When it comes to hiring in Australia, the first thing you might ask is: How will I pay remote workers in Australia, if I don’t have a physical entity set up?

 The answer to this question isn’t as straightforward as you may like. Every country has its own set of barriers to cross, rules to adhere to and boxes to tick, and Australian employment law is no different.

So, you’ve found the perfect employee to hire in Australia. All you need to do now is work out how to pay remote workers, which can be challenging. It’s not as easy as managing payroll from the U.S. or Canada. After all, it’s against the law to run your business in Australia without having a physical entity on Australian soil. Tax, retirement fund and compliance laws in Australia are most likely very different from the ones you’re used to.

The good news is, working out how to pay remote workers isn’t something business owners need to figure out on their own. At Australia PEO, we partner with international businesses like yours who wish to expand their business into Australia and become the physical entity you’re required to have to pay your staff in the country.

You’ve likely never heard of a professional employment organisation (PEO). What Australia PEO does is take on the role of employer of record for your workers here in Australia. Working with us means you’re minimising your risk of non-compliance and limiting the amount of red tape you need to pass through to pay your staff remotely.

Challenges of paying remote workers

When your business decides to make an appearance in Australia and payroll incorporates a different set of employment rules, paying your employs remotely can quickly present itself with issues.

Particularly if you have limited resources, international employment law can put a real strain on your payroll department, who’ve only ever had to deal with domestic employment law.

Some risks of paying staff remotely:

• Tax non-compliance
• Fair Work Australia non-compliance
• Transparent timekeeping
• International currency exchange issues.

In Australia, it’s hard paying your employees internationally unless you’ve registered a brand, physical entity or subsidiary with local authorities unless you partner with Australia PEO.

From deciding on payroll mechanisms to getting your head around preliminary Australian legislation, businesses have to pay close attention to every detail.

Reasons NOT to register in Australia

Let’s say you meet a sales executive from Australia at a conference in the U.S. This salesperson might be the perfect person to sell your product in Australia. You strike up a conversation and decide to hire him on the spot. When you get back to the office to do some research on Australian employment law, you quickly find out there’s more to paying staff in Australia that meets the eye.

International businesses and organisations who want to employ in Australia are required to comply with a long list of legislative requirements. Before sourcing staff, you’ll first need to become accustomed to conditions of employment, workplace health and safety, workers compensation, superannuation, tax and all the rules that come with registering your business on the Australian Business Register. 

For some companies, though, this process seems like a long way to go if all they want to do is have one employee on the ground in Australia. They’re not ready to register a full-service entity in Australia just yet. First, they need to get a feel for the industry and its consumers.

If you were to partner with Australia PEO, you could eliminate this lengthy process altogether.

How Australia PEO can help you pay remote workers in Australia

It’s not enough for your management personnel to cross their fingers and hope they’re being compliant by having mysterious international employees on their payroll. Or if they rely on their payroll provider to process wages without any further investigation – legally you’re required to link your Australian employees with a tax file number.

If you’ve reached the point in your expansion journey where you’re faced with the task of working out a payroll strategy, you’ll know just how complicated it can be.

Even if you find a way to pay your staff remotely legally, you’re still required to adhere to Australian employment laws when it comes to payroll, compliance, visa, leave and so on.

We offer consolidated employment support for businesses in every country who wish to expand here in Australia. Save the drama, hassle and headache of doing the task on your own and give us a call today.