between parties and what is actually being done is assessed.
Keep abreast of industry and legislative changes.
Only engage with other compliant companies.