This briefing highlights a number of international pay and employee benefits legal issues that carry potentially severe penalties. Each of these issues is well worth a review now to avoid future consequences.

International - Globally mobile employees -

The tax treatment of globally mobile employees has always been complicated, and companies have needed to keep an eye on where employees are located at the time of grant, vesting and exercise of employee incentive awards. The COVID-19 pandemic has created particular issues whereby employees have been displaced in unusual locations or for an unusual, possibly unexpected, length of time. This may result in tax charges arising in countries where the company is not familiar with the tax withholding or reporting requirements, and it may also result in breaches of unfamiliar local laws - such as exchange controls or securities laws or data privacy requirements. A breach of securities laws can lead to inadvertent criminal offenses and breaches of privacy rules can result in very significant fines, linked to global revenue.