Hire and pay international contractors

Taxes and forms

• We do not withhold taxes from payments.
• We do not create or file any tax forms related to the payments.
  • We only keep on file the W-8, or W-8 BEN E—check out the form specifics in our contractor-facing article.  
    • Contractors must reach out to you, their employer, for any tax forms needed. 

Payments—minimums, maximums, timelines, and rate calculations

• Payment minimum: $25 USD per contractor. 
  • The minimum per contractor amount required to send a payment.
  • If there are additional country-specific minimums, we'll let you know as you process the payment.
• Payment limit (for all in-flight international payments): $100,000 USD. 
  • The combined limit for all in-process international contractor payments.
    • If you hit this limit, you'll need to split up payments over a few days, or pay by check. 
• Payment bank:  “Default” bank account.
  • International contractor payments can only come from your “default” bank account in Gusto.
• Payment timeline: It typically takes 5-10 business days for a payment to be received.
  • We’ve chosen to use the fastest method(s) possible for each payment, and each payment will have its own unique direct deposit timeline and requirements.
    • Gusto uses several payment methods to facilitate international payments—local transfers, USD wires, etc. 
• Rate calculations: A variety of factors go into the rate—the amount of the payment, the rate(s) our partner banks offer, additional fees, and any applicable markup. 
  • Our total exchange rate(s) will differ from non-Gusto mid-market rates.
  • All rates shown in Gusto include any associated fees (some fees are displayed, while others are not). 
    • If you’re considering paying your first international contractor using Gusto, sign in to your account and check the cost of paying a contractor in a specific country. If you’ve already onboarded and paid your first international contractor, check costs by starting to process an international payment.

Account access, syncing payments, and contractor-only plan support

• No online access—at this time, international contractors do not have access to a Gusto account
• International payments do not sync to accounting platforms.
• If you’re on the “contractor-only” plan, you have to add a domestic contractor before you can pay international contractors.

Gusto supports paying international contractors in the countries listed below—if you don't see a country you're looking for, put in a request here. 

Requirements may differ by country, and you should read our important reminders, but we'll usually ask for:

• A work address in the country of work
• A bank account from the country of work
• A completed Form W-8BEN (for individuals) or Form W-8BEN-E (for businesses)
  • If you're trying to pay a U.S. citizen working abroad, add them as a domestic contractor instead. International contractors must have a “Tax ID” from the country they work in, and U.S. citizens should not complete Form W-8 BEN (E) according to the form's instructions. 

We'll always send the funds in USD, however, some funds will be converted—supported recipient currency in each country is included below.

We recommend using international contractor onboarding checklists to help streamline the hiring process—you can create checklists before adding individuals. You can also assign an international contractor a manager and have them appear in your coworker directory (org chart), if it's enabled.

Add an international contractor

1. Sign in to your Gusto admin account.
2. Make sure you've read our important reminders. 
3. Go to the People section and select Team members.
4. Click Add a team member.
   • If you're trying to pay a U.S. citizen working abroad, add them as a domestic contractor instead. International contractors must have a “Tax ID” from the country they work in, and U.S. citizens should not complete Form W-8 BEN (E) according to the form's instructions. 
5. Find the International contractor tile and click Add.
   • If it’s your first time hiring an international contractor, learn about how it works, click Add a contractor, and accept the terms before adding your first contractor. 
   • If you don't see the international contractor tile, contact us from the Help or Priority support section of your account to request the feature.
6. Select one of the supported countries from the dropdown.
7. Select if this is an Individual, or Business contractor type.
8. Enter any additional information asked for, like first and last name, or business name.
   • Important: A contractor's full name on record in Gusto must exactly match the name on the contractor's bank account for payment to go through successfully. We recommend confirming this with your contractor.
9. Enter a hire date.
10. Enter the contractor’s email address—we’ll invite them to self onboard and enter their personal information.
    • Use an existing personal email address that’s not associated with your company. 
11. Select the wage type—choose from a flat rate or hourly rate.  
    • If you chose hourly rate: Choose the amount per hour the contractor will be paid, and in what type of currency.
    • If you chose flat rate: You can send one-time, flat rate payments, which can be scheduled into the future.
      • Payments will be sent as USD and received in the applicable currency at the exchange rate on the date the payment was sent.
    • You can change this selection at any time once the contractor has completed onboarding. 
12. Click Add international contractor.
    • The contractor will receive an email from Gusto asking them to complete their setup, they must finish setting up their Gusto account before you can pay them.

For now, international contractors do not have access to an online Gusto account—when paying them, let them know when the expected payment(s) date is. We'll give you an estimated payment date range when you process the payments, and on payday, Gusto will send an email letting your international contractor know they were paid.

Create one or more payment schedules for your contractors and automatically pay them in the future—save time and never miss a payment.

