Global Mobility

Global Mobility refers to the transfer of individuals – especially employees – from Italy to a foreign country and vice versa for professional, personal and training reasons. It specifically concerns the movement of employees between different sites of the same company, often multinationals, to meet operational needs. This area analyses in depth the legal, social security, fiscal and immigration implications, providing integrated support to manage every aspect of Global Mobility.

The main objective of Global Mobility is to facilitate international transfers, improving workforce flexibility and ensuring full compliance with local regulations. This reduces the risks of sanctions related to the different regulations in force in European and non-European countries, while promoting effective and strategic management of staff mobility.

The Global Mobility team

Our Global Mobility team provides comprehensive support to companies operating in the international market and those busy expanding abroad. With an integrated vision of international mobility, we provide legal, tax, social security and immigration advice, addressing the complex implications of managing international personnel coming to and leaving from Italy.

New forms of mobility

Our approach combines traditional international mobility tools. We offer innovative solutions for managing transfers and secondments, including modalities such as remote working and virtual assignment, ensuring regulatory compliance and operational efficiency responding to the modern demands of an increasingly global working world.

Choosing our team means having a strategic partner capable of offering tailor-made solutions, in line with the business needs and the dynamics of a global market in continuous evolution. We operate in an environment where companies face increasingly complex challenges, driven by intensifying competition, new emerging customer expectations and the urgency to adapt quickly to change.

International remote working

Remote working allows workers to carry out their activity in a country other than that in which the employer is based. In the context of global mobility, a remote worker is someone who works mainly from home remotely using technology, only having to move physically occasionally.

This has a huge advantage: it allows companies to access global technical and specialist skills, optimizing costs and reducing the complexities related to international mobility, while maintaining a high level of collaboration and productivity thanks to digital technologies. Given the complexity of this organizational structure, remote working involves the management of specific legal, fiscal, social security and administrative aspects according to the regulations of the country in which the worker operates.

Virtual assignment

This recently widespread organization method allows employees (of a seconding company) to work for an organization (seconded company) part of the same group located in a foreign country, while remaining physically in their home country and without changing their place of work.

In recent years, the use of this form of global mobility has grown significantly, thanks to its use as a tool for optimizing costs and improving the efficiency of international organizational structures.

International business trips

During international work trips, workers temporarily carries out their activity in a country other than their home country, while maintaining a direct link with their role in the home country. This method is adopted when the physical presence of the worker abroad is necessary, for example to provide technical support in a project or to participate in meetings with clients.

International secondments (from and to a foreign country)

This tool allows employees to be temporarily transferred from the organization to which they belong (seconding company), located in their home country, to another company of the same group, operating abroad (in the host country). During the secondment period, the legal employment relationship remains in force with the home company, while the employee works at the host company, taking on the responsibilities and tasks foreseen by the international project, in line with their role.

Generally, international secondment is used for specific projects at the host company, where specialized experience or know-how is required. It involves complex management, which includes: legal, fiscal, social security, administrative aspects and possible immigration registration.

Secondment is a strategic solution to manage human capital within international groups, but requires careful planning and monitoring to ensure compliance and operational efficiency.

International relocations

International relocation is the contractual movement – temporary or permanent – of an employee from a company location in one country to another location in another country. This process is planned with the aim of meeting the strategic needs of the company, promoting the development of global skills, accessing new markets or managing projects of international relevance. Effective and successful management of global mobility requires careful planning that balances business priorities with the well-being and satisfaction of the worker involved.

Our services for Global Mobility

As a business partner, we offer both integrated consultancy covering legal, fiscal, social security and immigration aspects and support in fulfilling the related administrative requirements.

Legal

We ensure the proper formalization of international worker mobility by drafting secondment contracts, international mission letters, remote working and virtual assignment contracts, as well as intercompany contracts for cost management.

We support companies in defining and implementing international mobility policies, including tax neutralization tools such as “tax equalization” and “tax protection”.

Immigration

We assist companies in identifying the most appropriate procedure for the entry of workers into the destination country, whether moving from abroad to Italy or vice versa. Our service is designed to meet the often stringent timeframes demanded by businesses.

