Plus Relocation

What’s the difference between an EBT and an FBT and how do I manage them?

When it comes to managing your extended and frequent business travelers, there are more than a few things to keep track of. Plus’s Vice President of Global Service, Chris Pardo, will tell you exactly what you need to know to keep your program compliant.

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Complete transcript: “Hi and welcome to Relo Tip Tuesday, my name is Chris Pardo and I’m the Vice President of Global Services at Plus Relocation.  I’m here today to talk about extended and frequent business travelers, what they are, and how to manage them.

Typically, we define extended business travelers as those folks out there on trips from ten to ninety days.  Frequent business travelers are those same people that are going on multiple trips to the same location or to multiple destinations throughout the year.  This population has seen some pretty explosive growth over the last ten years.  In a recent survey, PWC found that nearly sixty percent of corporate clients anticipated increases in extended and frequent business travelers.  That being said, tax and immigration authorities are focusing on enforcing compliancy and they are increasingly delivering penalties and fines to companies.  In fact, many companies are reconsidering how these travelers are being managed because, frankly, poorly managing these travelers can lead to some pretty negative situations for both the employee and the company.

Let’s take a look at a couple of examples for negative situations.  One could look like the company is discovering these stealth employees and global nomads all over the place.  Two an executive could be held at an airport due to improper immigration paperwork or worse yet be imprisoned for that.  Three could look like where the company actually has an employee that has had a presence and an activity that creates a permanent establishment for that company.

Our tip to avoid these kinds of negative byproducts is to proactively design your policies and processes that will facilitate quality tracking and monitoring of these people.  Companies need to know and make sure that they understand exactly which employees and locations are involved, they need to understand the duration of each trip, they need to understand the overall number of trips and the total time each employee has spent in a given country, and the nature of the work being performed on each trip.

By addressing these details, your program can steer the company clear of the dangers of non-compliance.”