Pay your international contractors

1. Make sure you've read our important reminders. 
2. Click the Payroll section and select Pay contractors. 
3. Click Continue on the “International Contractors” tile.
4. Select the international contractors you need to pay and click Create payment.
   • International contractor payment minimums will vary by country.
   • Not required if you have only one international contractor.
5. Select a debit date—your contractor will receive the payment within 5-10 business days.
   • Important: If you select a debit date in the future, exchange rates may change. We'll let you know what the exchange rate is today, and send an email closer to the debit date with the updated exchange rate(s) for the payment.
6. Enter their wages. Based on how the contractor was set up, enter a flat rate amount or the hours worked—if you need to change an hourly rate for a contractor, head to their contractor profile in the People section. 
   • Gusto will default to showing wages in American dollars.
   • Click the circle icon next to the wage box to toggle to the foreign currency amount—this icon is only available for customers on faster payroll (2-day or 1-day payroll). 
     • This is for viewing purposes only–payments will always be made to the local bank account currency as listed in the country-table above in this article. If contractors have domestic bank accounts, they’ll be paid USD.
7. For some countries, you may be asked to select a "Transfer purpose."  
   • These codes are required by some banks and financial institutions to help comply with regulatory requirements surrounding cross-border payments.  
   • We don't directly share the transfer purpose with contractors, but depending on the country, it could appear in the contractor's banking platform. 
8. Review the “Amount” column to see what the contractors will be paid in the foreign currency.
   • If you entered wages in foreign currency, this column will also show you what you’ll pay in American dollars.
   • All FX rates shown in Gusto include any associated fees (some fees are displayed, while others are not). 
     • More information about the rate calculation can be found in the "Important reminders" above.
9. Click Review payments.
   • Heads up: If Gusto attempts to debit your account and we receive one or more bank errors (e.g a non-sufficient funds error), we may push your company to a slower direct deposit speed.
10. Review the summary, what your company pays, and transaction fees, and then click Submit payments.
11. Let your contractor know when to expect the payment using Gusto's expected pay date or payment range (in business days).
    • We’ll send an email on payday to your contractor, but we recommend letting them know ahead of time.

Your payment has been processed and contractors will receive their payment(s) within 5-10 business days of the debit date. 

If any of the information entered by a contractor during onboarding is incorrect, admins can email the contractor requesting that they update their onboarding details. You may want to use this if:

• Your contractor wants to send payments to a different bank account.
• You know the bank details are incorrect and need to fix it before making a payment.
• The contractor name entered during onboarding does not exactly match the name registered to the bank account entered.

Send a request to your international contractor to update their personal information

1. Go to the People section and select Team members. 
2. Search the team member's name or use the filter icon to filter by international contractors.
3. Click the name of the international contractor.
4. From the “Contractor details” tab, click the Request an update to bank account information link.
   • Your international contractor will receive an email from Gusto asking them to update their bank account information and resubmit their W-8 BEN(E).
5. Click Send form.
   • Let your international contractor know to check the email that Gusto has on file—if they don't see it at first, they should check their spam folders.

We'll email you when they've updated their info so you can schedule, or reschedule, payments.

Bank account issues

If there was a bank issue, the most common pieces of information that need updating are the bank account details, or the name associated with the bank account—the name affiliated with the bank account must match the name entered for Gusto.

Change a contractor's hourly rate or currency they're paid in

1. Go to the People section and select Team members. 
2. Search the team member's name or use the filter icon to filter by international contractors.
3. Click the name of the international contractor.
4. From the “Contractor details” tab, click edit next to their information. 
5. Update the hourly rate and/or currency, and click Save.

Gusto only supports employees with all of the following criteria: 

• Valid SSN
  • Employees must have an SSN. If you enter an ITIN, or otherwise invalid number, this may impact our ability to file W-2's and other payroll tax returns successfully.
• Work address in the US
• Home address in the US
• Bank account in the US if being paid through direct deposit

Q: What fees will I be charged?

A: There are no monthly fees or flat rate costs per contractor, or fees to onboard contractors. Here's a summary overview of potential fees you might see:

• If there's a fee to send money to a specific country, the fee will come out of what the recipient receives.
• If an exchange is performed to convert USD to local currency, the fee will be included as part of the exchange rate.
• If USD is sent and received, there will be a wire transfer fee.
  • If you would like to cover this fee, you can send the contractor a fixed local currency amount (rather than USD)—this way the fee is included as part of the exchange rate.
• The contractor's bank may charge a fee to receive international wires (or transfers)—Gusto has no control over the fee charged by the recipient bank. Contact the contractor's bank for details.

Q: Why do I see fees for some payments and not others?

A: Bank requirements may differ, for now, you might have seen slightly different information in Gusto based on the method we use to pay the international contractor.

Q: What happens if a payment fails?

A: When a payment fails, admins are notified and the company is refunded—the amount refunded may or may not be less than what was sent, due to exchange rate fluctuations. 

International contractors should update their bank information, and admins need to process a new payment.

Q: Do international payments sync to accounting integrations?

A: Not at this time.

Q: What are the payment limits for China and is there a workaround?

A: There is a 50,000 CNY limit per beneficiary per day. If you want to pay more thank 50,000 CNY in a single payment, break it out over multiple payments under 50,000 CNY each.

• Heads up: We can only send one payment per day. If you scheduled two payments for 40,000 CNY each (to total 80,000 CNY), Gusto would send the first 40,000 the next business day, and the second installment the following business day.