Hire and pay non-US (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. 
• 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.

Syncing payments, and contractor-only plan support

• 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 do not 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 instructions. 

Supported recipient currency in each country is included below—for countries where the local bank account currency is not USD, they can only receive funds in the local currency if using a local bank account (even if the payment is processed in-app using USD).

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. Click the People section and select Team members.
   • If the person is already set up as a US contractor in Gusto, you can easily change them to a non-US contractor.
4. ​Click Add a team member.
5. Enter your new team member's full 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.
6. Enter their preferred first name (if any)
   • Gusto will use this name to refer to this person in communications where their legal first name is not required (offer letter, onboarding emails, org chart etc).
7. Under “Worker type”, select either:
   • Individual contractor, or;
     • Independent professional engaged under contract for a specific project or projects, usually on a short-term basis.
   • Business contractor
     • Independent professional working on behalf of a business.
8. Choose one of the supported countries from the dropdown.
   • You'll need to select one of the contractor types available (individual or business) in the "Worker type" section before the full list of international countries is available.
   • 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 instructions. 
9. Enter their Personal email—use an existing address that’s not associated with your company.
   • This team member will use this email to sign in to Gusto and receive certain personal info.
10. Click Save and continue.
11. Assign this contractor to a manager. This will allow the contractor to be visible in the org chart.
12. Enter a contract start date. You can edit this later.
13. Click Save and continue. 
14. Select their wage type—hourly rate or fixed dollar amount.
    • If you select hourly rate: You'll need to enter the rate (and currency).
    • If you chose flat rate: You can send one-time, flat rate payments, which can be scheduled into the future.
      • Payments will be received in the applicable currency (based on country and bank type, local or US) 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.
15. Click Save and continue.
16. We'll let you know if there are any forms we'll automatically generate, and you can add individual documents (for a single recipient) if you'd like.
    • Individual documents are available to Plus and Premium customers only.
17. Select any team documents you'd like to share with them.
    • Team documents are available to Plus and Premium customers only.
18. Click Save and continue.
19. Review the international contractor's information, and if needed, click Edit next to any details you may need to change.
20. Click Add [name] as a 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.

You'll be dropped onto a page with the international contractor's onboarding checklist, and they'll appear in the Onboarding tab of your Team members page until they're fully onboarded.

• To view the contractor's checklist later, follow these steps.

• If you're on the Plus or Premium plan you can add custom tasks to your onboarding checklists.

When you process the payments, we'll give you an estimated payment date range. On payday, Gusto will send an email letting your international contractor know they were paid. We still recommend you let them know when the expected payment(s) date is. 

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

1. Make sure you've read our important reminders. 
2. Click the Pay 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. A few important reminders:
   • 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.
   • Bank debits may not appear on the company bank account until the day after the “future debit date” shown—Gusto still initiates the bank transaction on that “future debit date” (so you should have all required funds available in your bank account on that day), you just may not see it posted to your bank account until the following business day. 
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. 

To view pending and past international contractor payments:

1. Go to the Pay section and select Pay history.
2. Toggle to the International contractor payment history tab.

To run a report for international contractor payments:

1. Go to the Reports section. 
2. Find the "International contractor payments" report and select it. 
3. Choose your date range, and click Generate report. 

You can cancel an international payment until 4 PT on the "Processing date" shown in Gusto. After that time, you'll need to contact us from the Help section of your account.

1. Sign in to Gusto.
2. Click the Pay section and select Pay history.
3. Toggle to the Non-US contractors tab.
4. Under the “Actions” column, click Cancel payment.
5. Make sure you understand that this will cancel the payment, and remove the record of it entirely.
6. To confirm the cancellation, click Cancel Payment.

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 can 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

Non-US contractors can also update some details right from their Gusto account (without a request).

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. Click 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.

To change a contractor's country of work, you'll need to onboard them again in the new country. Each country has its own tax rules. So, contractors must sign any relevant, country-specific forms.

Change an international contractor's country of work

1. Dismiss the profile (with the old country), and;
2. Add them as a new international contractor in the new country. They'll need to onboard again and sign new documents that apply to the new country.
   • If you try to use the email from the old profile to set up the new profile, you'll get an error message. To move past this, set up the new profile with a unique email variant:
     • Actual email: [email protected]
     • Variant email: [email protected]
       • Just add a + symbol, and your chosen text.

The contractor will get the welcome email to their usual inbox. Before you can pay them, they need to finish setting up their additional profile in Gusto.

Go to our article on how to dismiss contractors (of all types) to learn more. 

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.
    • Heads up: This only applies to countries where the “local bank account currency” is not USD. 
• 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.