The COVID-19 pandemic has inadvertently resulted in a surge of “work-from-home” employees, and for many companies, it has proved to be a positive addition to their workplace culture. Because of this positive feedback and overall ease of having employees working from home, companies are allowing more of their employees to work remotely on a regular basis. According to a March 2020 article by Forbes, remote work increased 159% between 2002 and 2017 due to various benefits. The fact that COVID-19 has forced more companies to allow their employees to work remotely will likely mean this already growing trend will continue and even accelerate in the future. This migration to having more remote workers is likely to be just one of many significant changes as a result of COVID-19 and although working from home is not a new concept, having such an increase in remote workers will create new issues for companies to consider.
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Is Business Travel Dead?
Colleagues, peers, mobility professionals, and even my kids have asked me if COVID-19 means the end of business travel. And over the past two months, the traditional questions being asked have changed from a focus on business travel issues, the need to track business travelers, and how to manage the process, to questions about working through country travel bans, tax exemptions, and the immediate mobility tax risks of employees being in a location they might not have expected to be in. While we don’t have all the answers, we are working through these questions, determining next steps, and creating solutions together that can be used well into the future.
COVID-19, current travel restrictions, and government and business shutdowns have certainly made it difficult for many mobile employees to carry out “business as usual.” This can be particularly true for employees that were on a short-term or long-term assignment prior to COVID-19. Because of safety considerations or travel restrictions, two common scenarios that have emerged from the COVID-19 pandemic include:
Mobility program managers are continuously having to evolve and adapt to new circumstances, and are doing so now more than ever. Additionally, mobility programs and program managers need to remain flexible as COVID-19 continues to impact the world. Both companies and their employees are adapting to this “new world” and finding a new work-life balance while governments are continuing to make decisions to provide economic stimulus and stabilization.
As we all struggle to keep up with the impact of COVID-19, the changing rules, and the lack of guidelines, we wanted to share a few tips that have been beneficial for our clients with mobility programs. Here is a mobility tax checklist of considerations to think about as you work to determine next steps for your mobility program and your mobile employees.
Trying to keep up with the communications, news feeds, briefings, and information related to the current global COVID-19 pandemic makes this already stressful situation even more challenging. But being “in-the-know” is necessary to ensuring your mobility program continues to run smooth and your mobile employees understand the potential impact to them while on their mobile assignments. Our team here at GTN has been monitoring global tax activity and information related to COVID-19 and we recently created a COVID-19 tax resource center to share information that may impact you, your mobility program, and your mobile employees.
