With many countries having closed their borders, employing the right people increasingly means hiring people working for you overseas. Employees may also find themselves working for offshore employers. This may be for a short period of time, while visas and quarantine facilities can be found, or it may be on a more permanent basis as part of the gig economy.

You may have employees or contractors trapped in or out of New Zealand, unable to relocate to take up their employment. We will outline some of the options available to you.

This webinar will focus on the tax implications and ramifications for businesses and their employees but will touch on some of the wider considerations. Topics to be covered include:

• Employee verses contractor;
• Remote payroll options;
• Allowances and employee business expenditure;
• Tax neutrality options and requirements;
• Taxable presence (permanent establishment) considerations when employees are in country;
• Withholding tax implications; and
• Contingency planning – managing tax consequences.

Upon satisfactory completion of this activity you will be able to:

• Select, from a number of payroll options, which is the relevant payroll approach for your situation;
• Appreciate when allowances may be taxable or provided tax free from a New Zealand tax viewpoint;
• Consider some of the alternatives to allowances in different jurisdictions;
• Determine when tax neutrality may be important and be aware of some of the methods to achieve this. Be up with the play in this area;
• Take steps to mitigate the potential for your firm to have a taxable presence in an unwanted situation, and understand what activities may lead to a taxable presence;
• Appreciate when withholding tax may arise and impact your client base; and
• Plan for the unexpected, such as border closure, pandemic outbreak or other disaster.

Duration: 1.5 CPD hours

Suited to:

• HR specialists, including inhouse specialists, looking to make an offshore hire.
• Payroll officers where there are cross-border employee situations.
• Accountants and tax specialists working with employees and employers engaged in global mobility activities, or whose clients are considering hiring someone based overseas.
• Immigration advisors, lawyers and similar professionals who are assisting in employee relocations and international business expansions.
• Non-New Zealand based businesses looking to hire Kiwis or Kiwis who cannot leave New Zealand to take up their overseas employment.

PRESENTER

Richard Muth, Senior Manager – Tax Advisory, Findex/Crowe

Richard Muth is an experienced taxation practitioner at Findex / Crowe having more than 10 years of experience with clients ranging from large multinational groups, Australasian groups, New Zealand based SMEs along with high net worth individuals.

A core specialty of Richard’s is helping those who are looking to call New Zealand home understand what this means for them from a tax viewpoint. Richard also helps those looking to take up opportunities overseas understand how New Zealand will or will not tax them while they are away.