In Search of Stealth

Today's business climate has spawned a globally mobile workforce. Instead of organizing around geographic regions, multinationals are structured around business units run by teams of globe-trotting executives. And as offshoring and cross-border joint-ventures grow in popularity, executives must spend more time on short-to-medium assignments abroad. This environment has created a new type of worker: the "stealth expat." They are particularly common in the EU, where relaxed border controls and low-cost air travel have facilitated cross-border commuting. Many are accidental expats, since they spend so much time traveling overseas they inadvertently incur new fiscal liabilities. Stealth expats face a fiendishly complex set of tax rules, causing new headaches for human resources departments, as well as the governments that tax them. The Economist writes, "Governments will need some stealth of their own if they are to catch up with the reality of these taxpayers' working lives." – YaleGlobal