What is included in the fee for cross-border payroll setup?
Registrations, source deductions and reporting in the country of work, plus the social security certificate and the day-count discipline that supports the position.
What would make cross-border payroll setup cost more than the standard tier?
The number of jurisdictions and whether any is sub-national. A single federal registration is quick; several states or provinces each bring their own filings.
Is the fee really fixed?
Yes, for the scope quoted. If the scope changes — another year appears, an entity turns up, a certificate becomes necessary — we re-quote before doing the work, so there is never an invoice you have not already agreed to.
Do I need a payroll account in the country where my employee works?
Usually yes. The right to tax employment income tends to follow the place the work is physically done, and the obligation to register, withhold at source and report generally sits with whoever pays the wage. That obligation does not wait for the employee to become resident, and it is not discharged by withholding correctly in the home country instead. The setup work is the registration itself, the source deductions in the country of work, and the periodic reporting that follows from them. We tell you which registrations a given arrangement needs before the engagement starts, and the fee for them is agreed in writing at that point.
Is the payroll setup fee charged per employee or per country?
Per engagement, and the engagement is scoped by jurisdiction rather than by headcount. Registering an employer in one country and running deductions there is broadly the same exercise whether one person or four are covered by it, so the quote is written around the countries involved, the number of registrations each one needs, and whether reporting has already begun. If a second country enters the picture, that is a change of scope and it is re-quoted in writing before any further work is done, not billed as an overrun.
What is a social security certificate and do we need one?
It is the document that lets an employee stay in one country's social security system while physically working in another, so the employer is not paying contributions into two schemes for the same wage. It is applied for, not assumed, and the application has to describe the posting accurately: who employs the person, who bears the cost of the wage, where the work is done and for how long. Setup engagements include preparing that application where the facts support one, and the day-count records that back it up if the arrangement is ever reviewed.
We have been paying someone abroad with no deductions taken. What now?
The first step is establishing which country had the withholding right over which months, because that determines what is owed and to whom. We work from the pay records and the employee's own day counts rather than from an assumption about residence. Once the position is settled, the registrations are opened, the outstanding remittances are computed for the periods concerned and the reporting is filed for those periods. That is scoped as a correction engagement rather than a straight setup, and the fee is agreed in writing once we have seen the payroll records.
What makes a payroll setup complex rather than standard?
Three things, mostly. A second jurisdiction in the same engagement, because it doubles the registrations and introduces a question about which country's deductions take priority. A social security application, because it is a separate submission with its own evidence. And an arrangement where the person is paid partly from each side, since the split has to be documented before the deductions can be set. Anything that only adds volume, such as further employees under registrations already open, usually stays in the standard tier.
How long does cross-border payroll setup take to complete?
The part we control is quick. The part that depends on a tax authority issuing a registration number, or a social security body issuing a certificate, runs to its own timetable and we do not control it. What we do is sequence the work so nothing waits unnecessarily: the registration goes in as soon as the corporate details are confirmed, the deduction calculations are built while it is pending, and the first reporting period is ready to file the moment the number arrives. You can reach us on +1 (416) 619-0068 to talk through the sequence for your own arrangement.
Is the price for a payroll setup fixed, or does it move with the hours?
The price is fixed and agreed in writing before any work starts. A payroll setup has a defined finish — registrations open, withholding calculated correctly, the first remittance made on time — so it can be priced as a piece of work rather than metered.
How would a foreign tax authority know I am resident there?
Mostly from information you or your bank already provided. Account-opening forms ask you to self-certify tax residence, and that certification is reported between authorities under the Common Reporting Standard or, for US accounts, under the FATCA framework. Beyond that: employer and payroll filings, property registries, immigration records and the tax filings of anyone who paid you. The realistic planning assumption is that the data arrives. See FATCA and information reporting.
