Survey counts cost of payroll mistakes

Payroll errors cost the world’s biggest companies between £10m and £30m a year, according to a study by PwC.

The firm, which took findings from 193 multinational corporations (MNCs), said that mistakes reflected the increasingly international nature of modern workforces. This created various issues, particularly for payroll, as employees’ statuses often had to be tracked across different tax regimes.

PwC expects the problem to increase as 89% of respondent companies plan to increase the global mobility of their workforce, and are focusing more on short-term contracts, rather than traditional long-term secondments.

“Organisations are struggling with the increasing complexity and global nature of payroll,” Chris Watt, business leader of PwC’s payroll offering Payright, told business daily City AM. “As they increasingly look beyond domestic boundaries, the complexity of their payroll operations grows too.

“It’s crucial businesses have a payroll that’s not just fit for today, but is capable of dealing with the increased complexity and regulations coming in the future.”

PwC noted that employment taxes now account for 38% of global tax takings on average and 43% of government revenue in the UK.

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