People Advisory Services Tax

Social security  is often an overlooked but important part of international mobility. It is not just about aiding the company and the individuals in paying social security contributions in the right location, as this very much impacts an individual’s health coverage, social benefits, and retirement benefits.

We help our clients in defining the right positions and planning for an international move, preparing and filing applications to support international social security compliance and confirming that the right coverage and benefits are in place for the employee and their dependents. 

Our services include social security coordination, ensuring compliance for cross-border mobility and supporting global workforce strategies.

In today’s fast-evolving business landscape, organizations are under increasing pressure to manage global workforces with agility, accuracy, and compliance. The rise of hybrid work, rapid regulatory shifts, and growing expectations for seamless employee experiences have made traditional payroll models – often fragmented and inflexible – no longer fit for purpose.

Clients are facing:

• Complex and changing labor laws across jurisdictions
• Heightened data privacy and compliance requirements
• A shortage of skilled payroll professionals
• Demand for real-time insights and automation
• The need for a unified experience across payroll, labor and employment law, and mobility

Our payroll managed services competency is designed to assist clients in addressing payroll management challenges, whether their employees are domestic, global, or mobile. By combining deep technical experience, global mobility services, global delivery capabilities, and next-generation technology, we help clients transform payroll from a transactional function into a strategic enabler of business performance.

At the heart of EY's Integrated Global Payroll Solution (IGPS) lies Global Payroll Operate (GPO), a centralized global payroll management service designed to ensure compliant and ISAE3402-certified payroll processing across the world.

Integrated Global Payroll Solution (IGPS)

As workforce models become more flexible and globally distributed, traditional payroll systems are struggling to keep pace. IGPS is EY’s answer to this complexity – a centralized, platform-based solution designed to support the full spectrum of payroll needs across global, local, and mobile employees. Built with flexibility in mind, IGPS assists clients to adapt to evolving regulations, workforce expectations, and digital transformation demands without compromising international tax compliance or control.

By connecting payroll managed services with legal, advisory, and compliance capabilities, IGPS provides a truly integrated experience. Clients benefit from a modular architecture that supports tailored configurations, real-time insights, and seamless coordination across jurisdictions. This connected approach not only simplifies operations but also improves the employee mobility experience and allows our clients to focus on strategic growth while we help them manage the complexity.

Increasingly, we find that managing mobile employees, multiple vendors, business partnering, ensuring compliance and an exceptional employee experience is complex, costly and subject to business fluctuation.

To support our clients, we take care of their mobility operations and bring together in a seamless way all our services, all the vendors, and program management so that our clients can focus on what truly matters, their business and their people.

Technology is a key part of delivering an outstanding mobility experience for all stakeholders. This is where our technology, EY Mobility Pathway, is a true differentiator as it brings together global mobility services, mobility management, and integration with our clients’ existing technology ecosystem.

As organizations evolve, so should an organization’s ability to deploy their global workforce. This is where mobility operations that are fit for purpose can drive the organization’s performance and effectiveness.

We help our clients assess their organization’s needs and how workforce mobility solutions can support business success. We co-create the right mobility program, strategy, and operating model, looking holistically at the entire ecosystem.

An important part of mobility operations is the technology that underpins the operating model. We know there is no single solution that fits all organizations; as a result, we work with our clients to map out their technology ecosystem to get the most out of their existing technology and processes and find the right mobility solutions for each organization.

A key component of effectively deploying a global workforce is the employee mobility experience, which needs to be assessed as part of the strategy, operating model, and technology landscape. We work with clients to simplify touchpoints, integrate payroll management, and ensure compliance with international tax and social security coordination for a seamless experience across the entire assignment life cycle.

As humans, we are inherently social beings, balancing personal and family responsibility with our careers and aspirations. This means we often find ourselves living and working in different places.

When this happens across borders, there are several risks and complexities which need to be proactively managed so that companies are compliant, in control of their risk exposure, and fulfill their duty of care towards their employees.

We help clients by assessing their risks, defining policies and processes, and using existing data to seamlessly manage risk. Where needed, we support with downstream services to enable international tax compliance, social security coordination, and cross-border mobility in a seamless compliant way.

To manage this at scale and enable organizations to focus on cases requiring attention only, our technology solution for both business travel and remote work consumes data from various sources (HRIS, travel company, employees, etc.) to automatically assess, identify risks, and trigger approval/rejection based on company policy and legal thresholds.

Multinational companies must effectively design, implement, communicate and administer equity-based compensation benefits for their worldwide employees. We support clients with each of these tasks and more.

Countries typically have differing rules on paying employees in shares. These usually include legal requirements and tax rules. Shares are typically earned over a period of time; globally mobile employees who work internationally during that time will typically have tax liabilities in more than one country, and the employer likely will have additional required tax withholding, tax reporting, and compliance obligations.