I'm looking for information about tax for UK employees who will work from Australia for 9/10 months. They have work/holiday permits but would continue with their normal work (not Aus specific) remotely. Any experience of this or sources of information would be welcome. Thanks.
Hi Claire
In the distant past, had to arrange proposed expat working in Australia for periods of years and unexpectedly found it all very bureaucratic and complex - little different to, eg, USA. All that was with the benefit of detailed expert third party guidance (Employment Conditions Abroad) and wouldn’t dream of attempting to do it without such full guidance - recipe for disaster, that would be!
However, sounds like the responsibility (and risks) of all this in the circumstances you describe might fall squarely upon the employees themselves: all you as their employer are doing is allowing them to work for you remotely. Assuming your employer is satisfied with the work they do, they employ them under UK law and pay them under UK tax law into a UK bank account and it’s entirely the employees’ problem to sort out their own personal tax and immigration status - but you strongly advise them for their own good to obtain proper professional advice about it.
Suppose if it’s envisaged that they’ll be undertaking at least some duties within Australia as representatives of your employer then there may be complications regarding Australian-derived income so in this case your employers may need to obtain their own specialist international taxation advice.
But as I recall visa / immigration and personal taxation and tax residency statuses can all be interlinked and get very complex and indeed contradictory and confusing, so, whoever does it, would regard proper professional advice as absolutely essential.
(Haven’t even mentioned either other possible key considerations such as personal health insurance and what might happen in case of need to return to UK for eg domestic or family emergencies….)
