Boris will fix it: Dyson staff coming to the UK

As reported in the media, all it takes to sort out any tax issues when bringing non-UK tax resident employees to the UK to work is having Boris’ mobile number.

"Boris" being Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister.

If you have this and text him directly, he “will fix it” for you, as per his reported dealings with Sir James Dyson who wanted to bring his staff to the UK to help with the manufacture of ventilators in the early stages of the pandemic in 2020. 

The subsequent change that Chancellor Rishi Sunak introduced was to amend the statutory residence test so that dates spent in the UK between 1 March 2020 and 1 June 2020 for individuals working on COVID-19 related activities would not count towards the residence tests.

To qualify for this amendment, the individual had to be in the UK as a medical or healthcare professional for purposes related to either:

• the detection, treatment or prevention of COVID-19 or the development, or 
• production of medicinal products such as vaccines, devices, equipment or facilities. 

HMRC has also published updated guidance relating to the statutory residence test in the form of a Q&A.

Our previous guidance in this area was covered in our earlier article.

We also have useful information in our Employer Solutions Knowledge Hub and our International Advisory Knowledge Hub.

As you can see from the above, there is a great deal of complexity surrounding the global mobility of workers.

So if you are not lucky enough to have Boris’ mobile number and need help in this area, please contact a member of our Employer Solutions team or International Advisory team.