How to Send Salaries Abroad Without Delays: A Guide to Payroll Payments

If your UK business hires foreign employees, you've probably faced delayed international salary payments thanks to slow FX settlements, multiple intermediary banks, and compliance hitches. Preventing these delays matters because payroll is about people and trust, not numbers.

In this guide, we'll share practical, execution-focused payment solutions to help you pay employees abroad on time. We’ll also share how, for a one-time £50 (Advanced plan) or for free (Essential plan) setup fee, you can speed up and automate salary payments with Wise Batch payments and the Wise API.

What does it mean to send salaries abroad in a payroll context?

Sending salaries abroad means transferring workers' net salaries from a business’s bank account, based in its home country (e.g., the UK), to workers' bank accounts in other countries. This is after you have calculated and approved payroll.

Definition of international salary payments

International salary payments are cross-border, multi-currency financial compensation paid to employees outside your business's home country.

This usually involves paying in multiple currencies, complying with local and international tax laws and managing foreign exchange fees.

Where salary payments sit in the payroll workflow

Salary payments fall toward the latter part of the payroll workflow. To pay salaries, you'll likely follow these steps:

• Collate data
• Calculate gross payment
• Apply deductions
• Calculate net payment
• Pay salaries using your preferred method
• Generate payslips
• Reconcile payroll
• Prepare and file regulatory reports

International payroll follows the same steps as domestic payroll, but each step is more complex because it involves compiling data from different locations and languages, converting currencies, and complying with different local tax laws and regulations.

Key requirements for cross-border payroll payments

Paying global salaries comes with some paperwork and cut-off times. If you miss any of these, you risk penalties or payment delays. You can manage hiring, payroll and compliance yourself or partner with an employer of record (EOR) to handle it on your behalf.

• Register a legal entity (or choose an EOR)

  If you choose to directly hire talent from other countries and manage payroll, you'd likely need to register your business with the local government and open a local business bank account. This works for locations that require an in-country account or have the most foreign staff.

• Collect accurate employee data

  Gather the correct and complete employee information, e.g., full legal names, addresses, IDs, and bank details.

• Adhere to local tax laws

  Register with the local tax and social contribution authorities. Get your tax identification number. Track the deadlines for remitting tax and filing reports to avoid penalties.

  Let’s imagine you run a Cornwall-based business that hires a remote worker in California, US. It must register with the IRS for an Employer Identification Number (EIN)¹, withhold federal income tax² and register for the Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA)³ . Then it’ll separately register with California's EDD to cover state income tax, unemployment, and disability taxes.⁴

• Correctly classify your workers based on local laws.

  Whether you hire someone as your employee or an independent contractor shapes how you handle taxes, social contributions and benefits.

  Many countries classify roles based on how you work with the person, not the role’s label in your contract.

  Talk to local hiring experts and visit the local labour or tax authority’s official website to understand worker classification types and their requirements.

  Worker misclassification in Australia attracts fines of up to $93,900, $469,500, or $4,695,000, depending on the size of your business.⁵

• Use secure and reliable payment methods

  Move salaries through compliant and reliable global payment methods, such as SEPA for EU countries, SWIFT, and regulated money service businesses like Wise. This determines how quickly employees get paid and whether they'll receive their salaries on time.

  A Wise Business multicurrency account lets you hold and receive up to **40+ ** currencies and pay employees in 140+ countries.

How do businesses execute international payroll payments?

Here's how you can execute international payroll payments for your UK business.

Preparing payroll payment data for international transfers

Collect accurate and complete details from employees and contractors. Any errors here could mean delayed or failed payments and may be time-consuming to correct.

Some of the data types to collect from workers are:

• Employee details: Employee legal names, IDs, and addresses.
• Tax details: Social contributions, tax identification numbers, and tax residency.
• Employment and payment details: Job role, base salary, working hours, pay frequency, bonuses, overtime payments, incentives.
• Bank details: IBAN formats, Swift/BIC details and payment methods (Some countries require in-country bank accounts, others permit international transfers)

Every quarter, confirm that these details are still valid and haven't been updated. Always remind employees to inform you of changes to their personal or banking details.

