Free Guide: Employing UK Staff From Overseas (2026)

Employing UK staff from overseas: the 2026 checklist

A plain-English guide for overseas companies hiring their first UK employee, no UK entity required. Built around the 2026/27 rules, with the numbers you'll actually use.

The three routes compared, your own PAYE, a direct payment or NI-only scheme, or an EOR

What a UK employee really costs in 2026/27 (employer NI where it's due, pension, holiday)

The key 2026/27 numbers: 15% employer NI where it's due (the rate since April 2025), the £96 a week registration trigger, the pension minimums and the National Living Wage

Right-to-work checks: your duty to check before the start date

Setting up a direct payment scheme with HMRC, and how long we allow for it

A first-30-days action checklist you can work straight through

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Who the guide is for

A company based outside the UK that is hiring someone who will live and work in the UK. It's general information for the 2026 to 2027 tax year, not advice on your own case.

A few answers from inside

Do you need a UK company?

Usually not. HMRC's DPNI guidance includes employees of an overseas employer that has no UK address it pays wages from. HMRC's manual also leaves an employer with no UK presence free to run PAYE voluntarily. We'll ask HMRC for the scheme that fits your facts, and once they have the full facts they may suggest a different one. Which scheme fits is what our route finder works out, in four questions.

What does a hire cost on top of salary?

For most employees, UK employer's National Insurance is 15% of whatever they earn above £5,000 a year. Whether your company owes it at all depends on where it is based. The employee's own National Insurance comes out of their pay: on the standard category letter A, 8% on earnings between £242 and £967 a week, and 2% above that.

Anyone aged 22 to State Pension age who earns at least £10,000 a year and normally works in the UK must be enrolled in a workplace pension. The minimum total contribution is 8% of earnings between £6,240 and £50,270 a year, and the employer pays at least 3% of it. From April 2026 the National Living Wage is £12.71 an hour for workers aged 21 and over.

What has to be in place on day one?

You must have employers' liability insurance from the day you become an employer, unless the only person you employ is based outside England, Scotland and Wales, and you can be fined £2,500 for every day you're not properly insured. The workplace pension (auto-enrolment) duties also start on the employee's start date, not when HMRC open the scheme. Before they start, you must check that they're allowed to work for you in the UK, and you could face a civil penalty if you employ an illegal worker without a correct check.

How long does setup take?

We'd allow four to eight weeks for HMRC to set the scheme up, and that's our own estimate, not a figure from HMRC.

The guide goes further on all of this, and adds what has to happen every payday and a first 30 days checklist.