Professional-services giant KPMG hosted a live webinar on 18 September outlining the practical impact of the forthcoming India-UK Double Contribution Convention (DCC) on cross-border assignments. The convention, agreed in principle alongside the UK-India Free Trade Agreement talks, aims to eliminate dual social-security contributions for short-term assignees—an issue that currently adds up to 14 percent in employer costs on each side. During the one-hour session, experts from KPMG India and KPMG UK confirmed that the treaty will apply to employees assigned for up to 60 months, mirroring the India-Germany and India-France social-security accords. Once ratified, Indian assignees who remain covered under India’s Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF) rules will be exempt from UK National Insurance, while UK outbound assignees can avoid EPF enrolment. The panel emphasised compliance prerequisites: a Certificate of Coverage (CoC) must be obtained before the assignment starts, and assignees must carry the certificate when entering the host country. Failure to do so could trigger retrospective contributions and penalties. KPMG advised multinationals to align assignment letters and secondment structures with the treaty to maximise savings. Although the DCC is not yet in force—the UK Parliament and India’s Lok Sabha must ratify the text—corporate mobility managers welcomed the clarity. For a typical £120,000 salary, employers stand to save roughly £15,000 per year in overlapping contributions. HR-tax leads were urged to review assignee populations and create a CoC-tracking workflow ahead of the expected 2027 effective date. The webinar recording and slide deck will be available to registrants next week, providing sample CoC request templates and a comparative table of India’s existing 23 social-security agreements.
Source: KPMG India
