Building an offshore tax team: the timeline that works
Firms that onboard in January spend busy season training. Firms that onboard early spend it filing. Here is the calendar.
Almost every offshore accounting proposal compares a monthly rate against a domestic salary. That comparison is wrong in both directions, and the direction it is wrong in depends on who wrote it.
What belongs above the line
A fully loaded domestic cost is not salary. Add employer payroll taxes, health benefits, retirement contributions, workspace, hardware, software licences and the recruiting cost amortised over how long the role actually stays filled. The real number is meaningfully higher than the offer letter.
The four lines proposals leave out
Leave and holiday. If you are billed for a full month but the person takes several weeks of leave a year, your effective hourly cost is higher than quoted. Ask whether leave is charged.
Attrition and re-training. Every departure costs you a re-learning period on your own files. Ask the provider what their attrition was last year, in writing, and what the backfill obligation is.
Review overhead. This is the one that kills engagements. If offshore work needs substantially more review than in-house work, the headline saving shrinks fast. Ask for a calibration batch before go-live, not after.
Management time. Someone on your side runs this relationship. Budget real hours for it in the first quarter, falling once the rhythm is set.
How to get an honest number
Build both columns yourself with every line included, then ask the provider to fill in theirs against the same template. Any provider unwilling to do that has told you something useful.
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