It's not an academic question. If you don't take the necessary precautions and plan ahead you can expect to have major problems, maybe even jeopardising your Australian business plans.

For example, you can't just buy your staff flight tickets for Sydney, and tell them to turn up for work at the Australian office. To be able to work in Australia you need a visa allowing you to do so - and so as an employer you need to be sure that your prospective employees have proper visas with the necessary permissions. As an employer a failure to adequately monitor this area exposes you to penalties.

So what to do? Well Go Matilda can help you with your staffing, particularly if you want to bring key employees from the UK to start or develop your office in Australia. We can review the position, and assist with a visa application - which in most cases will be a 457 Temporary Long Stay Business Visa.

Note that 457 (Temporary Long Stay Business) visa holders are not eligible for Medicare cover in Australia and so where an individual is being sponsored by an employer under this visa category there is a real exposure on the part of the employer if the 457 visa holder requires medical attention when in Australia. Contact us for advice on how you can minimise this risk.

We also strongly recommend that employers and employees should look at setting up tax efficient remuneration packages for the benefit of all parties. These are frequently referred to as salary sacrifice arrangements, as an employee may be given a choice between a salary alone, or foregoing some of that salary whilst the employer provides other benefits such as additional superannuation contributions, a car benefit, or other fringe benefit (such as childcare arrangements).

We mention here the Living Away From Home Allowance, which is a very valuable tax free allowance that can be paid to employees who are working in Australia temporarily - although note that the Australian Taxation Office is proposing that foreign nationals working in Australia on a 417 Working Holiday Maker visa cannot be the recipients of a LAFHA.

With tax experts on board Go Matilda can help you set up a menu package of salary and other benefits that can attract and retain staff, whilst also reducing the overall tax burden. Contact us to discuss this in more detail.

From a purely administrative perspective you will also need to consider requirements such as registering with the Australian Taxation Office for the operation of Pay As You Go Withholding Tax, running the payroll, obtaining employee Tax File Numbers, the minimum superannuation to be paid to avoid the Superannuation Guarantee Charge, WorkCover arrangements, etc.

Again, please don't hesitate to contact Go Matilda if you are setting up a business in Australia and think you will need help setting up the administrative side of your payroll, or would like to completely outsource that aspect of your business.

And if you need help finding employees in Australia please let us know. We have associate links with many recruitment firms across Australia - please contact us to discuss your requirements and we will be pleased to put you in contact with someone who can help you.

Go Matilda - Your Gateway to Australia