We offer support in obtaining entry permits and, thanks to collaboration with professional Andersen firms around the world, we guarantee smooth coordination between the countries involved, ensuring the correct initiation and monitoring of immigration procedures.

Our team of experts is specialized not only in managing the formalities associated with international mobility, but also in assistance to apply for Italian citizenship. We provide fast, efficient and customized solutions for every need, ensuring complete and professional support to facilitate every phase of the process.

International social security

As an integrated team, we provide strategic advice for proper short- and long-term pension planning for employees. In the context of global mobility, we offer support in various areas.

Situational social security analysis: we determine in which country social security contributions should be paid, considering three aspects.

The applicable social security agreement
The place in which the work is carried out
The tax residence of the employee

Support for companies and inbound workers: assisting companies and workers from countries that have not signed social security agreements with Italy. We offer our support in ensuring the necessary measures are taken to ensure compliance with Italian social security legislation.

Management of social security representation:

We set up social security representation in the Italian pension system.
We take care of the necessary procedural requirements.
We configure the payroll process and we provide ongoing support for finalizing monthly payments.

Social Security Coverage Certificate: once the social security agreement or the applicable article of Community Regulation 883/2004 has been identified, we help companies obtain the social security coverage certificate for the Italian employees who will be working abroad, in compliance with international agreements, ensuring the maintenance of social security coverage in Italy and avoiding any contribution obligations for the employer in the foreign country.

Our experts in Global Mobility and international pensions offer highly specialized consultancy on social security totalization.

Notification obligations for secondments and transnational transfers (Posted Worker Notification)

The notification obligation provided for by European legislation on transnational secondments and transfers, implemented according to different methods by the different European States, is designed to ensure that workers temporarily sent abroad receive fair treatment in terms of:

social security
tax security
labor law

The aim is to prevent potential abuses between the countries involved.

The Global Mobility team supports companies in all aspects relating to transnational movements of employees, including secondments and transfers, offers comprehensive assistance in managing the obligation to provide notification of the employee’s presence in the foreign country (Posted Worker Notification).

To ensure an efficient and immediately accessible service, the Global Mobility team of Andersen Global, supported by state-of-the-art technology, has developed an innovative platform that allows customers to:

Access real-time information on the implementation of the Posted Workers Directive in the different European Union countries.
Manage easily and effectively issue Posted Worker Notifications in the various EU countries.

Although the implementation of the notification obligation has been implemented differently across EU countries, there are some common elements:

Registration with the competent authorities: The company in the home country must register according to and within the timeframes established by the relevant legislation with the competent authorities of the host country in order to proceed with the notification of the secondment or transfer of the worker.
Preventive communication: The home company is required to notify the competent foreign authorities in advance of the secondment or transfer, usually no later than 24 hours prior to the event.
Document requirements: The seconding company must provide the competent authorities of the host country with all the necessary documentation to confirm that it complies with local regulations regarding minimum wages, working hours, holidays and safety at work.
Checks and sanctions: Failure to comply with notification obligations may result in sanctions for the company, such as fines and loss of benefits related to social security regulations and loss of the right to participate in international public tenders. In addition, the host country authorities may apply their own labor laws, creating additional obligations.

Worker taxation

Global Mobility’s tax team offers strategic advice to optimize the tax management of international staff mobility. Our tax experts carry out initial and periodic assessments to identify potential areas of tax risk or inefficiency, ensuring efficient management and compliance with international regulations.

By carefully assessing the cost of employees involved in international mobility projects, we determine the tax implications of work carried out abroad during secondments and business trips, as well as providing support in identifying tax obligations relating to:

Corporate incentive plans, such as stock options, RSUs and multi-year bonuses
Application of favorable tax incentives (impatriate regime – new resident regime) for seconded employees.

For employees in Italy and abroad, we offer support in preparing annual tax returns, with particular focus on the recovery of double taxation which may occur in Italy and abroad, taking into account where the income is earned and the tax residence of the worker.

For client companies, we develop customized tax planning strategies and we support the management of a shadow payroll in Italy and abroad for seconded employees, ensuring that every aspect is managed smoothly and efficiently.

Coordinator: Paolo Lucarini, partner