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Administrator Guide
Last Updated: 2025-09-19
Steps: Set Up International Assignment Pay (CAN, UK, USA)

Steps: Set Up International Assignment Pay (CAN, UK, USA)

  • Workers have an international assignment position.
  • Workers have an additional
    Home
     address in the host country with the usage type
    International Assignment
    .
You can't use the
Alternate Work Location
 address to support an international assignment.
When a worker from another country is on international assignment in Canada, the UK, or the U.S., you can set up Workday Payroll to pay them in their host country either:
  • Their entire pay.
  • Only selected expenses, such as housing allowance. In this scenario, you continue to pay their base pay in their home country, using third-party payroll.
When a worker from Canada, the UK, or the U.S. is on international assignment elsewhere, Workday Payroll requires no additional setup to continue paying them in their home country but has some limitations.
Workday doesn't support certain features for workers who have an international assignment position in the U.S. and U.S. workers on international assignment elsewhere. These features include but are not limited to:
  • Federal, state, and local withholding forms.
  • Changing tax document printing elections on the
    My Tax Documents
     report.
  • Fair Labor Standards Act.
  • Single Legal Entity Company Relationships.
  • Common paymaster company relationships.
  • Common pay agent company relationships.
  • Income withholding orders.
  • Business process step
    Complete State and Local Withholding Elections
     for workers.
  • Exempting military spouses from residence state and local taxes.
  • Multiple worksite reporting.
Workday doesn't process retro differences for workers on international assignments because of limitations related to currency conversion and tax implications.
Payroll for Canada doesn't support Record of Employment (ROE) for international assignment pay. You need to issue ROEs for these workers directly through the Service Canada website.
For Payroll for the UK, Workday doesn’t report boxes 28 through 31a on your FPS for retro. If your worker has either a start or end date in a previous period, you must run a prior period on-demand calculation.
  1. Create separate pay groups for workers on international assignment in Canada, the UK, and the U.S.
  2. Assign workers in international assignment positions to international assignment pay groups.
    A worker's position in their home country remains assigned to the pay group for their home country.
    Ensure that any country-specific earnings are also eligible for the international assignment pay groups.
  3. Set up
    Country
     and
    Currency
     options for workers.
    • When you pay workers in the host country only, select the host country and currency as the default.
    • When you pay workers in the host and home countries, select a default country and currency. Then specify additional country and currency options by
      Pay Type
      .
  4. For workers that you pay through compensation in Workday Payroll for Canada, accept the default or enter your provincial tax elections. Workday bases the Canadian provincial tax withholding on the address of their international assignment work location.
  5. For workers that you pay through compensation in Workday Payroll for the U.S., accept the default or enter your federal and state tax elections. Workday uses the worker's:
    • Home addresses with an
      International Assignment
       usage type to determine state and local residence taxation.
    • International assignment work location to determine work taxation.
  6. For workers on assignment to the UK, record their UK international assignment information for inclusion in your FPS submission to HMRC.
  7. Enter earning or deduction calculations.
    Create position-based earnings and deductions by selecting
    Position
     as the
    Calculation Worktag
    . See Steps: Create Earnings or Steps: Create Deductions.
    For workers that you pay through compensation in Workday Payroll for the host country, add the
    Compensation Element
     on the earnings.
    For workers that you pay in their home country, you can create a deduction to offset the net pay from earnings taxed in the host country.
  8. When you pay workers in their home country, you must calculate employer tax liabilities for the host country. You can enter payroll input with an offset deduction for the net amount to produce a zero net check.
You can run payroll for the international assignment pay group.