Virgin Islands (UK)
Found someone great in the British Virgin Islands and want to bring them onto the team? It’s a good thing you’re here. On this page, you’ll learn exactly what you need to know before making hires in the British Virgin Islands: Legal obligations, risks, and the easiest path to hiring great talent overseas.
Country snapshot
CURRENCY
United States Dollar (USD)
EMPLOYER TAXES
10.25% - 14.25%
PAYROLL FREQUENCY
Monthly
OFFICIAL LANGUAGE
English
It’s the fastest way to hire globally
Hiring employees takes months, at the minimum. When you hire with Thera's locally-generated contracts, it’s a matter of days or weeks. This means you can hire the best talent, fast, without losing them to a hellish procession of paperwork.
It’s a lot cheaper
It costs just $0 to sign up for Thera, then $25 per month to hire your contractors with Thera. If you hired employees manually (or did contracting on your own), you’d likely be on the hook for thousands of dollars each month. Setting up an entity alone can cost tens of thousands of dollars.
It’s more flexible for you & your team
Can be less risky than hiring employees
Hiring employees is a bigger commitment, and can open you up to increased liabilities and regulations. When you hire contractors overseas, your biggest risk is misclassification—but laws surrounding contractor classification are often significantly more straightforward.
Some people want to be employees
The contractor life isn’t for everyone—some people want the security that being an employee often appears to provide. Though it’s rare, this does happen, and it’s one disadvantage of manage an all-contractor team.
You might not have as much control over your talent
Most countries’ contractor-employer relationship laws stipulate that the employer can’t set fixed working hours, among other things. These laws give contractors more freedom over how and when they do their work than an employee would have. In reality, however, most contractors are willing & able to work on the company’s schedule—it’s a matter of setting expectations beforehand.
So you want to hire in the British Virgin Islands. That’s great. But you should know, from the start, that hiring in the British Virgin Islands is different than hiring in your home country. There are different labor laws, different regulations, and different systems for hiring people. If you don’t do things right, you’ll be putting your company at the risk of fines—and risk losing the talent you brought onboard.
Hire talent as contractors
Hire talent as employees
If you’ve read up until this point, you’ll know that it’s easier, cheaper, and more flexible to hire contractors in the British Virgin Islands than employees. Still, there are valid reasons why you might want to hire employees instead. The content below is for you—we’ll cover employer taxes and obligations in the British Virgin Islands.
Employer tax
Payroll Tax
Social Security
Health Insurance
Paid Time Off (PTO)
Twenty-six days annual leave with pay each calendar year exclusive of Sundays and holidays; Provided, that the part unused in any year shall be accumulated for succeeding years until it totals not exceeding 60 days.
Any employee who has accumulated an unused annual leave at the end of the calendar year in excess of the days allowed by subsection (1), shall be entitled for retirement purposes only to “service credit for forfeited annual leave”.
Public Holidays
There are 13 public holidays.
Sick Days
Cumulative sick leave, with pay, at the rate of 1¼ days per month; Provided:
- That upon approval of the President sick leave in an amount not exceeding 180 days may be advanced.
- Sick leave which is not used by an employee accumulates for use in succeeding years and shall be applied in accordance with Title 3, section 731, Virgin Islands Code.
- In no event shall an employee receive a lump sum payment for accumulated sick leave upon separation from his employment or upon retirement.
Maternity Leave
In Virgin Islands (UK) the 66.7% of the insured’s average weekly covered earnings in the 39 weeks before the expected date of childbirth is paid for up to 13 weeks, beginning no earlier than six weeks before the expected date of childbirth.
Paternity Leave
Private sector employees are not entitled to receive paternity leave.
Parental Leave
There is no paid statutory paternity leave, but male employees can take a month of unpaid leave.
Other Leave
In the British Virgin Islands there is no other statutory leave.
Marriage Leave
None.
Bereavement Leave
There are currently no UK laws obliging employers to grant leave entitlement for death in the family, however many businesses do.
Most allow three to five days for bereavement leave but this depends on what your contract or staff handbook states or your employer's discretion.
Termination Process
The termination process varies according to the employment agreement and collective agreement in place and based on the type of contract and reason for termination.
Notice Period
In the British Virgin Islands, the notice period is 15 days, and all official notice must be provided in writing.
Severance Pay
In accordance with the British Virgin Islands Labor Code, Severance pay is paid at the rate of one week’s regular salary rate for each year the employee has worked for the company.
The employee also receives vacation payment which is 30 days for every 11 consecutive months worked, together with an element from any applicable 13th-month payments.
Probation Period
In The British Virgin Islands, probationary periods of 4 months are common but can be extended up to 6 months for more senior employees.
Working Hours
The standard workweek is 40 hours, 8 hours per day for five days.
Overtime
Overtime hours more than 40 hours a week are paid at the rate of 150.00% of the employees' regular pay rate.
Employee works on a public holiday must be paid a basic hourly rate of at least one and one-half times his or her basic wage for each hour worked in addition to the basic wage of the employee.
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