It seems that many European countries are now taking the view that if employees are temporarily performing activities in their country due to the COVID situation, no registration of the foreign employers is required and no A1’s need to be requested from the home country. This special agreement ends 30 June 2021.
From 1 July A1’s will be required (or social security position reviewed) if employees continue to work remotely from their home office in a country other than that where their employer is located.
This is contrary to previous published advice however Belgium, Slovakia, Ireland and Germany are following the above so this is worth taking into account.
Also, HMRC commented on the fact that the UK-Norway and UK-Swiss bilateral agreements don’t have any provisions for multi-state workers. They have advised the following:
Both the social security Conventions the UK has with Switzerland and Norway provide for an exception to the general rules on which legislation is applicable, where this is in the interest of the worker. As it is clearly in the interest of the worker to be subject to only country’s scheme at a time, we would encourage any worker who is carrying out an activity as an employed or self-employed person in the UK and either Switzerland or Norway to apply for an exception to ensure that they only pay into one countries’ scheme at a time.
Stuart Strong
stuart.strong@bdo.co.uk