Cast your mind back to say, 10 years ago. International remote working was not on the radar. Extended business trippers and commuters, while starting to become more commonplace, in the main still played second fiddle to the more traditional long-term type assignment (i.e. 12 months or more in duration) Typically, under such assignments the immigration, tax and social security implications were well understood in advance and well documented in a business’s employee mobility policy, making it more straightforward for a business and its assignee workforce to be globally compliant from a tax and other regulatory perspective.
While tracking of employee movements was important, apart from some exceptions, it was easy to do in most assignments. Apart from some deviation when it came to annual leave, most of the time each year was spent in the host location, with the resulting tax and other regulatory obligations relatively easy to determine and adhere to.
While the traditional long-term assignment is not on its death bed by any means, it is today being replaced more and more by…
