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Global Employer of Record (EOR) in Australia

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  1. Overview: Australia
  2. Global PEO and Payroll
  3. Global HR Compliance
  4. Work Permit for Hiring Foreign Talent with Global EOR
  5. Expand without a company set up
  6. Contractor vs. employee: which is better?
  7. Global Payroll Calculator
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Are you looking to engage and pay offshore IT developers in Australia?

Find out how you can make an informed decision on whether you should engage and pay employees or independent contractors using our free ‘Employee vs. Independent Contractor’ Checklist.

Designed to be used by companies engaging remote workforce in Australia the checklist is the best way to define why and in what cases companies should onboard new hires or convert existing contractors/freelancers into employees without missing any crucial aspects.

For a company, engaging top-of-the-line foreign talent is like having a superpower

How to engage and pay Australia-based developers without opening or while liquidating your own legal entity company in Australia?

  • How to attract high-caliber global IT talent to augment your in-house team while saving costs compared to hiring inside the home country?
  • How to onboard key IT minds immediately without delaying a hire date?
  • How to retain the best people and become an enticing employer even that you are not Google?

How is a worker classified in Australia?

Determining whether he or she is an employee or an independent contractor in Australia is done similarly to many other countries: by the level of his or her dependence on the supervisor, by the range of his or her subordination to administrative entities. Australian Employee In Australia an employee is a working person performing his or her duties on a daily basis for the same employer/same business for a lasting period of time, implying a 40-hour working week. Australian Independent Contractor An independent contractor in Australia is someone who is, in fact, an entity of their own and can carry a business singly. Generally, independent contractors are subject to social security and income taxes.

Factors Setting an Employee and a Contractor Apart

  • An independent contractor has full control over how and when he or she performs working obligations, provides his own tools/equipment, receives payment in strict accordance with job accomplishment, can subcontract others, or delegate if willing. Meanwhile, an employee would have a supervisor overlooking his daily activities and performance quality, receive a salary on a monthly basis.
  • Fraudulent contracting is strictly prohibited in Australia: the scheme where employees are hired legally as independent contractors but are treated, essentially, as employees. If such a case still occurs, the employer (as well as everyone else involved) becomes subject to a fine imposed through court, amounting from AUD 11K up to AUD 54K.

At Acumen International, we help you handle all of these challenges. We can onboard and pay your foreign IT staff on your behalf in 190+ countries with 100% legal compliance. When competing in the war for sought-after IT talent, you often wonder…

  • Is it prudent to engage and pay international IT staff on my own entities in Australia? Is it realistic for my current goals and future opportunities?
  • Or is engaging freelancers a good fit for my company?

Finding the answers doesn’t have to be complicated or time consuming.


 

What Our Clients Are Saying?

I’d like to share my experience dealing with Acumen International company.

Speed & responsiveness: Very prompt in response from my first enquiry about converting contractors into employees to follow up questions.

Completeness of information: I like how detailed the estimates and the transparency makes us feel more confident in knowing where the money goes to.

Overall experience: I am pleased and impressed with how fast they respond to my enquiries. We can trust the company to employ the contractors we want to keep.

Quah Shen Dee,
People Success Officer

I always found Acumen International very supportive, professional and helpful. They pay salary on time and are always ready to sort out any issues that arise.

I must admit I truly enjoy my time as an Acumen International employee and feel like they care about me as an individual. I have my own dedicated manager that provides me with detailed explanations when it’s needed. Payments are always prompt and the entire team does its best to respond to any of my questions.

I highly recommend Acumen International to anyone that requires their services.

Andrew Yanchurevich,
COO


The Top 5 Reasons to Convert Australian
FREELANCERS into FULL-TIME EMPLOYEES

We’ve recently noticed an uptick in IT companies’ desire to hire the brightest minds and eliminate the risks of independent contractor misclassification in Australia and all over the world. But with more and more companies competing for these contractors, the more they are shying away from converting their existing freelancers & independent contractors into full-time employees.

You don’t have to be one of those companies

Here’s Out a Litigation You Definitely Would Want to Avoid…
One American company was working on a full-time basis with a Slovakian IT freelancer for approximately three years. The American HR director decided to contact Acumen International to employ this freelancer to eliminate the risk of employee / independent IT contractor misclassification in the future.

The US finance department did not approve of our offer to employ the Slovakian freelancer as it seemed higher than what they were currently paying the freelancer. An employee misclassification case did not seem imminent, so they decided not to act.

Half a year later the same company contacted us to employ the Slovakian freelancer. Our offer got approved but the freelancer refused to sign our employment agreement. In this half year, the relationship between the freelancer and the US company went sour. The freelancer decided to go to the labor authorities instead. We never heard the ultimate verdict but from communication with the HR director we understood that they risked paying the due social security taxes, vacation, severance payment and additional fines. The total claimed amount was approximately 70.000 EUR.

Together with 100% compliance, official PEO employment of a foreign person in Australia ensures:

  • NO business risks: secured customer base and intellectual property
  • On-site customer support and in-depth knowledge of local business culture
  • Local managers speak your language
  • Your time and money saved
  • Less time spent on recruitment, evaluation, onboarding of globally distributed teams of professionals, or a learning curve

To make it easy for you to choose between the two options, we have designed our ‘Employee vs Independent Contractor’ Checklist

Hidden benefits of hiring and payrolling foreign employees vs independent contractors in Australia:

  • Engaging and paying foreign talent via a global PEO solution is about 30% cheaper than engaging in-house
  • Saves around 50% costs compared to working and paying through your own entity
  • With the help of employment, employee loyalty grows by 47%, which is why you can retain the top minds long-term
  • Official foreign employment eliminates 95% of legal, financial, and business risks. Also, using this service you can get the flexibility and take up more projects of different duration. You can start a bare-bones operation in with just one or a couple of employees and easily add any headcount as you move along.

Download your free copy of
the ‘Employee vs Independent Contractor’ Checklist

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