Employment & Global Mobility Tax Search
Retained search for employment and global mobility tax partners and teams leading expatriate tax, employment tax, executive compensation and expatriate social security across the Singapore, Hong Kong and Gulf corridors.
Market overview
Employment and global mobility tax is anchored in Asia's expatriate hubs, with Singapore and Hong Kong as the region's largest employment centres and the Gulf as a magnet for expatriate executives. Singapore's top marginal personal income tax rate rose to 24 percent from the 2024 year of assessment [1], while Hong Kong's salaries tax applies a two-tiered standard rate of 15% on the first HK$5 million of net income and 16% on the balance, from the 2024/25 year of assessment, with no tax on most foreign income [2] - a contrast that sits at the heart of where senior people choose to base themselves and how firms structure their packages.
The discipline has been reshaped by the shift from traditional expatriate postings to a work-from-anywhere world. Long-term assignments are being supplemented by shorter, more flexible arrangements, hybrid working across jurisdictions and senior executives operating from multiple locations without relocating; cross-border and remote-working arrangements continue to multiply mobility-tax and permanent-establishment touchpoints. The result is more complexity per employee, not less, and a corresponding pull on specialist talent across the region's hubs.
Enforcement is moving faster than most employers' internal tracking. Remote and cross-border work can inadvertently trigger employer filing obligations, payroll withholding exposure and even permanent-establishment risk, and APAC tax authorities are policing this more rigorously than companies' own reporting can keep up with. That gap is what drives clients to engage mobility tax advisers, and what makes experienced partners in this field valuable.
The work is broad. It spans expatriate income tax and tax equalisation, employment tax and payroll, executive and equity compensation, and expatriate social security, and it increasingly intersects with transfer pricing where mobile senior people affect where value is created [3]. We run retained search for employment and global mobility tax partners and teams who can lead this work across the Big Four, mid-tier networks and independents in Singapore, Hong Kong, the Gulf and beyond.
What we cover
- Expatriate tax
- Employment tax
- Executive compensation
- Expatriate social security
Roles we place
Global Mobility & Expatriate
- Global Mobility Tax Partner
- Expatriate Tax Director
- Senior Manager, Global Mobility
- Mobility Tax Advisory Manager
Employment Tax & Reward
- Employment Tax Partner
- Executive Compensation Director
- Equity & Reward Tax Lead
- Payroll Tax Specialist
Social Security & Policy
- Expatriate Social Security Specialist
- Totalisation & Coverage Lead
- Global Mobility Policy Director
Candidate profile
SCTP Accredited Tax Advisor, CA (Singapore) or HKICPA with personal and employment tax depth; ADIT or international tax grounding for cross-border assignment work.
Experience across expatriate tax equalisation, employment tax, equity / executive compensation and social security.
Familiarity with mobility technology and assignment-tracking tools.
Singapore, Hong Kong and Gulf mobility-corridor experience and regional languages.
Seniority
- Manager
- Senior Manager
- Director / Associate Director
- Partner / Principal
Sectors served
- Financial services & banking
- Technology & professional services
- Energy, resources & engineering
- Consumer & industrial multinationals
- Pharmaceuticals & life sciences
- Sovereign & government-linked employers
Frequently asked
- Why has demand for mobility tax leaders risen if long-term assignments are declining?
- Because complexity per employee has gone up, not down. Work-from-anywhere, hybrid cross-border roles and executives splitting time across Singapore, Hong Kong and the Gulf create far more taxable touchpoints than a single traditional posting, and enforcement is outpacing employers' internal tracking. That drives sustained demand for specialist advisers.
- Do you cover employment tax and executive compensation as well as expatriate tax?
- Yes. Strong mobility practices run the full offering: expatriate tax and equalisation, employment and payroll tax, executive and equity compensation, and social security. We search across all of these and for partners who can lead the combined desk.
- Which corridors matter most for APAC mobility hiring?
- Singapore and Hong Kong as the region's employment hubs, and the Gulf as a destination for expatriate executives. Experience in those corridors and relevant languages are significant factors in these searches.