People Services

Companies are increasingly recruiting qualified people offshore and moving their existing employees between countries. As a result, employees often find themselves working abroad or travelling between their home base and the location of their current assignment. Many companies also call upon foreign talent to cover local sourcing needs.

Managing such a global workforce can be challenging and requires a constant observation and understanding of the various complex and continuously evolving immigration laws and practices. To help you navigate the complex immigration legislation, our team of experts are ready to guide you through a maze of immigration procedures and timelines.

Strongly connected to KPMG’s Immigration Network, our Belgian team is your door opener to a wealth of experienced professionals all over the globe. Working with you, we save you time and reduce the uncertainty, frustration and anxiety that so often accompanies immigration matters. Our immigration team is embedded in our People Service practice which offers you the certainty of an integrated approach for any social security, labor law and tax issues.

In today’s global marketplace, opportunities for your organization can arise at different locations. To fully grasp these opportunities your company needs the right people in the right place at the right time.

Our experts can assist with:

• Strategic immigration advice for both companies and individuals;
• Support with obtaining the necessary visa’s, work and residence permits for your workforce and their dependents, including continued support and monitoring status;
• Assessments of and advice on business visas, work and residence authorization requirements concerning business trips, assignments, transfers, relocations and local hires;
• Organize training and workshops with your Human Resources department and Global Mobility managers, employees and project managers on a wide range of issues, such as integrating immigration into business initiatives and contract negotiations, helping ensure compliance with immigration laws, and dealing with reorganizations and resourcing changes;
• Review of your immigration processes and perform compliance audits.

We developed the following cutting-edge technology for case assessments and process tracking:

• KPMG Immigration Manager (KIM) allows clients and KPMG members firms to track the progress related to immigration processes, expiry dates of permits and has many other useful functions securing a smooth process for all parties involved.
• KPMG Business Traveler helps clients to quickly pre-assess immigration requirements for global travels and business trips, also allowing for the management of social security and tax compliance.

You compensate your employees, both in cash and in kind. A crystal-clear employment package is therefore essential and achieving that clarity largely depends on properly accounting for payroll tax and social security contributions. Regrettably it’s often unclear whether, when or how compensation and allowances are subject to payroll tax and social security contributions. The rules governing this field are complex and encompass numerous special arrangements in areas such as pensions, stock option plans and employee savings plans.

 To help you determine how payroll tax and social security impact your organization our People Services team and specifically our payroll tax experts can provide you with:

• advice on (international) wage tax and social security,
• assistance with wage tax compliance,
• advice on and assistance with wage tax exemptions,
• tax and security analysis of fringe benefits (cafeteria models, expense allowances, reimbursement of costs proper to the employer, equity-based compensation plans and pension plans),
• support during tax and/or social security audits,
• assistance with Tax ruling (e.g. costs proper to the employer),
• assistance with payroll scans
• coordination and processing of expatriate payroll,
• liaising between companies and third-party payroll vendors to improve coordination, accuracy and accountability,
• on-site support.

In a dynamic market with highly competitive talent pools, it’s often said that ‘people’ are an organization’s greatest asset.

How can you ensure that your reward offering is compliant from a tax, social security, and employment law perspective? How can you increase your employee engagement in your organization with your benefit scheme?

KPMG’s Belgian Reward Practice specializes in advising corporates on effective remuneration strategies. Our multidisciplinary team of experts can help you with all technical aspects of the assessment, planning, and implementation of reward plans. Our integrated approach helps to ensure that the relevant tax, cost, and legal implications are factored into your decision-making process.

Belgian employment law can often appear complex and difficult to apprehend. It can quite often come across as a true legal maze, our experts however are very familiar at finding their way through and guiding you throughout this process at the same time. Using the right legal blend for your company, we can help you navigate the complexities of international employment mobility, drafting policies and remunerations well as offer advice on all matters relating to the legal side of employment and compensation.

Our experts are ready to help you clear the complexities of employment law covering a range of domains.

• International employment mobility
• Intra group mobility/sourcing of employees
• Employment contracts, work rules and codes of conduct
• Drafting policies on remuneration and other HR aspects
• Advice on working time and due compensation
• Advice on non-compete clauses and IP related matters in an HR context
• Advice regarding wellbeing at the work place
• Restructuring
• Social due diligence, both in the framework of an internal audit as in the framework of mergers and acquisitions
• Social security, including:
  • Social security tax advice, both in a national and international context
  • Application for A1 Certifications / Certificate of Coverage
  • Assistance with regards to registration formalities (e.g. Limosa)

Employment across national borders can be very complicated. Our People Services experts assist organizations, company directors and employees with reducing tax costs, mitigating tax risks and refining organizational complexity whilst meeting standards of tax compliance.

Our team offers you their expertise, practical guidance and if needed on-site assistance with respect to the following services:

• international social security and tax planning,
• designing, reviewing and benchmarking of short-term, long-term and commuter assignment policies,
• improving, reengineering and coordination of international mobility processes,
• social security and tax cost projections,
• advice and assistance with reducing social security and tax costs (e.g. Belgian special expatriate tax regime for foreign executives, specialists and researchers),
• compliance assistance (e.g. social security and wage withholding tax payroll calculations, individual income tax returns, tax advance payments) and
• communications with the tax authorities (e.g. assistance with tax audits, requests to obtain tax rulings).