'New Reality' - UK Employee working remotely overseas

[shoestring7]

I work for a UK organisation. For various CV19 related reasons, one of my team wishes to work remotely from a non-EU country for six months.

They will continue to have a UK address and bank account, and state they have every intention of returning to the UK in January next year. They are a knowledge worker who already works remotely from home, and they have the right to work in this country.

Technical, comms, GDPR and time differences have been addressed.

Are there any legal, tax or insurance issues I need to consider approving their request? This is a new one to HR and it's put them in a flat spin.

Cheers,

[shoestring7]

bigandclever said:

shoestring7 said:

Are there any legal, tax or insurance issues I need to consider approving their request? This is a new one to HR and it's put them in a flat spin.

Cheers,

I have no answers but there are going to be loads that need consideration.

Tax residency status
Data protection law
Health insurance
Immigration law
Employment law
Employer liability
Health and Safety
Social Security
Payroll withholding
Corp tax (or equivalent) / permanent establishment

Thanks. I can check most of those boxes, it's the Permanent Establishment & local law that is causing the bugbear. HR have asked a couple of external consultants; they've done that thing that mechanics do - suck their teeth and look worried without actually giving a definitive experience based answer.

I suspect it will be a balance of risk; we will likely slip under the radar, but there's a small risk that should something go wrong it'll be a ststorm.

The thing is, the HR team gain no benefit from taking that risk, I on the other hand retain a valuable experienced member of staff, and don't have to search for a contractor - with all the potential for pain that involves.

The country in question is India, the employee is a national.

[shoestring7]

I case anyone is following; the employee's request was turned down.

The reasoning was that the company was advised by a tax consultant based in India that the employee would incur UK and Indian PAYE liabilities, and the (UK) payroll company was unable to manage transfers to the Indian tax authorities.