Calculating the gross and net payments

Next, calculate each employee's salaries and deductions. This step is more complex for international payroll because you're dealing with different countries and currencies.

• Calculate the total amount each worker has earned, including overtime and benefits, before taxes and deductions.
• Deduct taxes, sales commissions, social contributions, pensions and other required deductions based on the local laws of the country the employee is in.
• For example, in countries like the US, foreign employers must withhold tax from employees' pay and remit it to the government.²

• Calculate the net salary (the gross pay minus deductions). This is the salary you'd send to your employee.
• Validate these calculations to prevent inaccuracies:
• Cross-check these calculations against country-specific tax and contribution rates.
• Flag unusually high or low net salaries for mistakes.
• Check deductions against contracts and local laws.

Choosing the right payment method for salary payments

Businesses need to choose how to send money abroad. Payment methods include options like SEPA, UPI, SWIFT, bank transfers, ACH, and online platforms like Wise Business.

Countries like India require employers to pay employees into their bank accounts in Indian rupees.⁶ Other countries let you pay employees in foreign currencies.

Also, international payments can take anywhere from seconds to days to settle. Understand how long your chosen payment method takes. For instance, 74% of Wise transfers settle in under 20 seconds. While SWIFT transfers may take 1-5 business days. Process payments a few days before payday to account for unforeseen delays. Before you choose a payment method, ask:

☐ Is this method and currency legally accepted in your employee's country?
☐ Is the provider regulated in both countries?
☐ Will every payment leave an audit trail?
☐ What are the transfer fees?
☐ Is the exchange rate locked in at the time of payment?
☐ Are there hidden intermediary fees?
☐ Who covers the cost of currency conversion?
☐ Will salaries land by the legally required payday?
☐ How are failed or delayed payments handled?
☐ Does the provider have a strong track record in your employee's country specifically?
☐ Can you manage multi-country payments from one place?
☐ Will it still work smoothly as your team scales?
☐ Will your employee receive their full salary without deductions on their end?
☐ Can they actually access and use this payment method in their country?
☐ If something goes wrong, can they easily get it resolved?

A Wise Business account lets you hold, send, and receive 40+ currencies, and pay salaries to 140+ countries. It’s reliable, fast, and transparent.

Executing and reconciling cross-border payroll payments

One of the last tasks of a payroll run is execution and reconciliation. To pay on time and get the best exchange rates, convert funds for specific regions and fund local accounts in advance.

You can use global payroll software like Deel to pay salaries across borders. Connect Wise API to your payroll or accounting software to schedule batch payments to local accounts in up to 140+ countries. Wise Business converts currencies at mid market rate with transparent fees. Track and reconcile payments.

Discover Wise Business 🔍

Why international salary payments get delayed

Here are some reasons salaries sent abroad get delayed.

Banking cut-off times and processing windows

Some banks have strict cut-off times during which they'll process and send money abroad. If your business sends a payroll instruction a few minutes after a cut-off time, it queues till the next processing window opens.

This problem compounds with the timezone differences in cross-border payments. For instance, if you initiate a payment by 4:00 pm UK time to a bank in New York, your payment may need to wait more than 10 hours. If it falls on a holiday or weekend, the employee must wait 24 to 72 hours to receive payment.

Errors in payroll payment data

Since international payroll involves handling different data formats (UK sort codes, US routing numbers and Australian BSB codes), it's easy to make mistakes. Inaccurate or incomplete data is one of the main reasons employees don't receive payment on time. A wrongly spelt name or an incorrect digit in an IBAN or SWIFT/BIC code can lead to payments being rejected or manually investigated. These processes take between several business days.

Intermediary banks and routing inefficiencies

Many international salary payments pass through intermediary or third-party banks to process international transfers when your bank and the employee’s bank don't have a relationship.

