NIM33065 | Special Cases: International going to or coming from abroad EEA Regulations 883/04 (After 1 May 2010): Posted workers general information

Note: This page is under review and the content may only be appropriate to periods beginning before 1 January 2021 and for those covered by a Withdrawal Agreement. A new International NICs manual is under development and will be published in due course.

Article 12 of Regulation 883/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 29 April 2004 on the coordination of social security systems

The most important exception to the general rule in Article 11 is the rule in Article 12 which applies to Posted Workers.

In certain circumstances a person who is sent by their employer in one Member State to work temporarily in another Member State can continue to pay contributions only in their home state.

A system of portable documents (A1) exists within the European Union to ensure that the worker does not also have to pay contributions in the Member State they are posted to.

A worker sent to the United Kingdom claiming to be exempt under Article 12 should be able to produce to HMRC a Portable Document A1 issued by the authorities in the Member State they have come from as proof of this exemption. If they do not then you should charge primary and secondary National Insurance until they produce the Portable Document A1.

You should give the worker and their employer a reasonable amount of time to produce an A1. A delay of several months is not uncommon for the other Member States to issue the form.

(This content has been withheld because of exemptions in the Freedom of Information Act 2000)