Cartus|PodcastBlog|mobility matters, s3 episode-9-global-tax-gross-up-innovation-with-cartus-and-certino

In today’s episode of Mobility Matters, Andy and I were excited to sit down with Ada Yang, Client Services Director at Certino, to deliver breaking news: Cartus and Certino have partnered to deliver the industry’s first automated global tax gross-up solution!

Listen in as we delve into the origins of our partnership, Certino’s stellar reputation in the marketplace, and how their simple, fast, and accurate technology combined with our holistic service delivery model presented a compelling value proposition for our clients.

One of the highlights of our discussion was exploring how Certino’s technology automates the shadow payroll gross-up calculations, which is crucial for our clients’ peace of mind. I, for one, am grateful for the opportunity to collaborate with such a forward-thinking partner and look forward to many successes ahead.

As you listen to the episode, if you have any questions or would like to discuss how this partnership can benefit your program, please don’t hesitate to reach out.

Now enjoy!

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Cartus Global Tax Gross-up Solution Flyer

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If you enjoyed this episode of Mobility Matters, be sure to learn more at cartus.com/podcast.

podcast transcript

Andy: Hello and welcome to mobility matters, the Cartus podcast, where we talk about everything mobility that matters, and today, I have a very special episode with a couple of guests to talk about an exciting new development for us at Cartus and our new friends over at Certino. I am joined today by Beth Schaedel, our Director of Global Wage and Compensation Reporting. Hello, Beth!

Beth: Hello Andy.

Andy: Very nice to see you again. How you been?

Beth: I’m doing well. How are you doing?

Andy: I am very well. Thank you. But before we continue, let let’s bring in our guest, Ada Yang. Ada is a Client Services Director over at Certino. How are you doing, Ada?

Ada: I’m good, thank you.

Andy: Well, the reason I’ve gathered you both here today is to talk about something exciting that both of our organizations are working on. So, Beth, if I turn to you first, tell us about how this opportunity and this partnership came together.

Beth: So, this opportunity came about really based off of a request from our clients and when we engaged with Certino, it really just made sense that they were the service provider that we wanted to engage with. They have a very strong reputation in the marketplace, and the technology that they offer is simple, fast and accurate, and that really provides value to our clients. It provides not only value in the sense of tax positions that are maintained as legislation changes, so, we’re providing accurate reporting. The consistency driven by the automation of their tool.

Andy: Ada, I would hope that someone listening to a Cartus Podcast would not need an introduction to Cartus, but it’s our first time meeting you with us here. So, tell me a little bit, not just about yourself, but about Certino and everything that you do.

Ada: Yes, thank you. I’m very excited to be here, and thanks for inviting me. Yeah, Certino is many things, but one of the things we do really, really well is automating the shadow payroll growth of calculations. So that is what Cartus engaged us and partnering us to do. Dare I say we’re the only automation company currently providing this service, so it’s kind of a pioneering thing for us to do, and for Cartus too, you know, stepping out and doing that with us.

And my job here in Certino, I’m the Client Services Director, so kind of my main job is client facing, from onboarding to day-to-day, client relationship management, making sure our client has a brilliant experience with us, and I hope Cartus will have the same experience with us, as well.

Andy: As Beth touched upon, Cartus has been providing us tax gross-up services for a number of years. And Beth, you don’t have to say it, I’ll say it for you. You do so very well. But with us partnering with Certino, what kind of expansion are we seeing globally? How many more markets are you guys covering?

Beth: So, this really is an opportunity, as you mentioned, for us to expand into a wider range of markets. And Certino has the ability to perform those gross-up calculations and close to 100 countries and growing. And really that’s based off of where our clients’ needs are. So potentially noting, you know, we have several clients today asking for this service. We have a number of countries you know that our clients are in, and so that really gives us a lot of value to our clients. And as I mentioned before, the system itself is updated on a regular basis as tax legislation changes, so that also keeps our clients compliant.

Andy: Wonderful, and I believe it was Ada who said earlier on about their approach to the business, saying it’s really a pioneering solution in the technology and the automation that comes with that. And it’s also a kind of pioneering thing for us here at Cartus, because I believe we are the first organization to partner with you from an RMC perspective, right Ada? We’re pioneers together.