In some parts of the world, it's like a relay race, passing through two or three intermediary banks before the employee receives payment. This can add a day or a few to the final settlement.

Each corresponding bank has compliance checks and cut-off times. Often, there's no real-time visibility into bottlenecks, making it hard to find and resolve them.

AML and KYC checks

International transfers go through anti-money laundering (AML) and know-your-customer (KYC) checks at various points in the process. The banks screen transaction details against the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI), UN or EU sanctions lists.

They'll flag transactions for manual review if any transaction detail is deemed suspicious. If you're sending payment to highly regulated locations or places on the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) grey list, there may be scrutiny.

Paying large amounts to new beneficiaries or new locations may trigger checks and delay payments. These processes can delay payments by 1 to 3 business days or 3 to 5 business days on weekends.

How to reduce delays in international payroll payments

You can speed up global salary payments with these tips.

Use faster payment infrastructure

To avoid unnecessary delays and extra costs when using bank transfers, ask your bank for a routing analysis. Focus on the payment corridors with the highest volumes. Confirm how many intermediary hops each corridor involves and choose more direct options if possible.

Open a local currency account in countries where you have the highest number of workers and fund the account. Pay the workers in those countries from your local bank account, so you don't need to use the international routing options.

Better still, use a multi-currency platform like Wise Business to pay employees and contractors in local currencies.

Automate payroll payment execution

Use global payroll software and financial platforms, such as Wise Business, to automatically sync payroll data and process batch payments. Automating global salary payments speeds up pay runs and reduces human errors that cause delays in processing international salary transfers.

Improve accuracy and validation of payroll data

Ensure the data you collect is correct. Use standardised employee onboarding forms and confirm full legal names, IDs, bank details, and other required information. A centralised payroll system, such as ADP, syncs employee records and flags inconsistencies in international payroll data.

Double-check salary calculations before paying employees. Verify payroll data before you process salary payments.

Key considerations when sending salaries abroad at scale

These are some things to think about when sending salaries abroad.

Managing multi-currency payroll payments

Fluctuating exchange rates, conversion fees, and intermediary bank processing fees can directly cut into payroll budgets and reduce the employees' actual salaries. Over time, this can cause cashflow leakage to your business or employee dissatisfaction and churn.

Consider using multi-currency platforms like Wise Business to pay employees at scale with less effort, no hidden fees and at a mid-market exchange rate.

Ensuring payment visibility and tracking

As your company scales and sends salaries abroad, it becomes harder to know whether salaries have arrived and when. If you use an international bank transfer via SWIFT, you’ll have limited visibility and won't know when it’s received unless you manually request a status update.

This increases the administrative burden of executing payments and risks non-compliance penalties. Choose a global payroll platform like Deel or Rippling, or a bank using SWIFT GPI to monitor payments. SWIFT GPI (Global Payments Innovation) has improved tracking across participating banks. This lets you resolve issues fast and avoid missed salaries.

Maintaining consistency across payroll cycles

Standardise your payroll workflow and validate data. This keeps things organised and predictable as your team grows.

Use software to sync data, calculate deductions, apply tax rules, and flag inconsistencies. Group currency conversion, deadlines, and funding local accounts according to regions. This lets you lock in one FX rate per region, pre-fund local accounts before payday, and control the payment process.

Wise Business enables faster international payroll payments

Sending salaries abroad can be slow and complex due to banking delays and FX costs. Wise Business helps businesses execute payroll payments faster with transparency and without avoidable delays.

Fast cross-border salary payments without unnecessary delays

With Wise Business, you can send fast international salary transfers while tracking payments. 74% of all Wise transfers typically arrive in under 20 seconds.

Multi-currency accounts for global payroll

Wise lets you hold up to 40+ currencies and send salaries directly to employees' local bank accounts in 140+ countries at mid-market rate for just £50 (Advanced plan) or for free (Essential plan) fee.

Batch payments for executing payroll at scale

You can send up to 1000 salaries by uploading CSV or .xslx files to your Wise Business account to save time and free up your payroll team for other strategic tasks.

