Short Term Business Visitors – Reporting Deadline Approaching

With many employers embracing the benefits of an increasingly global workforce, it is important to ensure that all reporting obligations to the UK are fulfilled.

Short Term Business Visitors (STBV) represent an increasing percentage of the UK workforce. They are individuals, employed by an overseas entity, who normally work outside of the UK but temporarily spend time performing duties in the UK.

Strictly speaking, in the UK all business visitors are liable to pay UK PAYE from day 1. However, provided that certain conditions are met, it is possible to obtain an exemption from HMRC that relaxes the usual reporting requirements and exempts the employer from operating UK PAYE on these individuals.

Conditions

In order to qualify for the PAYE exemption, an STBV Agreement must be in place with HMRC. An application has to be submitted by the employer and will only be accepted where the individuals are:

• Resident in a country with which the UK has a Double Taxation Agreement
• Coming to work in the UK for a UK company or the UK branch of an overseas company, or legally employed by a UK resident employer, but economically employed by a separate non-resident entity
• Expected to stay in the UK for 183 days or less in any 12-month period

Reporting requirements

If the STBV Agreement is granted by HMRC, there are still specialist reporting requirements. The specific requirements are dependent on the number of days spent in country by each individual during the UK tax year and reporting needs to be submitted to HMRC ahead of the relevant deadline. For the 2016/17 tax year, the deadline is 31^st May 2017.

If you require any support with managing or setting up an STBV Agreement, please do not hesitate to contact us.