Expatriate (expat)
is an employee working outside their home country — classically on employer-initiated assignments with expat packages, increasingly in localised or self-initiated arrangements. The structure chosen (assignment, transfer, local-plus) drives tax, social security, and cost.
The three expat structures and their consequences
- Home-based assignment: home contract kept, host work temporary — tax equalisation, shadow payroll, A1/coverage certificates; the costliest, most protective form.
- Localisation: host-country employment on local terms, sometimes ‘local-plus’ benefits — simpler, cheaper, ends home accruals.
- Self-initiated moves: employee-driven relocations formalised through local employment (often via an EOR) — the growth category remote work created.
Choosing the structure deliberately — rather than inheriting it from history — is where mobility programmes save the most money and risk.
FAQ
What does an expat package typically include?
Classic assignment packages: housing or allowance, relocation and schooling support, home flights, tax equalisation and briefings. The market trend is leaner: local-plus (local salary plus selected supports) has displaced full packages except for hardship locations and executives.
Are expats taxed at home or abroad?
By the general rules — host taxation of host workdays, residence-state taxation per treaty tie-breakers — not by any expat-specific privilege, though several countries offer inbound regimes (Dutch 30%-style rulings, Spanish and Italian schemes) that packages should exploit where available.