Ada: Absolutely. That’s why we’re kind of doubly excited about this opportunity as well. And Cartus is obviously a massively major player on the relocation space, and you have a fantastic client base, and it’s an honor for us to be able to serve these clients, although in the background. But, you know, supporting Cartus to serve these clients without global reach, that’s something you know, it’s a massive first as well.

Beth: Yeah, I’ll add here too, if I could be as so bold as to use a quote from our president and CEO, Matt Tebbe, you know, one of the reasons we chose Certino is due to the trust that they have built in the marketplace, especially since first and second tier tax firms are using their platform to do shadow payroll today. It really does speak volumes. And you know, I’ve already had a client contact… when we told her, you know, that this was coming, her immediate reaction was, “Wow, this is good. This is a good thing. We’re excited.”

Andy: Yeah, you’re certainly not doing things by halves are you? Adding over 100 other locations that we can now provide this service to. Must be an incredibly valuable service for a wide range of clients for whom they would like a singular solution for a complex problem like tax compliance, right?

So let me dive down a little bit. We’ve talked about the overview and all the wonderful things we’re going to be doing together, but let’s ask the really big question, even though it’s only three letters, and let’s talk about the “how”. So, let’s look about the features and the technology that we’re going to be looking at here. So, I will invite you both to talk about how the technology integrates, and what, what that process actually looks like behind the scenes, the work you’re going to be doing, and how our clients will experience it from their side. Beth, would you like to kick us off?

Beth: So, we’ll be using Certino’s technology to perform the tax gross-up calculations. And really, it’s a secure, it’s timely reporting and really, it’s not anything different than what we do today for our US tax payroll reporting process. We’re just using Certino’s system to perform those calculations, and then, you know, create those outputs to deliver to, you know, those local country payroll contacts.

Andy: Wonderful, and, Ada, anything that that you would add. How are you looking at partnering together, maybe for, like, a seamless process.

Ada: Yeah, exactly like what Beth just mentioned, right? You have a very smooth end-to-end client experience already. So, when we come in, when Certino’s come in, we just want to make sure that smooth client experience simply extends to the gross-up calculation and the payroll experience as well. So, we’ll be sitting at the background and make sure we support you with connections, with integrations, whatever it is needed to ensure your current client experience and if not massively enhance it. So, we’ll be slightly better with our service as well. And make sure like because this is a pioneering space for us, so make sure we’re pioneering in the right way, with the positive message to the market as well, on behalf of Cartus.

Andy: Wonderful. More data without additional clicks, I’m sold. If I was looking for payroll information of my house, I would absolutely be signing up with you. So, let’s talk about the bigger picture. Beth, you know that no one at Cartus gets away without looking at how everything we do connects to our other services as well, how does it fit into the bigger picture with our client engagements, and our offerings that we give to our clients today across our range of services?

Beth: It’s really an extension of, I mentioned earlier, of our US payroll reporting we do today, the international gross-up solution will round out our shadow payroll capabilities, and it’s an opportunity for clients to remove administrative burden on their staff too. By inserting Cartus into the mix, we’re really taking on that administrative burden from our clients. So, we’re having that direct contact by reporting those deliverables to those local country payrolls.

The product features I’ll just touch upon here. Really, it’s full or partial gross-up so compensation, so net to gross. There’s configurable data formats. We mentioned already, it’s host country calculations and then reporting on taxable expenses, wages, and all payroll tax liabilities. And then, as we mentioned, you know, tax position discussions by country, and they also have the support of a few big names in that tax provider market, which you know, just further, gives us additional confidence in in their tool and outputs.

Andy: Thank you. So, link into those services, as you’ve said, Beth, and then expanding on that even further, not only all of the compensation and financial related services that they get from their team but being able to enjoy that holistic connection with the work they do operationally, with their Cartus contact as well, their account managers, delivering those logistical services as well. Phenomenally powerful to have that all under the same roof and under shared overall management as well. So hopefully, something that our clients will really, really value, and will make their lives managing a complicated international mobility program that much easier.

A big question for you now… I have covered the “how”, slightly bigger question, four letters: I would like to talk about “when”. Always tricky but of course, I have great faith in both of you… when is the solution going to be available for our clients to take advantage of?

