Global Mobility Services

Managing your global mobility program is a challenging task. You're charged with ensuring the seamless relocation of employees, corporate integration, managing corporate and personal tax regulations and laws in multiple tax jurisdictions, and answering employee questions about working internationally—among many other things.

What are Global Mobility Services?
Global mobility services consist of multiple pieces designed to help an employer seamlessly transition employees and their families to a foreign country and keep the company in compliance with international tax laws from a corporate tax, employer and employee perspective.

Here are some of the common areas that global mobility services address:

Tax Compliance Risks
Businesses not only need to understand their home country rules and regulations but also those of the host country. It’s important to understand how foreign tax regulations apply, both to your operation and your employees, so you can maximize profitability and minimize liability.

If the company or the employee become out of compliance with local or foreign tax laws, you may face hefty penalties, loss of business or business reputation in the host country, or even the risk of prosecution.

Some of your tax considerations and headaches that could benefit from proper guidance include:

• Assignment structure and planning
• Assignment tax cost projections
• Coordination and payment of home and host country personal, social and employer taxes
• Consultations on tax reimbursement policies
• Review of home and host country compensation and payroll reporting for expatriate and foreign national employees
• Tax treaty analysis
• Tax calculation and estimates
• Coordination and preparation of the proper tax filings and equalization calculations

Assimilation Risks
Moving to a new country can be stressful for an employee and their families. It is all too common for people to have a difficult time adapting to a foreign environment. That’s why it’s important to look into the local culture and help the employee and their family prepare for the adjustment. Companies can do an analysis of potential expats and their families to assess any unique circumstances that may make adjustment particularly difficult.

Travel Risks
International travel always comes with a certain amount of risk. Common travel issues include immigrations/customs issues, lost passports, security concerns, and monetary issues.

A global mobility program will allow an employer to assess all of the above risks, develop a plan or company policies to address each of the common risk areas and provide that information to the employee prior to going foreign. This benefits the employee in the transition, particularly when a family is also moving, and helps the employer understand the potential liability issues before the employee embarks on a foreign assignment.

Why You Need an International Tax Advisor
Working globally, it can be difficult to stay informed and keep rules and regulations straight, especially in a foreign country. There are risks present for both the employer and the employee.

Due to this complexity, many companies will retain an accounting firm to provide the company and their employees with all necessary tax compliance and global mobility needs.

That’s where Eide Bailly comes in. Our experienced international tax professionals can assist companies that have an existing global mobility program and we help companies develop a new global mobility program. We can help by offering a broad range of inbound and outbound international tax services. We help you and your employees prepare for and stay in compliance with international tax rules and regulations when working abroad, so you can focus on growing your business, not tax forms. Through our membership in HLB Global, we have access to professionals in over 150 countries.