Many Ukrainians left abroad because of the war, and still continue to leave. When an employee leaves, it is a certain test for the employer. After all, there are many questions about the organization of work and remuneration of such an employee. Quite often, such questions come to my team from the heads of companies and various organizations that use the services of our company both on a permanent basis and one-time services provided by our company, for example, consulting.
There are options for registering an employee’s absence
- If the employee went abroad, obtained refugee status there and plans to work in the host country, then it would be appropriate to issue leave without salary.
- Another way is to suspend the employment contract for the period while the employee is in another country.
- If the employee continues to work for you, but is physically abroad – remote work.
In this article, I will consider the issue of remote work in more detail.
I would like to draw your attention to the fact that employees of state-owned enterprises who are abroad are prohibited from setting a remote work mode.
Remote work
If you have agreed on all important issues with the employee who intends to continue working for you, we recommend issuing an order for transfer to remote work.
Simply put, telecommuting is when an employee works outside the employer’s office or premises. This form of labor organization is regulated by the Code of Labor Laws (hereinafter referred to as the Labor Code).
And here the question arises how to familiarize the employee with the order, that is, get the order signed by the employee. You can do it this way: send the order to the employee by e-mail or any other convenient way and receive a scan copy or a photo of the signed order in response.
The legislation does not prohibit remote work while abroad.
The State Labor Service has the same opinion regarding this issue.
Salary and taxation
Such work is tabulated in the same way as ordinary time worked and, accordingly, is paid according to the terms of the employment contract.
But with taxation, the situation is a little more complicated. And it’s not about how wages are taxed in Ukraine, nothing changes here regarding taxes. The issue arises in the determination of tax residency in cases where the employee stays abroad for more than 183 days. Then there is a risk of double taxation of the income of such an employee. Although Ukraine has concluded agreements on the avoidance of double taxation with most countries, it is better to check whether it is necessary to pay taxes on the received income in the host country, if they have already been paid in Ukraine.
It should be noted that compliance with the foreign country’s income tax laws rests with the employee, not the employer. The employer is obliged to tax the accrued salary in accordance with Ukrainian legislation. Also, the legislation does not provide for employers to report on employees who are abroad.
What is the liability if an employee who is in another country is not transferred to remote work?
In practice, such a situation occurs quite often. However, the transfer to remote work is not considered a change in essential working conditions. This is only a change in the form of labor organization.
However, in the case of an inspection, there is a possibility of applying financial and administrative responsibility for non-compliance with the requirements of labor legislation.
As long as martial law is in effect, fines for violations of labor legislation are not applied.
If your employee has moved abroad and you need help with his registration, contact specialists of our company, who will help you with questions about documentation and payroll. It is worth getting involved in matters of double taxation of income and determining the status of a tax resident lawyers. If you have a similar situation, go to ours site, and get more detailed information about the list of accounting services provided by our company. You can also find out what one-time accounting services are available on the website.
Vita Voznenko
