Overseas One Year On

A year ago, we were all told to work from home. For some, the UK isn’t home.

Whether with their employer’s consent or not, some returned to see out the pandemic in other countries and continue to work remotely.

As the prospect of returning to the office nears, businesses are considering how to address the new normal, and reviewing their employment contracts and policies , together with their corporate structure and liability to tax.

The most common position being taken is to require people who worked in the UK a year ago, to continue to be based here and to be available to come into the office on a daily basis, should work require.

To decide whether this is the right approach for your business, the issues and risks to be considered include the following:

Do you know where your employees are based?

If your employees are employed under a contract governed by English law by an employer based in the UK, should you worry about employees now based overseas?

Perhaps:

• It’s possible that such employees acquire rights under the law of the country in which they are based, in addition to rights under the English law contract, which may become an issue if you part company.
• Does the employee’s immigration status permit working for your company in the foreign country? There are immigration issues, particularly for non–nationals, who will require a visa and a local contract of employment.
• There may be data privacy issues with cross-border transfers of personal data. You should review your Data Privacy Standard and the data protection regime of the country where the employee is based.
• Does your Employer’s Liability insurance provide cover for employees working in that country?
• Are you able to carry out an adequate Health & Safety risk assessment for a home worker when they are based abroad?
• Having employees based in and working in another country may mean that you are treated as having a place of business there. This has tax and other local law implications, or instance:
  • having a place of business may mean that you are assessed for tax in that country as a percentage of worldwide turnover;
  • in some countries, businesses are required to have a licence to operate and, in order to obtain that license, to have a local sponsor or shareholder.

Photo by Yasmina H on Unsplash