Short Term Business Visitors – Deadline Approaching

An Appendix 4 Short Term Business Visitor (STBV) arrangement provides an opportunity for employers to relax the strict PAYE requirements for individuals employed by a related overseas company who come to work in the UK for the UK company or the UK branch of the overseas company.

To take advantage of this relaxation the UK company must have an Appendix 4 Agreement in place with HMRC, and the UK company or branch must not ultimately bear the remuneration for the employee (although there are relaxations to this rule if the individual is present in the UK for a total of 60 days or less).  In addition, the individual must be;

• resident in a country with which the UK has a Double Taxation Agreement (under which the Dependent Personal Services/Income from Employment Article is likely to be competent)
• coming to work in the UK for a UK company or the UK branch of an overseas company
• expected to stay in the UK for 183 days or less in any twelve month period

If the employee’s workdays in the UK are purely incidental they are not considered taxable in the UK and so no UK PAYE is due, and therefore STBV requirements do not need to be considered. Incidental duties include visits to the UK for training and receiving business development updates.

Where a UK company has an Appendix 4 STBV Agreement in place with HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC), the level of disclosure required is determined by whether or not the costs of the employee employed by the overseas company were borne in the UK and the number of days presence in the UK.  It is therefore very important to ensure that you have a robust system of tracking business visits to the UK.

If you currently have an Appendix 4 STBV Agreement in place with HMRC for the 2018/19 tax year, annual reporting must be submitted no later than 31st May 2019. If you believe that STBV reporting may be required for 2019/20 it’s not too late to apply to HMRC for an Agreement.

There are also “special” STBV reporting arrangements relaxing PAYE requirements where you have an employee coming to the UK from a country with which there is no double tax agreement.

If you need any assistance or would like any further information on STBV reporting and the associated tracking of internationally mobile employees, please do not hesitate to contact Charlotte Edwards (charlotte.edwards@aab.uk) or your usual AAB contact.

To find out more about Charlotte and the Payroll and Employment Taxes team, click here.