Are there any PEOs for countries in Europe?

You may want to check out www.mauvegroup.com They have Europe locations for PEO. Good luck.

Bob, the technical answer is no because the PEO business model is unique to the US and without getting too deep into the weeds is a product of the US tax code. The PEO model does not directly translate to Europe due to key differences in health insurance, pensions and taxes. However, there are several ways to achieve PEO-like results in Europe.

One option is to use a service firm to administer the HR functions in Europe, similar to Shawn's suggestion. This option does require you to have a European corporate entity but there are firms that make this process relatively convenient.

Another option is to use a firm that provides PEO like services but is technically a staffing company. This reduces (I won't say eliminates) the need to start a European corporate entity but you do lose some control since the employees work for the staffing company.

The right answer for you obviously depends on your specific needs and goals. We've helped several clients using both models. Contact me if I can assist you or answer any more detailed questions.

Bob,

One twist I've tried is to simply have someone local incorporate; they can go from being your employee to owner of a company. You then contract directly with them...they become your PEO. It is like doing (3) independent contractor, but gives you the ability to help them give themselves more structure.

Malak; Mauve group is a good one; I had not heard of them yet. Cheers.

All...thanks for your helpful replies!

I would also strongly advise that you consider the potential issues that could arise upon termination of these employees hired through the PEO.

Angela - I did forward the contact info to your linkedin account via inMail.

Thanks,
Shawn

If anyone is still looking for this service in Europe or elsewhere you can now also utilise a GEO (global employment organization) provider.

As Scott has pointed out this is a bit different to the US PEO model of co-employment as your employees will be fully fledged employees of the host country provider. The GEO provider is wholly responsible for in-country compliance unlike in the PEO model where this responsibility is shared. We coined the GEO term to illustrate this difference.

The GEO provider holds all necessary licenses, registrations and insurances to operate in the host country. GEO providers may cover just one country or many. They may operate through their own company entirely or, as we do, aggregate services from specialist local partners. In my experience you get the best knowledge from a single country specialist but if you require services in many countries then reducing the number of providers makes life alot easier.

- Workers become direct employees of the GEO provider and are issued with local employment contracts. They are paid and taxed as employees. There is no risk of misclassification.
- GEO provider invoices the client monthly in advance for the Total Cost of Employment (TCE) and their fee. TCE includes base salary, allowances, bonus, employers social security contributions, other statutory contributions, taxes if applicable.
- Workers are payrolled within the host country and GEO provider makes statutory income tax and social security / withholding deductions.
- GEO provider can process expense reimbursements to the employees.
- GEO provider supplies payslips and reporting.

The GEO service can still normally operate with the 5 most common ways to structure employment contracts for international assignees. For example shadow payrolls and dual employment contracts are possible, although this is always pendant on host country regulations.

Stephen raises a good point about termination. Even if the employee is relocating back to the home country and maintaining employment with head office they should still have their host country employment terminated according to local regulations. The corollary is of course that companies who do incorporate locally or register locally should also consider the cost and time required to deregister and wind down those entities in future.

Since my original post, I've found a UK outfit which acts as a PEO by employing contractors and acting as a reseller (for a small commission %). When a company is ready for an entity they do all of the entity formation and accounting. Been using them for nearly two years with success. Their name is www.v-sub.com. They also have a sales and marketing arm that they offer to companies who want a turnkey sales and marketing presence in the UK.

Hello everybody,

If you are still looking for PEO / EOR services, the company that I am working for offers EOR (Employer of Record) solutions in several countries in Europe, South America and South Africa.

Have a look at the website www.capital-ges.com and feel free to contact me if you need further information