International Payroll

Employing people in the UK from overseas brings a payroll regime that looks nothing like the one at head office: PAYE registration, Real Time Information filings on or before every payday, workplace pension duties, and statutory payments with their own acronyms and deadlines. Getting it wrong is expensive; explaining it across time zones is exhausting.

We act as the UK payroll arm for international groups: registering the UK employer with HMRC, running compliant gross-to-net payroll for UK-based staff, handling auto enrolment, and reporting back to your head office or global payroll provider in the format they need. One UK contact, business-hours responses, and no local knowledge gaps.

Payroll for Overseas Employers with UK Staff

A company with no UK entity can still have UK payroll obligations the moment it hires someone who works here. We advise on whether a PAYE scheme is required, register it with HMRC, and run the payroll — including the cases where an overseas employer has no UK presence and the compliance burden sits in unfamiliar territory. Where employer National Insurance obligations fall differently because the employer is non-resident, we make sure the scheme is set up on the correct basis from the start.

UK Subsidiaries of International Groups

For international groups with a UK subsidiary, we run the local payroll to UK rules while reporting upwards in the group's format and currency conventions. Head office gets consolidated, predictable reporting; UK employees get accurate payslips, pension contributions and statutory payments; HMRC gets its RTI submissions on time. We work alongside your group finance team or global payroll platform rather than forcing either to learn UK legislation.

Inbound and Expatriate Employees

Employees arriving in the UK mid-year, split-year cases and staff on assignment bring payroll questions that standard software does not answer: which earnings are within PAYE, what tax code applies, and how UK obligations interact with home-country arrangements. Our payroll team works with Acumon's tax specialists — many with prior HMRC experience — so expatriate payroll questions are answered once, correctly, rather than guessed at every pay run.

Everything a UK Payroll Must Do

However international the ownership, a UK payroll has the same statutory workload as any other: RTI submissions on or before each payday, auto enrolment assessment and pension deductions, statutory sick, maternity and paternity pay, P60s and P11Ds at year end. All of it is included, run by the same CIPP-qualified team that handles our domestic payrolls.

Coordination with Global Providers and Advisors

Many international clients run a global payroll platform or use advisors in their home country. We slot into those arrangements as the UK specialist: providing the local calculations and filings, answering the UK-specific questions, and delivering output files in whatever format the global process expects. You keep your existing structure; the UK piece simply becomes reliable.

What You Get With Acumon

• PAYE scheme registration for overseas employers and new UK subsidiaries
• Compliant UK gross-to-net payroll, however the parent company is structured
• RTI submissions (FPS and EPS) filed on or before every payday
• Auto enrolment assessment, pension deductions and declarations for UK staff
• Payroll for inbound and expatriate employees, supported by our tax specialists
• Reporting to head office or your global payroll provider in the format they need
• Statutory payments handled correctly: sick, maternity, paternity and shared parental pay
• A named UK-based contact answering in UK business hours

Why Acumon for International Payroll?

• All payroll staff hold Chartered Institute of Payroll Professionals (CIPP) qualifications
• Manages payrolls in-house for 250+ companies
• All payroll team members are based in the UK
• Supports UK subsidiaries of international groups, working alongside overseas head offices and global payroll providers

Get a Fixed-Fee Quote

Tell us what you need and we'll come back within one business day with a clear scope and a fixed price — no hourly-rate surprises. Call 020 8567 3451 or use the form and we'll be in touch.