by John Pearce, Chief Customer Officer, CloudPay.

Regulations and Compliance for Payroll in 2024: As 2024 gets up to speed, there are a lot of things happening around the world that payroll teams and practitioners need to be aware of. And one topic that I think will be front-and-center of many people’s minds this year is compliance. 

At a global level, compliance and data privacy will continue to be a priority across both the private and public sector, in light of increased cyber threats and a greater focus on transparency. Achieving the required standard demands expert and current knowledge of all the regulations around payroll calculation and submission, and how that corresponds to your own payroll processes and practices. This can be a complex and time-consuming undertaking, and gets even more complicated in global payroll situations where there are multiple sets of national laws and regulations to account for. 

Making things even more challenging is that regulations and requirements are evolving all the time, so global payroll teams are aiming at a moving target. In this blog, I’ve highlighted some of the biggest changes happening around the world in 2024, so that you can stay on top of your compliance needs and maintain timely, accurate payroll processes. 

My global regulations and compliance for Payroll predictions for 2024

• Worldwide – the risk of uncertainty: all around the world, there are a large number of conflicts ongoing at present, as well as financial crises and persistent uncertainty around climate and sustainability. All of these make global conditions less predictable for payroll and finance teams, which makes the job of maintaining payroll quality and compliance so much harder. At the same time, it can also increase the demand on payroll teams and organizations as a whole to support employees at their time of need, if they face financial distress or hardship. 
  
• Argentina – political upheaval: Javier Milei’s accession to the Argentinian presidency in December 2023 is likely to lead to major economic and financial changes in a country that hasn’t been the most stable. Among the planned reforms, the Milei administration is aiming to close Argentina’s central bank and switch its national currency from pesos to the US dollar. These moves will have a major impact on how payroll is run and could have a knock-on impact on other Latin American economies, so the situation in Argentina should be monitored very carefully throughout the year. 
   
• United Kingdom – changes to National Insurance: on 6 January 2024, the National Insurance (NI) rate in the UK was reduced from 12% to 10%, which is unusual as most changes usually take place at the start of the new British financial year in April. However, a further change that will take place in April is the introduction of reduced NI contribution rates for businesses within certain designated investment zones. Collectively, these changes mean a more vigilant approach to UK payroll all year round is recommended – especially with a general election expected later in 2024.  
   
• Ireland – new reporting and pension requirements: the Irish Revenue is rolling out a number of new measures this year. They include enhanced reporting requirements for payroll teams around tax-free payments being made to employees; and auto-enrolment into pension schemes. The latter is especially relevant as the new pension system is expected to go live later this year, which may increase the administrative workload on payroll teams.  
   
• United States – revised employment eligibility: new versions of the Employment Eligibility Verification forms have been issued by the US Citizenship and Immigration Service, largely to cover the increase of remote and virtual working that has emerged post-pandemic. As remote workers now account for much bigger proportions of employee bases, and the US has a diverse array of workers from all over the world, getting up to speed with new verification requirements should be a top priority this year. 

In summary

While these are arguably the most pressing compliance issues to deal with in 2024, they are by no means the only ones. Wherever you operate in the world, it’s never been more important to stay compliant, meet regulations, and avoid the financial, legal, and reputational consequences of failing to do so. 

 I know how complicated it can be to achieve this, and that’s why we at CloudPay work so hard to stay abreast of all global regulations, so that customers like you can benefit from our expertise. Working with a global payroll expert like us gives you reliable access to all the information you need, even as things change in the future. A great place to start is with our library of global payroll guides, currently being updated for 2024 and covering all the key facts in more than 80 markets worldwide.