Short-term business travellers (STBVs) are natural persons who are not UK tax residents, but who are on business travel in the UK and who meet a working day limit of 30 days or less in a given tax year. The cost of services such as accommodation borne by a UK company does not invalidate an Annex 4 agreement, but only means that those costs cannot be covered by it and may fall outside UK tax for another reason. For example, accommodation and travel expenses that are exempt as business expenses do not normally need to be reported separately to HMRC. nor is an Annex 4 agreement affected by the fact that it is supported by a British company. Several employers contacted HMRC about difficulties in physically submitting their Schedule 4 reports. In light of this, HMRC will accept reports via email. Reports and requests should be sent to Contactexpat@hmrc.gov.uk and cite Application 4 reports in the topic. HMRC is aware of the long waiting times for employers when trying to contact the Expat Helpline and is therefore encouraged to email the team instead of using the phone service. Where a non-resident taxpayer is posted to the United Kingdom by his employer for a short period of time and moves and becomes a resident of the United Kingdom, the days in the United Kingdom after he has become resident there should not be taken into account in the calculation of the 183 days. HMRC recognised this and announced in the summer of 2015 a special reporting system that could apply from the 2015/16 tax year and should provide a pragmatic solution for those who visit the UK for very limited business trips and cannot benefit from a contract exemption.
Employers can now request the agreement by completing and submitting the form on page 81950 of the PAYE Manual. The Minister pointed out that the tax authorities did not consider that a short-term business visitor was sufficiently integrated into the activities of a UK company to be considered an employer if the employee concerned resided in the United Kingdom for less than 60 days in a tax year and that that period was not part of a wider period, in which the taxpayer resides in the United Kingdom. For any business or organisation with short-term business visitors to the UK, we recommend reading our article “Are you compliant with your short-term business visitors from abroad?” for more information. The reporting and payment deadlines for the special PAYE regime will be extended from April 19 to May 31 after the end of the taxation year. The first return will be due on May 31, 2021 under the new conditions. The CWG2 Employer Further Guide to PAYE and NICs warns employers that it may be possible to relax the strict PAYE requirements for employees during short-term business visits to the UK and encourages employers to contact their HMRC office. The fact that there was a much higher probability that a person would become a tax resident in the UK and in the contract led to some amendments to the Annex 4 agreement. What was a single category of visitors who spent between 91 and 183 days in the UK was divided into two groups, and from 2014/15, applications for anyone spending at least 151 days in the UK must be made on an individual nominative basis. Other comments in tax bulletin 68 contain various examples and questions that should be taken into account in determining whether a person visiting the UK over several tax years should combine these periods in the UK when applying the 60-day rule. Questions include whether the employee is expected to return to the UK at the time of departure, how long the gap between visits exists in relation to the duration of those visits, how often the worker returns to the UK and how important the tasks performed are for UK companies. The response document confirms that the idea of a contract-type exception where branch structures apply should not be encouraged. While recognising that a unilateral exemption of branch STBVs would benefit certain sectors of activity such as financial services and asset management, it stresses that the tax costs of the exemption would be high and that the United Kingdom would largely waive primary tax duties.
The conclusion is that the significant costs would benefit relatively few companies and do not currently represent good value for money (although this conclusion seems to have been discussed further). Eleanor Meredith looks at the issues of concern to STBVs in the UK and how they can be reported. In recent years, the trend among multinationals has been towards an increasing number of business visitors and fewer formal (and generally shorter) orders. This article looks at some of the challenges this poses for employers and the potential easements we can expect in this area after the summer 2018 consultation. For example, if a person is a resident of the UK but is hired by an employer in another state, moves to the state where they reside and is then sent by their employer to work in the UK for a short period of time, we will only include the days in the UK after the taxpayer has become a resident in the other state, to calculate whether it exceeded 183 days in the United Kingdom. UNITED KINGDOM.. .