Beth: I’m excited to announce that we are partnering with Certino right now. So, if, if anyone out there is interested, please reach out to us.

Andy: Yeah, I mean, I will talk about it at the end. If you are already a Cartus client today, of course, your account owner that you work with day-by-day will be able to get you in touch with the right people. If you are not a Cartus client today, and this is something you would like to discuss, please direct your questions to cartusolutions@cartus.com.

So, we’ve covered the very, very big question of how, potentially an even bigger one certainly, it’s four letters instead of instead of three. Let’s talk about “next”. What is next? Let’s talk about the future. So where are we going next? Obviously, we’re just celebrating the very beginnings of our partnership today, but we always have to keep an eye on the future. In our industry, it moves very quickly. So, Ada, I’ll turn to you first. What are your next plans for our partnership together?

Ada: As you said, we just started this journey, right? It felt like not too early to plan for the future already, because we have so many things lined up with Beth here, with the Carters wider team. First of all, we need to make sure our service is smooth and with the right connection, always the right setup for the Cartus team, so that they can focus on delivering even better services, better experience to the end clients. And then we have clients to kind of onboard more countries for Cartus. We mentioned the US. We mentioned countries, possibly like Canada, and we expect other continents and other countries to have a broader coverage for those gross-up calculations.

And on the technology side, of course, we can’t be complacent. Currently, we’re the only player on the market. But that’s not always going to be the case. We realize that we need to make sure our product is definitely, you know, cutting edge, with all the right elements in it and doing the best in the growth of market. It’s very niche, but we still need to improve ourselves and Cartus can benefit, from all clients’ feedback into our product as well. So, lots in plan. Yeah, some I can share. Some I can’t, but really exciting months and years ahead.

Andy: That is great, and it’s so good to have a future focus, I think, as you correctly identified, being the first on the market doesn’t win you the right to be the best forever. So having that, having that focus on how you’re going to continue to grow is a very, very healthy approach, as we continue to see how we can improve processes and meet needs that evolve every time you blink.

How about you Beth, what are your hopes and dreams for the future of this partnership?

Beth: I’m just excited to continue down the path that we’ve started some time ago and continuing down the path of implementation and continuing to map additional countries. To add to our list to be available for our clients and where really their needs are. There’s a lot of excitement around this new product, and I don’t think I could add anything additional to what Ada has already said. I think this is something we’ve wanted to do for a very long time, and it has taken us some time to get here, and we’re just excited to keep going forward.

Andy: Yeah, I think when you talk about a topic that can be so incredibly complex and fast moving and ever-changing, as tax compliance rules can be, anything you can do, I know we have a big crossroads in our industry at the moment, that obviously simplicity from a user level, whether that is a relocating customer or a client base, they want that simplicity. They want that understandability. But the real world that we work and live in, continues to get more complex and variable with every passing day. So, I think an incredibly valuable service that you’re offering here to try and bring those things together and take so much of that manual work out of being able to deal with a very diverse portfolio of locations that people are moving to.

So, I hope and expect that you’ll get some really, really good, strong feedback from our clients as you begin to roll this out with more of them. That is where I will probably leave things for today, I will thank both of my guests, to both Beth and Ada, for joining us today. Thank you both.

Ada: Thank you for hosting.

Beth: Yes. Thank you, Andy.

Andy: You guys do the hard work and answer questions. I just turn up and ask them. So, thank you for all the expertise and the partnership that took. We talked about it over the last few minutes, but I know this has been extensive work together to map out what our partnership is going to look like. So, you know it’s easy for us to talk about it quickly but appreciate all the work you’ve done in the background to get us here together for everyone listening.

Of course, I must thank all of you as well. Thank you for your time and attention today and thank you in advance for any questions you might have for us. You can reach us at cartusolutions@cartus.com with any questions you would like answered, you can also find us on all the social channels that Cartus participates in, particularly on LinkedIn. If you’ve got any questions on this topic or another topic that you would like us to cover, write in. I will do my very best for you. For now, though. Thank you so much, and goodbye.

Visit cartus.com/podcast for more episodes of Mobility Matters.

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