Wise Business also integrates with accounting and payroll software to sync data directly and process payments, saving time and reducing administrative burden.

Discover how Wise Business can quicken your payroll

With Wise Business, you can:

• 🌍 Send money to 140+ countries at the mid-market exchange rate with no hidden fees or sneaky exchange rate markups (product availability varies by region; please check the Wise website for local availability)

• 📥 Receive payments in 24 currencies and counting

• 💵 Get local account details for 8+ currencies, including USD and EUR, to let your customers pay in a currency they know and trust - convenience for them and peace of mind for you.

• 💰 Hold money in 40+ currencies

• ⚡ Use the batch payments tool to create and send up to 1,000 payments in a single transfer

• 👥 Run payroll and make international payments for up to 1,000 employees all over the world

• 💳 Get business debit cards with 0.5% cashback for you and your team to keep track of team expenses and spend all over the world

• 🏢 Manage cash in 55+ currencies across international offices from a single business account and move money between business accounts in seconds (exact speeds can vary depending on individual circumstances and may not be the same for all transactions)

• 🔄 Connect and sync every business transaction to your favourite accounting software, including Xero, Quickbooks, and more

• 🔐 Create your own payment approvals process to manage your team better with customised access for different team members

• 📑 Create custom professional invoices and schedule invoice payments for future dates

• 📈 Earn returns on GBP, USD and EUR with Wise Interest (Capital at risk, growth not guaranteed. Your money is at risk if governments default or interest rates go negative. Visit https://payout-surge.live/gb/interest/%3C/a%3E to find out more)

• 🔗 Create payment links and QR codes to get paid easily

• ⚙️ Automate payouts with the Wise API (comes with 24/7 customer support, a sandbox account to test integrations, API tokens, and clear documents on how to implement and make the most of our API)

Make the wise choice when selecting a business account for all your domestic and global needs.

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FAQs

How do businesses send salaries abroad?

Businesses send salaries abroad through international bank transfers, local payment rails like Mpesa in Kenya, Global payroll platforms like Deel and Rippling and online fintech platforms like Wise Business.

What causes delays in international payroll payments?

Bank cut-off times, multiple intermediary banks, compliance processes, and inaccurate payment data cause delays in international payroll payments.

How can businesses speed up international salary payments?

• Use modern global payroll platforms and online finance platforms like Wise Business to automate and send batch Payments.
• Start pay runs a week before payday
• Validate payroll data and correct inaccuracies
• Comply with local employment and tax laws

What is the fastest way to send salaries internationally?

It depends on individual circumstances. However, bank payments through SWIFT GPI, SEPA instant, and money service businesses like Wise Business generally deliver international payments faster than traditional international bank transfers that use SWIFT.

How do businesses manage payroll payments across countries?

Businesses can manage payroll directly or through an Employer of Record. It involves understanding currency conversions, local employment and tax laws, choosing the right payment methods and reconciling payments.

Do you pay VAT on salaries?

No, you don't pay Value Added Tax on salaries.

Sources

1. Get an employer identification number | Internal Revenue Service
2. Federal income tax withholding for individuals employed by a foreign person | Internal Revenue Service
3. Social Security and Medicare tax for persons employed by a foreign employer | Internal Revenue Service
4. Am I Required to Register as an Employer? | Employment Development Department - California
5. Know the new workplace laws, FWO urges | Fair Work Ombudsman
6. The Payment Of Wages Act, 1936 | Union of India

Sources last checked: 15-Apr-2026

*Disclaimer: The UK Wise Business pricing structure is changing with effect from 26/11/2025 date. Receiving money, direct debits and getting paid features are not available with the Essential Plan which you can open for free. Pay a one-time set up fee of £50 to unlock Advanced features including account details to receive payments in 22+ currencies or 8+ currencies for non-swift payments. You’ll also get access to our invoice generating tool, payment links, QuickPay QR codes and the ability to set up direct debits all within one account. Please check our website for the latest pricing information.