An international payroll provider runs payroll for staff outside your home country: gross-to-net under each country's rules, filings, payments and one consolidated view. For a UK employer the need usually starts with one employee moving abroad or one hire overseas, and the first discovery is that HMRC's rules follow the employee out of the country: PAYE and National Insurance do not simply stop at departure, and a good provider is one that handles both ends of that, not just the foreign payslip.
What an international payroll provider actually does
The provider calculates pay under the destination country's tax and social security rules, produces compliant payslips, files what local authorities require and pays employees and agencies, reporting back to you in one place. Delivery follows one of two models: a network of in-country partner bureaus unified by a platform, which maximises country coverage, or the provider's own payroll engines in each market, which behaves more consistently but covers fewer countries. Most large vendors mix both, so the question to ask is which model serves each specific country on your list, and how an error is corrected when it happens inside a partner bureau two contracts away from you.
The UK side: PAYE follows the employee abroad
HMRC's guidance for employees working abroad is explicit that the employer must continue to calculate and deduct PAYE income tax from payments to employees who go to work overseas, providing details of departure date and pay and tax to that point. An employee leaving for a year or more can seek relief through form P85, and double deduction with the host country is managed rather than assumed away. If the person moves fully onto an overseas employer's payroll, leaver and starter processes apply. A provider serving UK employers should be fluent in this home-side mechanics; one that only talks about the destination payroll is doing half the job.
National Insurance depends on the destination
The National Insurance treatment splits three ways in HMRC's guidance. For the EU, EEA countries and Switzerland, employees normally pay social security where they work, unless a certificate covers a temporary posting, which can run up to two years. For countries holding a social security agreement with the UK, including Canada, the USA, Japan and India, contributions are usually due there, with an application route to keep paying UK contributions temporarily. For all other countries, the employer continues deducting UK National Insurance for the first 52 weeks, provided the employer has a place of business in the UK, the employee is ordinarily resident and was resident before the posting. Which of the three branches applies changes the cost of an assignment, so it belongs in the plan, not the post-mortem.
Choosing between payroll, EOR and doing it in-house
An international payroll provider assumes there is a registered employer in the destination country: your entity, or you retaining the person on UK payroll within the rules above. Where you have no entity and the person should be locally employed, the product you need is an employer of record, which supplies the local employer and costs accordingly; this site's tables compare those vendors on verified prices. For a single secondment, your existing UK payroll plus professional advice may be enough. Ask any provider to show filing evidence per country, name where data is processed, and price corrections and off-cycle runs. HMRC guidance and your contracts control; nothing here is tax advice.
Questions people ask about international payroll provider
Does PAYE stop when an employee goes to work abroad?
No. HMRC's guidance says the employer continues to calculate and deduct PAYE for employees working abroad, with departure details recorded; an employee going for a year or more can seek relief via form P85. Host-country tax may apply in parallel and needs managing.
Do employees abroad still pay UK National Insurance?
It depends on the destination: social security is normally paid where the work is done in the EU, EEA and Switzerland, agreement countries have their own rules with a route to remain in UK NI temporarily, and elsewhere UK NI continues for the first 52 weeks where the ordinary residence and UK employer conditions are met.
Is an international payroll provider the same as an EOR?
No. The payroll provider processes pay for an existing legal employer; an EOR is the legal employer where you have none. If there is no entity or continuing UK employment in the destination, payroll processing alone cannot make the arrangement compliant.
What should I ask a provider before signing?
Which countries run on its own engines versus partner bureaus, what filing evidence you receive, where employee data is processed, how corrections are priced, and how it supports the UK-side PAYE and NI mechanics for outbound employees.